April 7

The day begins with a round or two of roof tennis.  Roof tennis requires only a tennis racquet, ball and slanting roof - no net.  Hit the ball onto the slanting roof and watch it come back to you and then hit it again.  Great tennis practice, but you do need to watch that you don't hit the ball onto the flat roof, because then it doesn't come back down.  Ellie hits the ball onto the flat roof and John is called to go up the ladder and bring it down. He goes up for one ball and comes down with five.

Ellie decides she would like to learn how to knit and digs out my mum's bag of needles and wool.  I cast on ten stitches for her and painstakingly show her how to add a row.  Two minutes later, I am unravelling it.  This happens at regular intervals throughout the day.  Knitting should be very straightforward, but it hardly ever seems to be.  My mum tried to teach me, but I gave up.  Like Ellie, I would start with ten stitches and end with 52.

Yesterday morning, we found a shoe outside on the grass and our first thought was that we had had a burglar who had been disturbed and run away, leaving his shoe behind (not a very good burglar!).  This morning, the shoe has disappeared, but nothing is missing.  It turns out it belongs to Elizabeth's grandson who she says has come to stay.  John is very angry about this as Elizabeth is supposed to tell us if anyone besides her and her husband are on the property.  Moreover, it also shows that she does not understand how the coronavirus is spread.  She keeps saying that her grandson is not ill.  She says that where he was staying, the police are being very brutal and he had nowhere else to stay. It's ironic how the police actually work against the people they claim to protect.  I really wonder if this shutdown can work in Africa.  I manage to find a video explaining the coronavirus In Ndebele, but it does not seem to really explain the concept of social distancing.

By the time I am unravelling the scarf cum teapot coaster cum winter jacket (that was Ellie at her most hopeful) for the fifteenth time, I am wishing that Sian would teach Ellie something new on the piano.

The day ends with the news that the first person diagnosed with the coronavirus in Bulawayo has died.