Untukmu Para Pengunjung

This afternoon two girls came over for a visit. One of them is Caroline - a teenager with some social difficulties, and she brought a young friend with her. They walked in, sat down, and started speaking to each other in Shona - never looking at me or addressing me. After a few minutes, I was feeling a little left out, so decided to pick up a book. I finished the book (but it was only 89 pages). Then, as I was trying to figure out my next plan, Caroline asked me - in English - if she could play the tambourine. For the next hour, she belted out old Salvation Army songs and waved the tambourine around with flourish. Her young friend also started joining in with a shaker. John was trying to take a nap in the next room - yeah right. Finally I just couldn't handle the concert anymore and said that I needed to take care of some business with a neighbour. You can only take so much tambourine - even if it is with flourish.

The other day our house was invaded by flying ants. They're quite impressive, actually - and really do look like ants with big, white wings. They snuck in through a crack under the door, and it seemed like hundreds of them. The next morning John was asking for advice on what to do with the bugs. People thought this was quite funny - "they're not bugs - they're food! You catch them, boil them, fry them, take off the wings and eat them. They're white meat." I have been longing for turkey lately, but maybe Christmas 2006 will involve another form of white meat - I'm not sure... (By the way, I was telling my grandparents this story and they were getting quite a kick out of it - it was great to hear their laugh! Oh yeah, Skype is my new favourite thing).