Dear nephew Milambo
Greetings from this confused city.
I hope that by the grace of Limatunda you and your family are all okay, including all my good people in my beloved Ukumbisiganga.
Here in the big city things are the same my dear boy, although the sun is shining mercilessly, leaving some of us with something called dehydration and always feeling sleepy.
My dear boy, the gods of the sun in this terrible city are very cruel sometimes, because they allow the sun to shine as if it is competing with something else in another universe.
Just the other day this crazy sun almost sent me straight to the hospital after I walked for almost one hour in the sun, without any protective outfit.
My dear boy, if you have heard of the word ‘dehydration’, then you will understand that it is not a good word, especially for someone of my age.
Dehydration, my dear boy, occurs when your body loses too many fluids or something they call electrolytes they have nothing to do with electricity). This can interfere with your normal body functions. On hot days, you may become dehydrated when you’re not taking in as many fluids as you’re losing.
I later talked to my doctor friend, who told me that dehydration is the loss of water and salts from the body, telling me that we need water to maintain our blood volume and blood pressure and to ensure our body functions properly.
Walking in the hot sun of this terrible city without any sort of protection is a dangerous thing my dear boy, because that is how I encountered this dehydration thing.
That day your aunt asked me to accompany her to Kariakoo for some shopping, but I declined because I had promised a friend of mine that I would visit him in the afternoon.
This fellow is called Baraka, and I met him a few years ago soon after I landed on this terrible city, and we have been friends ever since, and the best part is that we always spend a lot of time playing ‘Bao’ whenever we meet.
This chap lives at a place called Vingunguti, which is somewhere near the airport, and I had visited him on several occasions before.
I left the house with your aunt, and she dropped me at Tazara as she headed to Kariakoo, and I boarded a bus towards Vingunguti.
It was around 2 pm, and the sun was burning as if it was on a mission to send several unsuspecting souls to their maker.
The bus I entered was full but not packed, and a respectable young fellow offered me his seat, which I gladly accepted.
At the next stop, the woman who was sitting at the window alighted, and I happily moved next to the open window for a breath of much needed fresh air.
I don’t know whether it was the cool fresh air blowing in when the bus was moving or because of my old age, because within a very short time I was dozing off.
A young lady who was sitting next to me shook me gently and told me that I should be careful so that I should not miss my stop.
Alas! It was too late my dear boy, because when my mind started registering where I was, I discovered that indeed I had missed my stop.
I hurriedly went to the door and told the conductor to let me off because I had already missed my stop, and the bus came to a screeching halt in the middle of the road and they allowed me to get off.
By the time I got my bearings right and after asking several passersby, I realized that I was off my mark by about 5 kilometers, and the mistake I made was deciding to walk instead of taking a bodaboda.
My dear son, that day the sun was extraordinarily hot, and by the time I had covered 3 kilometers, I was sweating like a thief who has been discovered under a veteran commando’s bed.
I started feeling dizzy, but because I can never be accused of being a softie, I decided to push forward, making inward calculations and convincing myself that I can make it.
There was nowhere to shelter even for a single minute, but as luck would have it, I saw a shop about 20 meters from where I was, and I decided that I would take a few minutes there to catch my breath.
When I reached the shop, I was in a very bad condition, which was also observed by a few people who were there, because before they could offer me a rickety chair to sit, I saw the ground approaching and I collapsed.
My dear boy, I thank Limatunda because those people who were there were quick to react, as one of them offered me cold water while another one unbuttoned my shirt.
My doctor friend further told me that during hot and humid weather, a person is at higher risk of dehydration and heat-related illnesses, including cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and he warned me that in severe cases, dehydration and heat stroke can result in shock and even death.
It took me several minutes to recover my senses, and it was several minutes later when I requested them to call Baraka, who came with his son soon afterwards.
I knew that if I called your aunt, she would have made a lot of fuss, and I would never hear the end of it, because chances are, she would probably ban me from leaving the house.
But I thank Liwelelo that after taking considerable rest and drinking a lot of water, I returned to my normal self, and believe it or not, we had a great time playing Bao afterwards.
Whatever you do my dear son, your aunt should never hear about that episode, because she has a tendency of worrying a lot.
Please greet your family for me my boy, I pray that Limatunda and all the Nyamwezi ancestors will be watching over all of you.
