Days 63-64: Time and Circumstance...

          Time and unforeseen circumstance befall us all.  A little bit of both befell me and my plans for fun after the second day of the assembly...
          This time I woke up at a reasonable hour, got ready, and just barely made it to the assembly before it started.  At least we were on time.  Once again the assembly was awesome.  For all you who are attending, but haven't been to one yet, I won't spoil anything by telling you what new literature we got or anything like that.  I'll just mention my favorite talk of the day, which was on singleness and how you can use it to the most advantage in serving Jehovah.
          Once again we had lunch with John Palankyo's sister.  Baba hadn't been feeling good that morning, but as soon as the assembly started, he felt fine.  Afterwords I met up with a group that was going out to eat.  From there I would go to Isaac's house to spend the night, and hook up with Baba again the next day when he came into town.  As I was leaving, Baba called me to say that he wasn't feeling good again, and was debating whether to go to the hospital or not.  His voice had almost disappeared, making it hard to hear what he was saying.
          So I started seeing if I could make plans to go back to Kigamboni straight after dinner.  Unfortunately, no one was going that way, and being across the ferry, it was out of most people.  I finally got a ride up to the ferry, from which I would have to catch a taxi to Anandumi's.  I had just finalized these plans when Baba called to say that he was just going to go home, and I should go to Isaac's.  So I scratched plan B and went back to plan A.
          In the end Baba did end up going to the hospital in Kigamboni, where they gave him cough suppressant and antibiotics but it didn't help much.  As it turned out, the generic of the generic of Flovent proved to be a little too generic and no good at treating Baba's condition.  The next day Baba went to a duku la dawa, and the pharmacist there compared medications with him till they found one that had all the same ingredients as Flovent, plus an additional one to make it act faster.  Now Baba is doing much better.
          This actually isn't the first time a pharmacist has helped Baba find the right medication for him.  Back before Baba was on Flovent, the doctors were treating his lungs for asthma.  The only thing was, while he had asthmatic attacks, this was because his lungs were weak, and not because he had asthma.  So the pharmacist suggested that he try Flovent.  The lesson: pharmacists usually know more about medications than doctors do because that's the only thing they study, all day long.  It never hurts to double check your medication with a pharmacist to make sure it's the right one, and that there isn't another, better medicine out there for you.
          Okay, now time warp back to Sunday night.  The group I was with went to the Mwezi Beach Club.  None in the group had ever been there before (big mistake), but it looked really cool.  It was located right on the beach, with the bar facing out onto the waves, and there was a small stage for dancing and entertainment.  There was even a pool behind as well.  The place looked great, and whole ambiance was very nice.
          The service, meanwhile sucked in exact proportion to how cool the place looked.  The waiter skipped me three times, three quarters of the people there got their food late (the Brother who suggested we go there never got any food at all).  I ordered chips, and then waited and waited for some tomato sauce (Tanzania has yet to get catch on to Ketchup).  I asked several waiters, and even went up to the bar.  A Sister finally had to go all the kitchen and swipe some.  Let's just say Tanzanian's service industry still has some work to do...
          After dinner I got a ride to Embeze Beach where Isaac lives with his mama, my Shangazi.  Unfortunately, Isaac hadn't known exactly what time I was arriving, as I hadn't know what time the people I was riding with were leaving.  As a result he was out on an errand when I arrived.  So the group dropped me off at the Rainbow Club, a "hotel" with better service than ambiance or entertainment for me to wait for Isaac.  There was a live band that rotated through several singers, searching I think for some decent talent.  One actually got a scattering applause for not being quite as bad as the others.
          Isaac finally came a rescued me, and we went to his place.  It being already pretty late by then, we only watched one movie (Paul Blart: Mall Cop), before turning in.  Rush hour traffic is terrible in Dar, if you don't leave before six in the morning, you aren't likely to get to work before nine or ten.  Isaac was taking me with him into town to work, which meant that we'd have to get up super early.  As serendipity would have it, Mama Estella, Isaac's mother, was out with friends, and hadn't gotten home by the time we went to sleep, so I never saw her that night.

          The next morning, Mama Estella was up.  Isaac had told her that I was staying over, and she had gotten started cooking breakfast.  "Want a nice shinny apple?"   "Oh no thank you, Tanzanian food is so tough, my teeth have become sensitive to anything hard.  Isaac, I can't believe you're honestly letting your mother cook breakfast for you.  What kind of a son are you?  You should give her a break once in a while, you know."  I dragged a bewildered Isaac into the Kitchen, and shoved Mama Estella out.  "But I don't know how to cook!"  "Then now is a perfect time for us to learn..."

          That never actually happened.  Rather, it was part of a very strange dream I had that night.  When I awoke the next morning, however, I new something was wrong.  Seriously wrong.  The days are always the same length in Tanzania, and the sun always traces the same path across the sky, making it possible to tell the time by the sun itself, no sundial needed.  Which is why I could tell it was already past seven.  Fearing I'd been left behind, I rushed to Isaac's room, but he was still there, fast asleep.  Puzzled, I went back to sleep my self.
          I woke up late and got dressed (I'd brought a change of clothes with me).  Then my belt broke, and my shorts promptly fell down.  Fortuitously, I was still in the bedroom.  Isaac offered me a pair of his pants, they were big as well, but I made them fit. Isaac's gym partner had bailed on him, which is why he had decided to sleep in today, rather than going into town early and working out, as was his normal routine.  I wasn't complaining (as long as we left right away), the extra few hours of sleep had been nice.
          I ran into Mama Estella for the first time as we were going.  I greeted her in Kiswahili, and she was very impressed with my command of the language.  We left late enough that we missed most of the traffic.  It was like driving on I-5 through the old Tacoma bottle neck.  Only this was on a city road, and it was like that all the way to Isaac's work.  Once there Isaac took a look at my laptop, which had been acting up, and then we went for brunch at a nearby house that had been converted into a "hotel" (restaurant).  By the time we got back, Baba was waiting for me, and it was time to go back to Kigamboni.



E’ya! - Tate


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