WELCOME HOME

I have just returned from a lovely 3 week holiday with my family in London. This trip was both lovely and also a little frightening… frightening because it made me realise just how much I have adapted to the pace of things in Tanzania (and how much I miss efficiency and customer service!). A few days into my trip, I excitedly bounced off to a Starbucks in pursuit of my favourite Christmas-time drink: the wonderful gingerbread latte (pure joy in a mug!). I ordered my drink, paid and waited for all of 30 seconds when a frenzied looking Starbucks employee handed me my latte and apologized profusely for ‘taking so long’.

I nearly fell over.

In Tanzania the series of events would have run more along the lines of:

a) search for coffee and realise that I will have to settle for instant coffee,

b) wait half an hour to place an order (with only one customer ahead of me),

c) be handed the wrong thing another half hour later,

d) complain and ask for what I had ordered an hour ago,

e) wait some more

f) give up an accept that I won’t be getting any coffee or any change and thank the employee for their service (as one can not possibly have a conversation here and I not thank someone) and

g) walk away wondering how I ended up with less money, no drink and thanking someone for charging me to stand around for an hour and a half.

Upon arrival in Tanzania, I realised that not much had changed in my absence. The electricity was off (thank you, thank you, thank you generator!!) and in Zanzibar, which has suffered some weird interruption with its power supply from the mainland, there has been no power for over a month and is unlikely to have power for at least another month more. The cab driver taking me home tried to rip me off and nearly had several accidents along the way and I learned that my office has been without internet for another 2 weeks because once again we have ‘forgotten’ to pay our bills and we got cut off until payment is made (my boss’s reaction to this, and I quote: ‘These guys are smart!’). Why, yes, in fact they are! Cunning businesses refusing services in the event of non-payment!

Of course, as with all things in Tanzania, the frustrations were more than outweighed by the amusements that are ever-present in numerous shapes and forms in this country. We somewhat randomly celebrated ‘Zanzibar revolution day’ on Tuesday (even though this has nothing to do with the mainland) which of course meant a day off work (yippee!). I drove past a sign advertising a new shop selling ladies handbags which has been named the ‘Bag Lady Shop’ (ooh, my very own bag lady? I’ve always wanted one of those!!). The buses, of course, have also delivered on the amusement front- their latest religious message is: ‘The TOP Jesus’. (Infinitely better than the bottom Jesus!). And I received the following email from a colleague under the subject line ‘GREETINGS’:

‘HOW ARE MY SISTER ? I AM NOT FINE BECAUSE YOU DID NOT COMMUNICATE WITH ME SINCE I GAVE MY CONTACTS eg MOBILE

NUMBER AND MY E MAIL

PLEASE MY SISTER DONT LET ME DOWN .I NEED YOUR SUPPORT

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL.

Welcome home!