ABLUTIONS AND THINGS....
in Africa.........?
Dear Diary,
Every morning, after getting
rid of the lord and master...I adjourn to the bathing room to ablute.........which
this morning reminded me of some rather odd times, here in exotic Africa..........
Lionesses have this odd penchant for bathing, this takes place after mating
and feeding, usually about four to five times a day......the feeding that
is...............the mating depends on the season, for both genders....although,
the male lion mates up to 3000 times in a year......excuse me, I am not
an expert, only well informed......not sure if they mate with the same
lady all the time.........can't be...she would be worn out!
I'm getting side tracked..........anyway...I
have a very interested audience when I bathe......four Yorkshire Terriers
and a "stoep special"........ten large brown eyes that watch my every movement,
lick my fat legs from ankle to dimpled knees, and generally smell of Ralph
Laurens' "Safari"........................like their mistress..........
Sometimes they smell of "Montanna" by Montanna.......nu? ..never mind...
but with this in mind, it started me thinking of the places that I have
bathed in..........from Zinc tubs to rushing waterfalls, huge concrete
storage tanks and the showers here in the bush.....buckets with holes,
and a string that you pull to tip the water down...........naked in the
freezing sea......and the BEST! of course was in Abidjan.......I mention
this, because I was brought up with the French attitude of never going
anywhere with out a "bidet".......there to my delight, were the remains
of the French "baignoire"......(oy! my spelling!) wherever I went there
was a bidet..........magnificent porcelain ones, beaten copper ones, some
had been stripped from ancient neglected hotels and were being sold in
the market places.....some where being used to store food in, some had
flowers in them, and the best use of all, was at the "still" in Assine..........I'm
sure I told you about the "still?"
This delectable, delicious,
hunk of a guide, (he was Sudanese), took Lord Ha Ha and me on a trip across
a lake.....Ebrie lake, this is a water expanse of some 200 miles!!!!!
We stopped at an island, and
met the family who were living there......what they do, is move onto an
island, wherever there is a certain kind of Palm growing....can't think
of
the name..... Anyway.......this Palm reaches maturity only once in its
life then dies....so the family set up home, built wonderful cane houses,
and set about, by first sending up the trees, one of their ablest young
children. He, not unlike a monkey, climbs to the top, and bores a huge
hole in the tree, which has a "heart" of about, 1 1/2 meters
......inserts a stick and hangs a little tin from this stick.
Everyday, they take this sweet
tasting white sticky stuff, and put it into a barrel. By the time the barrel
is full, it has begun to ferment.....and they then light a fire under this,
from which is the strangest arrangement of coiled copper piping emanates,
which somehow is led into and through the water of the river, and has an
end, which is balanced onto the edge of a pan, from which drips, almost
pure alcohol ! 65% proof!...........then they bottle this and sell it....very
cheap...I might add.......($4.00 per bottle), which even has a cork carved
from Palm wood............
This particular family had these
gleaming pans made of copper and on closer inspection, I discovered, to
the amusement of Lord Ha Ha, that they were old "bidets!" He was laughing
so much at what they had been used for, that he did not notice, much to
my relief, my partaking of the wicked brew ....eventually I joined in the
merriment, when I began to demonstrate exactly what these contraptions
were actually made for.
Which naturally led to the family
joining in, and pouring friendly tots of their produce for everyone to
sample which, of course, led to "mama" bringing out stools to sit on, food
to eat, music to be played and joining me in the demonstrations, which
they thought was some form of dance. This almost ended in my abandoning
my "Western" ideals and insisting on forsaking all to live there ....forever...........................
I slept most of the way back.....needless
to say....we were hours late in returning to the hotel, and caused great
consternation with the "Inn keeper," who, although very much a Frenchman
himself, was more worried about the cost of his boat than our safety! We
had to stop him sacking the guide!
My younger son still has a bottle
of this "Palm wine" as they called it, in his room, and when ever I go
into this "African cave" I can't help smiling at the memories.......aaaaaahhhhhhhhh.....that's
all we have in the end isn't it? That and friends....................bye,
much love
bev