'Beautiful blue skies, a gentle warm breeze blowing in, what more can a person want.
Today we are off for a drive down through the  fields, viewing the countryside as we go. When we lived here this was a very fertile country  producing tobacco, cotton, maize, sugar etc.






Here we have tobacco growing

                                               Harvesting the tea

                                         

  Products being taken to be sold

                                                                                                                      
 People and children all shapes and sizes wave and call out friendly greetings to you.
Children run along the side of the car on the hopes you will stop and give them some sweets
Further down the road we come across some cows being driven on, their huge swaying horns to be watched out for .Not quite as large as the ones we had in Uganda.

                     
                                                                     

                                                 
Coming across a market place, what a hustle and bustle. Can remember going down to the local butchers at one of them and pointing to the hunk of meat I wanted. Forget the flies and somewhat lack of hygiene in those days. Once this was stewed for several hours, we had a tasty piece of meat! We still use the saying 'The cow must have walked a few hundred miles",when we get a tough cut from a supermarket these days!
The one thing you remember of these markets is the smell. No, not all bad, but cooking aroma's, corn on the cob being roasted over charcoal, and to this day there is nothing like that taste .Piles of spices wafting off their aromas, different fruits, not forgetting the dust and scents of trees and their blossom wafting over.  The sounds of the market are life at it's best. People chatting, calling out to each other, chickens squawking, goats bleating, children rushing around playing footie with an old tin can. The happy faces and the laughter, as if nobody had a care in the world. Forget the poverty, sickness, wars, these people just got on with life. Old buses overladen with people and animals, beds wobbling on the top try to pull out onto the road belching fumes. Cyclists with everything that could possible and more be put on the bike wobble past you.A couple of bed frames, a few chairs and other furniture are nothing out of the norm to see, all held together with pieces of rope and a couple of chickens and a goat on top. Barking dogs dash in and out of the traffic and people's legs. If bottled and with some imagination you can conjure up 'Tropical Life at it's best'

A local market

'Come and buy'

                     


       Coming back through another village

                   




Maize for sale, to grind down into mealie meal, a porridge like substance, part of the daily diet. Comes up like extra thick mashed potato when made, you pick a lump up with your fingers off the plate and dunk it into the stew, either a fish or if lucky a little meat in the water!







That's it for this week, hope you will come back again next week.

Picture for the week is

"Posh Looks"

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Let's see how the picture is coming on.

               Gradually working down the legs, this all takes time. You can sometimes spend a couple of hours and not have a great deal to show for it. It's all the little details that are not usually noticed.
I will admit I am having a problem with the fur on the legs to make it look right.
Need a trip out to the game park to re-examine the animal!!

Catch up with me next week.