It was my washing and ironing day. I have a super washing machine. It’s known as my bath tub and my legs. I soaked the clothes for a while and then I step into the bath and march on my clothes. It works quite well and the clothes dry very quickly in the heat. I don’t have an ironing board so I iron on the kitchen counter. I brought a travelling iron from Canada and luckily I enjoy ironing - I love the smell that comes from the clothes as I iron them.
Twice during the afternoon the boys came over for a visit. They make themselves at home so I’m hoping they don’t decide to live with me. At least I learn a Hausa word every time they come. Nowadays I know the numbers and how to say all the greetings. These go on for such a long time. You ask a standard question, you get a standard response and you shake hands and then touch your heart. Barka da zuwa! Barka da zuwa is the reply. I wish I could type properly all the different forms of greeting in Hausa but I can’t so my diary will have to put up with the English. “How is life?” “Life is fine”. “How is the news?” “The news is good”. “How is work?” And so it goes on for what seems an eternity.
I remember visiting another school and not knowing where I was going. I saw two men talking so I thought I’d ask them. “Good morning. I wonder if you can help me? I’m trying to find the staff room” They both started to laugh. One said, “We’ll tell you because you are a foreigner but, if you’d been a local we’d have been very angry. You didn’t bother asking us how we were, or about our family and the news.”
I’m enjoying seeing the wildlife. There’s a bird that walks and acts like a starling but it looks more like a North American robin. The crows are black and white, like a magpie, but the magpies are totally black, like a crow. It reminded me of that expression, “All blackbirds are black birds, but not all black birds are blackbirds.”
