Coffee with Marge

Once upon a time, many years ago, when our children were very young, we were best friends, but as the years passed and our kids attended different schools, we saw each other less and less. Occasionally we'd see each other in town, and agree that we should get together, but our plans never seemed to materialize for one reason or another. On Saturday night I saw my friend, Marge, at a fundraising dinner for the YMCA. She said that we should meet for coffee, and this time, the plan sounded more definite. On Monday she called me, and on Tuesday we met at Starbucks. (Don't worry, this is not a plug for Starbucks, but it is a nice place to meet and talk over tea and whatever other goodies you desire. I also enjoy the music they play, and have been introduced to new musicians at Starbucks. Last summer, they had Damien Rice CDs for sale at Starbucks. In NY this summer, we went to Starbucks every day for breakfast and I pictured myself with a laptop working on my blog at a table alongside others doing the same, sipping tea.) Both of us ordered tea, rather than coffee, but no one really says "let's go out for tea", do they? We talked about all kinds of things, family matters and personal ambitions, and it felt really good to reconnect with Marge. She is funny, sharp, and original, and I enjoyed her company. I mentioned to her that I sell some books on amazon and she asked about setting up an account of her own. Later that day, she texted me to inform me that she'd made her first book sale on Amazon! That didn't really surprise me though, Marge used to collect and sell antiques, and is very gifted.

The Miracle at Speedy Motors: Tea and Rain

"Oh, the thinks you can think!"
~Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904-1991)

I wonder if Dr. Seuss was referring to one of the benefits of drinking tea? There's nothing quite like a pot of tea to set your thoughts in order, to help discover new ways of thinking about things and solutions to troubling matters. In The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of books, tea helps the detectives and other Batswana think things through and come up with the best solutions to perplexing cases and problems; perhaps that is why they partake in this tradition so frequently, "to think better thinks".

Tea cup and tissues by my side, I've just finished reading the ninth and last book in this series, The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith. I 'm sad to depart from Botswana but am very satisfied with the ending of the book and series, which leaves readers hopeful and optimistic, as does the miracle of rain in this sun-parched nation:

"Two days passed--two days in which more rain fell, great cloudbursts of rain, drenching the length and breadth of Botswana. People held their breath in gratitude, hardly daring to speak of the deluge lest it should suddenly stop and the dryness return. The rivers, for long months little more than dusty beds of rust-colored sand, appeared again, filled to overflowing in some cases, twisting snakes of mud-brown water moving across the plains. . . . The bush, a dessicated brown before the storms, turned green overnight, as the shoots of dormant plants thrust their way through the soil. Flowers followed, tiny yellow flowers, spreading like a dusting of gold across the land. Ground vines sent out tendrils, melons would grow in abundance later on, as an offering, an expiation for the barrenness of the dry months that had gone before."
~The Miracle at Speedy Motors, Alexander McCall Smith

The tea cup is half-full.

Botswana Day is celebrated on September 30th, the day that this nation, which has achieved great economic growth within the past forty years, became independent from the British.

The Miracle at Speedy Motors: More Tea Talk

I don't want my African adventures to end. I may try and make this one last, the final book in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith. On the other hand, I may just have to read this book at my normal speed, because it's so absorbing. In this book, there are many things to be pondered. At the detective agency we meet Mma Sebina, who wants to find out who her family is, no easy feat. Associate detective Mma Makutsi, who scored a 97 percent at the Botswana Secretarial College, gets a fancy new bed, but is not getting any sleep. There's also the matter of a miracle cure for Motholeli, who uses a wheelchair--is it too good to be true? And how many cattle constitute a fair dowry or bogadi? (Even Mma Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, who hold traditional Botswana values, think it would be better if a man did not have to pay for his wife, because a wife is not a thing to be bought or possessed.) I'm not quite half-way through The Miracle at Speedy Motors, and am once again enjoying the company of Mma Ramotswe and her entourage. With each book, the characters become more real, more fleshed out, showing their various human strengths and shortcomings. It must have been rather challenging for the author to write a series of nine books without boring the reader--just from blogging about them I face a similar challenge to a much lesser degree--but these books remain intriguing because the characters are more fully developed, and you really care about them. You also care about something important to them which they drink quite frequently, tea:

"Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni smiled. They were always having tea, as far as he could work out. There was the first cup, served shortly after they arrived in the office in the morning, and then there was the ten o'clock cup, which was sometimes taken at nine thirty in the hot weather. That was followed by the tea which was brewed at eleven thirty (the mid-morning tea), and of course there was tea immediately after lunch and again at three in the afternoon. He thought it was a good thing that the red bush tea contained no caffeine, or Mma Ramotswe would surely find it difficult to get to sleep at night, with all that caffeine in her system. Yet Mma Makutsi drank ordinary tea, which had ample quantities of caffeine in it, he believed; indeed he thought that this might explain why she was sometimes so tetchy with the apprentices, especially with Charlie. Mind you, anybody might be forgiven for being irritated by Charlie, with his constant boasting and that endless silly chatter about girls; even one with no caffeine at all in his system could find himself snapping at such a young man."
~The Miracle at Speedy Motors, Alexander McCall Smith

Just as a good TV series eventually must end at the right time, so must this series of books, I suppose, although I certainly wouldn't object to a tenth book. I will greatly miss this fine cast of characters, beautiful Botswana, and all the references to tea. Even when they sit around drinking tea, or perhaps especially when they sit around drinking tea, their world is warm and inviting.

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies: The Tea Cup is Half-Full

"It is a fine morning again," he said, as he walked up to her.
She turned to him and smiled. "I am always happiest in the early morning," she said. "Standing here in the garden watching the plants wake up. It is very good."
Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni agreed. He found it difficult to get out of bed as early as she did, but he knew that the first few hours of light was the best part of the day, a time of freshness and optimism.
~In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Alexander McCall Smith

This passage from In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith captures the sense of optimism experienced by Mma Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni in the early morning, before the intense heat and worries of the day set in. In the mornings, the tea cup is half-full; each new day holds promise and possibility, as well as peace and excitement for what's ahead. As the hours of the morning pass, we move into different states of mind. If the lesson of the morning would last for the day, then we'd effortlessly stay optimistic and positive throughout the day!

In The Company of Cheerful Ladies: A Mysterious Pumpkin, and Red Tea

The New York Times Book Review called this book, "A literary confection of . . .gossamer deliciousness. . . ." I've just started reading another very enjoyable tale set in Botswana, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith. Super sleuth Mma Ramotswe has a mystery in her own life right now--who left the delectable pumpkin on her porch? (That shouldn't spoil too much of the story for you should you decide to read it!) As with all the books in this series, the beginning chapter summarizes events from the previous books, so readers don't need to read each one to know what's going on, although I've made the choice to read each book of the series, in order.

Last night I had to pick up a few groceries and found a container of rooibos, the ever-present tea in the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, to enjoy at home. I was tempted to buy a red tea with the enticing name of "Botswana Blossom", but decided to get the plain red tea instead, as I'm a bit of a purist. Red tea is an indigenous herb of South Africa called rooibos (ROY-boss). It's supposed to be very healthy, loaded with polyphenols and flavonoids which help protect against the onset of aging and disease. Red tea apparently has all the benefits of green tea, without the caffeine.

I'm thrilled to report that I've been getting more international traffic to Suko's Notebook--from at least 16 countries--including numerous guests from Gaborone, Botswana, the setting for The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency books! Of course, I also greatly appreciate my visitors from the United States. As always, I welcome your comments, and pertinent questions may be emailed to me--I usually respond within 24 hours. One remarkable thing about the internet is that it brings people from all over the world closer together. As we conduct searches and research from our homes, offices, libraries, and schools--or anywhere else with an internet connection--we connect with people world-wide and learn about other cultures--and seem a bit closer to peace on earth.

On this seventh anniversary of the horrific events of Sept. 11th, please take at least a few moments to remember the victims, as well as the many heroes of that day.

Tea Talk

"Tea of course, made the problem seem smaller, as it always does, and by the time they reached the bottoms of their cups, and Mma Makutsi had reached for the slightly chipped tea-pot to pour a refill, it had become clear what they would have to do."
~The Full Cupboard of Life, Alexander McCall Smith

In the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith, Mma Ramotswe and her assistant, Mma Makutsi, are always brewing, drinking, or thinking about African red bush tea, called rooibos. In fact, I first heard about these books from my sister-in-law, Britta, a couple of years ago, when I mentioned that I drank red tea, and she told me that she'd heard about it in these books. It took me a few years before I read my first The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book, but now I'm hooked on the series. I'm also a tea drinker but drink mostly green, black, and oolong tea, although I have red tea occasionally . The general sense in these books is that tea helps with all matters, large and small, and there's much talk with tea as well as of tea. Here in The Full Cupboard of Life, Mma Ramotswe craves a mug of tea and tries to convey this to Mr. Bobologo:

"So I see,"said Mma Ramotswe. "And I see, too, that they have just made tea".
"It is better for them to drink tea than strong liquor," intoned Mr Bobolgo, looking disapprovingly at one of the girls, who cast her eyes downwards, in shame.
"Those are my view, too," said Mma Ramotswe."Tea refreshes. It clears the mind. Tea is good at any time of the day, but specially at mid-day, when it is so hot.' She paused, and then added, 'As it is today."
"You are right, Mma," said Mr Bobologo. "I am a great drinker of tea. I cannot understand why anybody would want to drink anything else when there is tea to be had. I have never been able to understand that."
~The Full Cupboard of Life, Alexander McCall Smith

Unfortunately, Mr Bobologo doesn't get the message, and Mma Ramotswe must go without the coveted cup of tea.

Later in the book, Mma Ramotswe asks herself what's important in her life--and comes up with a ubiquitous three letter word:

"Most people had something in their lives that was particularly important to them, and she supposed that the Botswana Secretarial college was as good a cause as any. What was it in her own case, she wondered? Tea?"
~The Full Cupboard of Life, Alexander McCall Smith

Tea comes to her mind (though she wishes she could think of something else). In these books, tea is nearly as important as any other character, and chapter eight is even titled, "Tea is Always the Solution". I often find myself craving a cup of tea as I read them.