January 23, 2005
Hello to all of you
Lots of rain here, huge downpours. Great for the gardens and crops. Then out comes the sun and we "cook" again.
We too had a Roteract fundraiser last night. One club here, mostly ladies, young professionals and mainly Indian by culture. They put on an Indian meal and
entertainment. Cost was $100,000.00 Each. That is about $13.00.
The food was fantastic. Curried chicken, curried lamb, two types of rice, salads, hot mango chutney, rice cakes and a sour milk type of sweet dessert. Entertainment by the young adults from the Indian community. Dancing. They had reheased long and hard and did a wonderful job. Everyone dressed to the "ninest". In their finest Sari outfits with gold bangles, rings, etc. 160 tickets sold!!!
My combi has developed problems so am taking it to the garage tomorrow. Lost power, belching oil, small ticking noise in motor. Suspect a major problem which I just don't need.
Charles and Bobby Chiponda leave for the UK shortly. Just for the month of Feb. Bobby is much better and seems on the way to full recovery. My chef at Walkers had a very sick wife. I went to visit them and on the way got a text message on my cell that she had died. We buried her yesterday. I do not know what she had but she was in terrible suffering so perhaps a blessing. I suspect, with proper attention and medication this could have been avoided.
We had a top band from Zimbabwe at Walkers on Friday night. Packed the place
at $50,000.00 entry fee. They drank a lot so we grossed over $18,000,000.00
for the night. Our best night yet since I arrived. The crowd went wild for this group. Up on the chairs and tables for the entire performance. A new group started at 7:30 and played till 10:00 Then this top group started at 11pm and played till 3am. Africans love their music and can really dance!!!! This old white man can actually dance too, having got some of the rhythm into my soul. They love to see the Kewa (white lman) dance.
Our expanded menu is starting to take off. We offer free delivery within the mall we are in with over 60 shops. Staff in these shops order food and we deliver. Just added Tomatoe, Cream of Veg and Cream of Mushroom soup to the menu and they are excellent. We have chicken wings and drumsticks, chicken livers, chicken/mushroom and steak pies, sausage rolls, soups and chips on our snack menu and they have been well received. A big problem here is getting propane for our gas stove and oven. We ran out last night so will be roaring around Monday AM to source cylinders. The highlimit thermostat on the gas oven is broken as well and the stove came from New
Zealand so you can imagine trying to get the part.
Got to run.
Love, Doug