In the morning, we ate breakfast and made ourselves ready to help the family in their daily work. They are farmers and have some different crops like onions and corn. It turned out there was nothing to do, said the family. So they proposed that we should take a walk so they could show us the neighborhood. But first we should drink coffee.
During our coffee break, some five different neighbours came by to say hi. We learned that this is common in Chome, to just check that everybody is all right. A very nice habit, perhaps something to mimic in harsh Sweden?
The walk was steep but beautiful. Mr. Mndeme and guide Eric showed us half a dozen medical plants and herbs curing everything from stomach problems to motion sickness and diabetes. Very impressive! From the slopes of the mountain we could see two peaks of mount Kilimanjaro in the clear weather.
After the walk we did some washing in the nearby creek. The water was cold and clear. We rested for a while and spoke to some more neigbours that came by. Everbybody was really nice, but they wondered why we didn’t have any children at our age. When you’re in your thirties you should have at least a couple of children, maybe as many as seven.
Everybody laughed in joy when we managed to greet them in swahili with a cheerful “habari za asubuhi” (good morning).
Since the people in Chome belong to the Pare tribe, Eric also taught us the Pare word for thanks, “Nahawatche”. That really made people stunned and very happy. Oh, how I would like to have a babel fish in my ear so I could speak and understand every language!
