Plan A

It dawned on me that first Zanzibar morning that we are always worried about ourselves…if I’ve slept badly, if I’m hungry, how everything is according to me. So plan A was to take a hint from those social animals I’d seen. Easier said than done because I’d fallen into terrible tummy cramps. They came in waves and at first I thought I’d have to see a doctor. I couldn’t medicate myself because I’d given the medicine away. Before leaving England I was advised to take some antibiotics with me in case of a nasty bug…which I did….but when I left the Plains, I had given them to Elisse.

They find it much harder to get medicines. He never complained about anything but during the course of a long game drive did I discover that his firstborn son only lived 3 weeks. He had been away and his wife had been to 2 hospitals but they couldn’t clear up the infection. He was thrilled he now had a 7 yr old son and 3 yr old daughter. He was educating the boy privately. . I thought at the time that I wouldn’t need this general anti biotic so I gave him the unopened packet. So here I was thinking how I would manage. Like a true elephant , I waited between cramps and set off for the dive centre because there was nothing else I could do

Bacari, the handsome senior instructor said I could dive if I took a refresher course in the pool with him. That was a shock to the system. Well getting me into a wet suit was like fitting a banana back into its skin. We laughed. He took the teaching seriously and kept saying

“Hacuna  Matata…I haven’t lost anyone yet”

Wise words you might think to fill me full of confidence and so at the end of the session he insisted I was good to go the next day. And do you know, I was so concentrated on his instruction and breathing underwater, I didn’t tummy cramps once!!

Not until I was almost alone on the beach that afternoon anyway and had time to think!!