Immediately after Christmas they began their preparations for the ngoma. The event had taken on a new and wider significance, since it would now mark both the opening of the lodge and the engagement between Piet and Sarah. The telephone rang endlessly with congratulations and acceptances. Piet had arranged for an ox to be roasted for the farm workers, and a huge pit had been hollowed out some distance from the labour lines, so that the beast could be cooked whole on a spit. An air of excitement prevailed in the house and in the workshops, and the watu sang songs on their way to work, about the ngoma and the marriage of the young bwana. Around the huts, the smaller children who tended the goats made spears from sticks and slivers of stone, and fashioned shields from pieces of wood and cardboard. They practised making experimental jumps on their spindly little legs, imitating the leaping warriors they so admired. At the dispensary where Lottie reigned once more, the talk was of nothing else.

Sarah spent hours around the farm with her camera, photographing the farm labourers, the house staff, the cooks and the kitchen totos, the women in their huts adorning each other’s hair, and making beaded necklaces for the great event. Wherever she looked, she could sense only anticipation and excitement. There were no disaffected men or women here that she could identify, and a sense of peace and contentment descended on her as she began to make plans for her life at Langani. She still had not decided what she was going to do about her job with Dan and Allie. She might have to spend at least part of the coming year at Buffalo Springs. But it was not so far away, and she was confident that she could come home for alternate weekends, or that Piet would be able to join her in camp until something permanent could be worked out. Three days before the great feast, he appeared in the storeroom where Lottie and Sarah were counting sheets and towels against the invasion of guests.

‘You can leave most of this with Simon,’ he said. ‘I’d like us all to go up to the ridge. We could take a few bottles of beer or some wine, and something to munch on. How about it? Hannah says it’s a lekker idea and Anthony too.’

‘I’ll stay here,’ Lottie said. ‘I’ll finish off with Simon, because I want to phone Janni in a little while. But you young people go. I’ll expect you back for dinner.’