It’s been a week of celebrations.
On Saturday we were overwhelmed with the amount of effort and organisation put in by members of the Mamajus choir for our “farewell do”. The first youngsters arrived with huge cooking pots and ingredients at about 10.30 in the morning and hung around until Mama Asante arrived to set the whole thing in motion, at about 1. Big fires were lit in the garden and the pots balanced on stones, and cooking commenced. At around 4 every thing was ready. Malcolm, Irene, Julia and her gap student, plus the school chaplain and officials of the choir sat at the “top table” whilst about 35 members of the choir squashed into the lounge to sing and dance. We then all enjoyed the rice, meat and mchicha, a type of spinach, and a reprise was sung. Unbeknown to the choir Julia had brought tubs of ice cream for everyone, the cheer from the younger choir members when they saw this was deafening. Irene particularly enjoyed watching the face of a woman as she tasted ice cream for the first time! At the end there were a few speeches and they presented us with a tape of their music. We hope they enjoyed themselves as much as we did and we wont forget all the trouble they went to on our behalf. A video has been posted on Youtube (search for thecrawfordclan) - a taster is available below.
On Monday it was a public, muslim holiday for Eid and so we were able to attend a confirmation at St. Andrews church which happened to be on the same day. It was only the previous Friday when we were reminded that it might be a holiday depending on when the new moon is first sighted. This takes a bit getting used to when you come from a country where even the traditional Whitsun holiday is moved to the last Monday in May to be convenient, and you assume the moon has been researched for long enough to be able to forecast its cycles in advance.
The Bishop presided at the service. About 40 people, teenagers and older, were confirmed. The Bishop’s wife sat next to us and gave us a detailed translation of his sermon. She said he always used the same sermon at each confirmation during the year, tackling subjects that the local ministers were either afraid to speak on or didn’t understand. This was the 101st confirmation service this year, and therefore it was the 101st time he’d given this particular talk - and the confirmations continue until mid December! She also said that they put on a lot of weight during the confirmation season as all the churches gave them meals. She knew the sermon so well after hearing it 100 times before that several times during translation she apologised she had got ahead of her husband.
Packing has begun and Irene is trying to work out a way of protecting all the wooden carvings Malcolm has been “persuaded” to buy by the local carvers. She has yet to start thinking about the paintings! The final 3 chickens left us on Wednesday, 1 to Mama Asante, 1 to Stepheni, our gardener; and one to Zenna who has been giving us weekly Kiswahili lessons. We know she wants to keep her hen for eggs but suspect the others have already been eaten. Irene is missing them as they were the nearest thing she had to pets! Malcolm is interested in the financial aspects. The final, net cost of producing in total 184 eggs, assuming each surviving chicken is worth £2, is £38 or over 20p each. As Eegs in the local market are no more than 10p each, and the cost of labour isn’t taken into account this was not a sound business venture. But then pets are never a sound business venture unless you own a pet shop!!!,
Malcolm is still trying to get a quart in a pint pot as regards to work He has many things he wants to finish off before leaving and time just seems to be running away from him. This is not unusual for him, and no doubt he will leave thinking he has not done enough – and no doubt the work of the Hospital will continue.
On Saturday we were overwhelmed with the amount of effort and organisation put in by members of the Mamajus choir for our “farewell do”. The first youngsters arrived with huge cooking pots and ingredients at about 10.30 in the morning and hung around until Mama Asante arrived to set the whole thing in motion, at about 1. Big fires were lit in the garden and the pots balanced on stones, and cooking commenced. At around 4 every thing was ready. Malcolm, Irene, Julia and her gap student, plus the school chaplain and officials of the choir sat at the “top table” whilst about 35 members of the choir squashed into the lounge to sing and dance. We then all enjoyed the rice, meat and mchicha, a type of spinach, and a reprise was sung. Unbeknown to the choir Julia had brought tubs of ice cream for everyone, the cheer from the younger choir members when they saw this was deafening. Irene particularly enjoyed watching the face of a woman as she tasted ice cream for the first time! At the end there were a few speeches and they presented us with a tape of their music. We hope they enjoyed themselves as much as we did and we wont forget all the trouble they went to on our behalf. A video has been posted on Youtube (search for thecrawfordclan) - a taster is available below.
On Monday it was a public, muslim holiday for Eid and so we were able to attend a confirmation at St. Andrews church which happened to be on the same day. It was only the previous Friday when we were reminded that it might be a holiday depending on when the new moon is first sighted. This takes a bit getting used to when you come from a country where even the traditional Whitsun holiday is moved to the last Monday in May to be convenient, and you assume the moon has been researched for long enough to be able to forecast its cycles in advance.
The Bishop presided at the service. About 40 people, teenagers and older, were confirmed. The Bishop’s wife sat next to us and gave us a detailed translation of his sermon. She said he always used the same sermon at each confirmation during the year, tackling subjects that the local ministers were either afraid to speak on or didn’t understand. This was the 101st confirmation service this year, and therefore it was the 101st time he’d given this particular talk - and the confirmations continue until mid December! She also said that they put on a lot of weight during the confirmation season as all the churches gave them meals. She knew the sermon so well after hearing it 100 times before that several times during translation she apologised she had got ahead of her husband.
Packing has begun and Irene is trying to work out a way of protecting all the wooden carvings Malcolm has been “persuaded” to buy by the local carvers. She has yet to start thinking about the paintings! The final 3 chickens left us on Wednesday, 1 to Mama Asante, 1 to Stepheni, our gardener; and one to Zenna who has been giving us weekly Kiswahili lessons. We know she wants to keep her hen for eggs but suspect the others have already been eaten. Irene is missing them as they were the nearest thing she had to pets! Malcolm is interested in the financial aspects. The final, net cost of producing in total 184 eggs, assuming each surviving chicken is worth £2, is £38 or over 20p each. As Eegs in the local market are no more than 10p each, and the cost of labour isn’t taken into account this was not a sound business venture. But then pets are never a sound business venture unless you own a pet shop!!!,
Malcolm is still trying to get a quart in a pint pot as regards to work He has many things he wants to finish off before leaving and time just seems to be running away from him. This is not unusual for him, and no doubt he will leave thinking he has not done enough – and no doubt the work of the Hospital will continue.
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