Going Rogue

The ‘short’ rains are certainly here. It bucketed down this morning meaning a trudge through the matope (mud) to work. Lots of the winged insects about that only seem to appear after heavy rain. Had a nice dinner last night with Bibi Stones (yes, pseudonym), the other kiwi volunteer living in Moshi and her visiting 2 adult children. They hadjuust got back from some safari time. One of them brought me more Nintendo games from New Zealand, yay! A perfect night...except..

I think her offspring think I’m a secret agent. Let me explain.

First of all there is my dodgy looking Hawaiian shirt and Movember moustache. I look like someone who should not be trusted.

I spoke of our volunteer co-ordinator in Arusha as our ‘handler’. Bibi Stones had picked up an envelope for Franatee and I on her way through Arusha with our latest instalment of our allowance. ‘Ah, that will be money, a Zambian passport and new orders’ I joked to the visitors. They looked at each other.

The three volunteers talked to Bibi Stones’ offspring about the ethos of our volunteer organisation and how it wanted us kiwis ‘embedded’ in the community. ‘Like sleeper agents’ I posited. ‘One day my Arusha handler will give me the hypnotic trigger word and like the Manchurian Candidate I will come to life and start ‘exchanging skills’ with a vengeance.’ The wageni (visitors) looked increasingly uncomfortable. Who was this guy in the Hawaiian shirt?

Finally, at the end of a nice meal we discussed another volunteer who was going back to New Zealand for Christmas. We noted that it could be hard to come back after a relaxing time back home. ‘Yeah’ I said ‘I’d be tempted to skip the flight back to Tanzania’ (pause) ‘I’d go rogue’

Agent Manatee going dark now.