Black magic woman

Very hard to write these days! During good moments no time, during the bad moments I've written many unprintable versions.

So just some chit-chat.
My guesthouse is in Sinza, just off Shekilango road. The nickname for that area is the Gaza strip, because of the amount of bars there. Every second building on Shekilango is a bar. But still my guesthouse is very quiet, even if its just 100 meters away from the main road. All I hear in the morning is a dog, a rooster, a cow and the birds. All of that plus fighting with a beautiful woman every day... that is exactly what I had at home, I really don't know why I left!

One day I walked away from the main road. At once there are only dirtroads, many area's where cars can't come. Houses very close together, chicken everywhere. Also a lot of green, actually this looks more like a village than a metropole. Still it is in the heart of the city. And everywhere there are people, most of them are just lying on their doorsteps, it is very hot. And it is dirty too. I cross a small stream, later I find it on the map. That is also very dirty, garbage all over.

I have seen how Janeth lives. In her street cars still can come, a lot of small shops too in her street. A hairsalon, a few cell phone voucher shops, a soda shop, some small restaurants (with just a fire and a bench in the street). She lives in a small house. She and her sisters rent two rooms. One is the livingroom, couch, two chairs, a small table, cupboard, tv and fridge and no room to move. The other is the bedroom. A big double bed for the 3 of them to sleep. Their are 7 families in the house, in total 20 people. They share a kitchen (in fact they cook on charcoal in the small courtyard), one shower (without runnning water most of the times, so they use buckets) and one toilet. This is normal, the majority of the people live in the same circumstances. I also was at Davids place. He rents a larger appartment, with a livingroom and 3 bedrooms. One is for him and his wife. One is for the male relatives and one for the female relatives. They are with 10 people in the house. David is the oldest, so the head of the family. That means that if somewhere in Tanzania an uncle decides to come to Dar es Salaam he will go to David and expect to be able to stay there. And he won't be send away.

Janeth and I are 4 weeks together now. We just survived another nasty crisis. She is always very busy with all kinds of things. She doesn't tell me much what she needs to do. And asking about it leads to an argument mostly. Yesterday, saturday morning, I asked her if she could come to the tribal open museum with me. That is near to her house, but she has never been there. She says she wants to come but we just can't seems to find the moment. I asked her three times yesterday. At ten in the morning I was ready to get up. She just said she was very busy and didn't give me a straight answer. Two o'clock? I proposed. No that is too hot and too early she says, she has too much to do. Then when? No answer. Well the end of it was that we finally got out of bed at two.... I guess that illustrates the nature of our relationship at this moment. This is a totally new experience for me. A purely fysical thing, I never believed in it. Yet we both maintain this situation. I know she isn't always honest with me, she ignores me many times and keeps me waiting a lot. If I complain about it she will tell me that we spend a lot of time together (that is true), that she is very busy and why am I giving her trouble all the time? So I apologize. Not that I mean it, but just to maintain the situation and not get into another fight. And she from her side also makes sure that things don't go bad for real. We have agreed that she will come to Malawi with me. I look forward to that. She will be on vacation too and things will the same for both.

Dar es Salaam is not a nice city. I asked some people at the Hekima school what we could do on a Saturday. Something nice for a couple, something romantic maybe. Apart from the beach nobody could actually recommend anything. Yes: make a trip of two hours or more in a bus to go to another town!