R’s new environment is generating a constant bombardment of questions.
“Why is there so much mud on the road?”
“Where is all that smoke coming from?”
“What are those people doing standing in the middle of the road?”
“What is that cow doing on the road?”
“Why is that hole in the road so big?”
“Why is it so bumpy?”
“Why are all those people standing on top of the truck?”
“Why is that sheep eating beside the truck?”
“Why is that car driving on the pavement?”
“Why has that truck fallen off the road?”
I try to anwer as clearly as possible,
“It is the rainy season and the mud from the pavements covers the road.”
“There aren’t very many rubbish trucks so people dump their rubbish in huge tips which then burn slowly.”
“Some people can’t see and don’t have jobs or homes and need money.”
“Cows eat grass in the city’s roadsides not in fields.”
And so on. But after a hour’s barrage of questions, I often give the only answer I can think of, “Sweetheart, this is Africa, that’s why.”
