Presents, of a sort.

It’s that time of year when that man in red, Father Christmas (or Babu Christmassy), begins his world tour, and this week it was time for him to come to Tanzania. This was a bit of a shock to the old fella as he is used to the temperature at his home at the North Pole. 

Irene came across him when she attended a local craft fair. He certainly attracted a lot of attention with the children, especially when he handed out sweets and presents.

But the older children didn’t want to miss out either – there is no limit when it comes to Santa.

And when the African drums started there was no holding him back.

However, even Babu C is not as groovy as one of our shop staff, Athman. Although he has stunted growth he is a big character that always has a presence enjoying dancing to all kinds of music, even with someone hanging from his back.

At Neema Crafts Athman, as well as all staff, are represented by colleagues on the Democratic Workers Committee. This meets once a month with management (aka Malcolm for the next 4 months) to discuss areas of concern to staff. One of the treats at these meetings are plates of pop-corn.

Near to us is the ‘Gentle Hills Hotel’. Its name creates thoughts of green hills and clear flowing water. For some reason, however, the owner decided to decorate the entrance with a model of a leopard carrying home a dead deer, perhaps as a present to its family.

There was another sort of present this week. Earlier one of our guard dogs, Bella, decided to fine a safe place to give birth in the shelter of some rocks. This week she gave birth to 5 puppies.

All the Fun of the Fair

A fair came to Kisoro this week – a most unusual sight.

Like most English fairs this had fun rides and stalls

Unlike most English fairs this one was difficult to enter, there being a fence all the way round. So we didn’t bother. We are not sure if you had to pay to enter, or be invited. Not many other people seem to bother, either



It has been a week of daily power cuts. The electricity company is replacing many of their poles, and this means the power to the whole of Kisoro is cut off most days, and even some nights, so the workmen can re-wire the poles. We have been told this could take most of July. Unlike England there is only one power line to the town which means when any maintenance work has to be done the whole town goes into the dark. Still, electricity is cheap here at just 20p per unit.



When Malcolm went to pay the Electric bill at the company shop on friday, he had to wait outside for an hour. Opposite was a typical carpenter’s shop, where chairs were being made



We are settled into Jenny’s house. As well as the pigs we mentioned last week there are 3 other animals – 2 dogs and a cat.



The house overlooks one of the primary schools. On occasions, when it is sunny, classes are held outside – which is not surprising when you see how many children have to fit in a classroom.



This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web site is “A good palm-wine bar doesn't need a signpost”