A curse

I just spoke to my friend Carey, whom I got to know in Ndola by virtue of the two of us both crashing at Frank & Katie's Chateau Mzungu. And yes, she's very well, thanks for wondering.

As we were speaking, she related an anecdote about what happened when I left Ndola.

It seems that I had thrown away a shirt and a sweater when leaving my beloved Copperbelt town for Dar-Es-Salaam. I must have put them in with the paper rubbish in my bedroom. Which in retrospect was a silly thing to do.

When Carey came home later that afternoon, she walked Frank & Katie's maid Mrs. Zulu rushed up to greet her. "Hello Madam! How are you?" Mrs. Zulu was wearing my shirt and sweater, and owing to her very portly carriage, she cut a ridiculous figure. "Ah! I see Markus left you some clothes, isn't it?'

"No Madam! Eh! That Mr. Markus, he is a problem. Mr. Markus threw these clothes away. I found them in the trash. In Zambia we do not waste clothes Madam. Mr. Markus has cursed this house."

Carey was later able to reverse the curse by straightforwardly giving Mrs. Zulu a number of items she had no use for when it was her turn to leave. Along with the tent episode--when Mrs. Zulu found out I was sleeping in a tent in the backyard she was dismayed, because in Zambia this is something you do only to mourn the dead, which made my contrivance a trespass and an evil portent--it goes to show that I have a lot to learn.