Day 50 & 51 – a messy night in Dar
I headed to Dar Es Salaam on the friday night, using the new high speed train. It is awesome. 2 hours of relaxing in comfort, versus the 5 or 6 hour crazy drive with endless traffic stops, speed limits and slow trucks. The time went pretty quickly as I chatted to a tractor salesman from Dodoma who was sitting next to me.
I was met at the station by Sumas cousin David, we got into a bajaji (tuk-tuk) and headed the short distance through crazy traffic to her brother Jons’ place in Upanga East. Jons, David, Ole (Maasai) and me headed out about 9pm for some food and drinks.
We went to the well known downtown bar/club Samaki-samaki after food. I tried to order a round of large whisky & cokes. Somehow it got mixed up with all the noise and the waitress arrived with a 75cl bottle of Jack Daniels and 4 cokes. The night got a bit messy from there on. We ended up in an upmarket club called XII – XIV and got back to Jons’ flat around 5am. I haven’t stayed out that late in a good few years. Great night.
The next day was mostly napping and recovering.
Day 52 – Kids arrive!
Suma and the kids were due to land at Dar Airport by 4pm, so we decided to head to Mbweni JKT to see the plot of land and chat about how to develop it. We got halfway there when Jons’ Mercedes E-class started to overheat (we had sent it to him a year previously). We couldn’t continue, so we waited while a mechanic came with a computer to diagnose the problem. He found the problem – a shorted out PCB in the fuse box area under the bonnet. Jons had previously done a bush-repair when a relay gave out a few months ago. Bypassing it with a wire, and then running the car with it for a several months could well have caused the issue.
David and me got a bajaji to the airport to find Suma and the kids there waiting for us. It was great to be reunited with my boys after 7 weeks away from them! We headed to Jons’ flat then headed out for some food and a shisha, getting an early night.
Day 53 – Coco Beach
Suma went to get her hair done so me and the boys headed to Coco beach. The kids played with car inner tubes in the surf while I sat in the shade. Later that afternoon we headed to Morogoro on the evening train, arriving at Grace’s house around 9.30pm.
Day 54 to 57 – Hanging out in Morogoro
We spent this time relaxing with Grace, venturing out to town now and again, to the farm, Mzumbe and hiked to a very nice waterfall in the nearby Uluguru hills.
