Inkomo

After a better night’s sleep I felt ready to get out of bed. I spent the morning doing jobs in the house and in town. We have been promised that we will be moving into a newly renovated house. We were told that this would take a week to get ready. Having now inspected the house we think Christmas is a more realistic completion date. For the moment we are staying in ‘the mansion’. As its nickname suggests it is one of the biggest properties.

To get jobs done on the house, we speak to Mama Butalezi (not sure about spelling). She is the house mother and a woman of immense power as she is responsible for all accommodation. So far, so good. Mama B has instructed her workers to sort out the problems in the palace. Most have now been fixed.

My progress in finding work in a school has been hampered. Teachers and many other public servants are on strike at the moment. The precise reasons are unknown. The doctors are not sure whether they are meant to be taking part. Even if they are, they won’t.

I am doing my best to learn Zulu words. It is helping to get laughs from the locals. We only have a medical phrase book. So my vocabulary is very medically orientated. I learnt the word for cow yesterday – inkomo. This featured in Mary’s phrase book because it is also the polite term for vagina.