Somewhere else in a nearby village, the local bus, so overloaded it looked like it would collapse trundled into the village and stopped under the jacaranda tree.
With a lot of calling out and shouting a couple of men climbed up onto the roof and started passing down a couple of woven grass baskets with squawking chickens, feathers flying around. A bed frame with rubber webbing for springs came, followed by an old bike narrowly missing an elderly lady in smart native dress with a baby strapped onto her back. Another lady wobbling on heeled shoes quite unsuited for the roads grabbing another child by the hand, who was busily pushing his little homemade wire framed car along in front of him.
The driver who had walked off to relieve himself into a nearby bush, came back with a coke in his hand which he had picked up from a stand by the shop. Clambering back up into the bus with a yell and beckoning with his hand to fellow passengers to get on. The bus with a clash of gears and belching black smelly fumes, slowly made it's way back onto the road missing some goats and disappeared off.
They had alighted from the bus looking tired, sweaty and with dusty stained clothes, floppy hats and back packs slung over a shoulder. A couple of tourists travelling on the cheap.
With a friendly wave to the bus as it passed them, they crossed over the so called main road and walked into the village.
They saw the shop ahead of them. It was a typical small village shop come bar, and not what you could call a hotel, as it only had three rooms behind the shop. Owned by a Portuguese man and his family, mainly used by the locals, and hopefully to catch any passing trade from the road selling cold drinks to wash the dust from dry thirsty throats, or for that overnight stay when sampling the local wine, which left you too heady to drive! This was a favourite place to stop and have a Piri Piri chicken, or so they had been told.
They walked up the couple of steps leading into the shop and entered it.
After the heat from outside, it was cool. A ceiling fan stirred the dust around from the road outside, as when any vehicle passed a cloud of dust rose up.
They looked around. It was like an Aladdin's cave. Bales of brightly coloured cloth was stashed on shelves in a corner of the room, hurricane lamps and tilly lamps hung from a wooden beam across the low ceiling. Tins and jars were stacked on shelves, and a couple of glass jars with very sticky looking sweets sat on the wooden counter amongst an assortment of bits and bobs. An old fridge rumbled away trying to keep some drinks cool.
The owner of the shop, a rather overweight, black curly hair a little on the long side with a cigar in his hand, walked back in pushing a mangy looking dog aside that had a few flies buzzing around it's coat, and walked over to them.
"Hello, I am Menzes, I have been expecting you", I thought you would be here yesterday, and led them through the back of the shop. They greeted him and then followed him through to the room which was just off to the back of the building. The wife smiled at them in passing, carrying a basket of veg, whilst a small child peered from around her "I have put you here in this room as it is quieter, and you can come and go by the side of the shop. It is a little more private. At the moment there is only one other man here for the night."
He showed them a room at the back which although very basic was clean. " I think you would like to wash, there is a bathroom just up that passage, by then, I will have closed the shop and will come and find you.
We can talk over the meal later.
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Felt another tiger picture coming on
Will be doing the tiger in pastels and maybe acrylic background to give the special effect of snow. Will see how it goes!
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