We walked to the bus stop while the food and some of the boys travelled with Ticha in a taxi. The Farkwa bus was already there and luckily Ticha had booked seats for us the day before. It was being loaded to the hilt on top with not only luggage but many sacks of food, building materials, drums, boxes, buckets and goodness knows what.
When we got on, we found our seats, with me nursing Sebi, Rosie with Jarvah and Keith beside her, and Freddy across the aisle. By the time we took off, well after the advertised 8.30 departure time, Keith was wedged in with two back packs on his knee, since Freddy had been made to stand so that an older lady who had not booked a seat could sit down. The aisle was jammed with people - so many that they leaned into the seats and their armpits were in line with the noses of those seated. Some people had scabs and sores over their skin, and Keith was not able to put his head back for a while because a girl in the aisle was resting her head on his headrest and was dozing.
Sebi slept for a long way on my knee but Jarvah was fractious after a brief sleep at the start. Thank goodness for breast feeding, but even that was not making him happy. Rosie pointed out the bus owner - an Indian man who always travelled on his bus. 
Back on board, we travelled without further incidents and finally passed the villages immediately before Farkwa. The bus was very late, having stopped for the hill and also so that bags of charcoal could be collected. The charcoal is produced in rural areas and then purchased by those passing to be transported to cities where it is sold or sometimes it is delivered to the people who have sent for it. Suddenly we were passing a sign that said ‘
We walked up from the road to where the family were waiting for us. We had seen photos of everyone but it was challenging to remember all the names. There was Mama Gawe and Fidelisi (Ticha’s parents), Maria (Ticha’s niece) and Inyasia (Ticha’s sister and the mother of Adam and Rashidi). We were very touched by the warmth of the welcome. Just like us, they must have wondered about the strangers they were to meet and who had a part to play as extended family for their son and grand children. Ticha was the second of ten children and his parents were both from large families, and it is a family where many members live close to each other in the same village or district.
Ticha’s parents live on a large area of land in the village and have a farm further out. Most of the cooking and the communal living space is outdoors, with smaller buildings being predominantly for sleeping and storage. There is a small building of sticks and mud bricks with a dirt roof for Mama Gawe and Fidelisi, a goat pen, a pig pen, a cooking fire with a roof over it and two other fire areas. At the back a new house is being built for Mama Gawe and Fidelisi, courtesy of Ticha and Rosie, and to one side, a large house of three bedrooms, a storage or sitting space and an eating area which is Ticha and Rosie’s. This was where we were to stay, with Freddy and Pius in one bedroom and Ticha and Rosie and the little boys in another.
Above: the lesser used front door of Ticha's and Rosie's house. The new bed has just been delivered by a local builder and is for the boys' room.
Below: Ticha's father, Fidelisi, with Rosie and Christine catching some welcome afternoon breeze on the step.
Lunch of ugali and vegetables was brought in to us by Maria, and was delicious. Rosie had warned us that Tanzanian cooking uses copious amounts of salt and oil, so we were very pleasantly surprised. We are a bit of an enigma here, with the Sandawe people of this region being renowned as hunters and meat eaters. Rosie said that she doesn’t cook here, not being able to cook in their way, and that all her and our meals will be cooked by others and simply appear. I felt a bit uncomfortable about this because it seemed like we would be making extra work for others but Rosie said that it was fine.
We made our acquaintance with the toilet and the bathroom. Both are open roofed outdoor enclosures behind leaf fences. The toilet is a hole over a pit with a wooden lid to put in place when you finish, and the bathroom has a bucket shower put up by Rosie and Ticha, which is a luxury in this area. Most people just have a wash from a bucket of water. Chooks wandered in and gave me the once over while I squatted over the hole, and then returned when I had finished, possibly because cockroaches and other insects had been disturbed by my visit.
We were tired from the journey and glad to have a rest after lunch. The children were free at last to play and explore and Rosie to relax. We wandered around, taking everything in, seeing a newborn kid testing her legs and nuzzling in for her first drink, while the opportunistic chooks picked at the afterbirth. We met Pius, Ticha’s other son, aged thirteen, and Fide, his cousin, when they came home from primary school. There was much chopping of vegetables and shaking of rice in baskets in preparation for tea, all done outside, sitting against the side of the little house in the shade. The sun dropped suddenly, with sunshine turning to shadow and then to the most beautiful rose sunset behind an umbrella acacia, just behind the pig pen. Rosie tended the kerosene lanterns, a must before it is dark, and soon we were inside, eating rice and vegetables by their muted light. Ticha was still in 
After tea the high school children of the family came over to meet us – Hawa, Adam, Rashidi and Majuto. They were fairly shy, particularly as they were the members of the family who were studying in English and were a bit embarrassed to use it with strangers, but Hawa acted as spokesperson and did very well. They left and, as suddenly as the night had fallen, the sense that it was bedtime came early, and once the boys were settled, we all retired.
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