The Move to Tanzania. Part 1- Leaving Cairo

As predicted, the last posting was indeed the final one made from Cairo. As I sit here in our temporary apartment here in Dar es salaam, I realise there is a lot to recall in the last week or so. To make sense of things, I’ll split this posting into three bits; the final preparations before we left Cairo, the journey here and the mad few days that have passed since we arrived here on Monday 5th November. Here goes for part 1- “The Leaving”.

My final day at work was an odd affair. Annoyingly enough, after a month of complete inactivity a fairly urgent issue came up in the final couple of days. With one foot out of the door, I was really only able to provide advice to my colleagues on how to handle it. A couple of calls and emails were needed before I handed over my laptop for good though. After a short lunch with my colleagues (aptly ordered in from the same hotel we stayed in upon our immediate arrival in Cairo) I made one final tour of the office, saying goodbye to as many of the people as I could find. I was a bit sad to say goodbye but have been on the verge of leaving for far too long to feel anything other than relief at finally getting out. With considerably less emotion than I had expected, I got into the car and headed home to see how the removal men were doing.

Using removal firms is an odd thing. Right up until a couple of days before departure, your house is untouched- you begin to question whether you have actually done everything you need to do since things simply don’t look as if you’re about to move countries. All of a sudden, though, about twenty men descend on your house, falling upon it like locusts. In just one day, our apartment was utterly denuded of its furniture and all our accumulated junk. By the evening, all our possessions save a few that were actually coming on the plane with us) were sitting in a pile of boxes outside the front entrance to the building, awaiting the removal truck which, true to Egyptian style, had vanished. Save for a few items belonging to the landlord and about five suitcases and their contents (coming with us on the flight), the house was stripped bare.

After half an hour waiting outside, Kieran and I decided that the absent van was the problem of the removal men- not ours- so headed up to bed. Thankfully one double bed and one single mattress belonged to the landlord so we at least had something to sleep on!

Friday morning began as normal with a trip to Café Greco. We stayed, said farewell to the staff there and headed home for lunch- difficult to cook without any pots so we ordered in and ate on the terrace. That afternoon and evening saw a steady stream of friends come over to say a final goodbye. Carol and Paul, Daniel, Viv and Ian (both of whom split the remaining contents of our wine and spirits reserves and, finally Tim. The toughest goodbye, however, was that of Iman- the boys’ nanny. She has been a part of the boys’ lives (whether as nursery teacher or as nanny) throughout our time here so has known Kieran since he was a year old and Rohan practically since birth. The boys did not grasp the gravity of this particular goodbye but Iman may as well have been handing over her own children. Promises to come and visit or to fly her out to see us would have been impossible to fulfil so there was little that could be said to console her. She left our house very tearful- hopefully her new job caring for Viv’s baby will take her mind off things.

Anyway, we had one final bizarre dispute with the landlord over when the apartment should be handed over. We’d agreed 6pm that evening; he then sent his wife at 7pm but she didn’t want to get out of her car so just took all keys except one and drove off without seeing or signing anything. Hee then called to reschedule for around midnight, or possibly midday the following day (approximately 15 minutes before our plane left!). Soma told him very firmly that he could either come round immediately or would have to come before 9am the next morning, after which time we’d leave the remaining key with the bawaab and head to the airport. He promised to come at 8.30 on the dot the next morning. One final, typically Egyptian vignette that sums up beautifully some of the bizarre frustrations of living there! We retired to bed, ready for the big day.

The next morning, we were up, bathed, dressed and breakfasted early. We all spent a final few minutes saying goodbye to our terrace- the coolest one we’ll ever have I think! The landlord phoned to say he was sending his driver to take our keys- I knew 8.30am was going to be too early for him! We did a final check, signed off the handover form and left the keys (and a pristine flat) in the hands of our landlord’s driver. At just after 9am, we got into the car and, after a swift detour at Viv’s house, headed to Cairo airport.

After an easy run to the airport, we loaded up the trolley, bid a final and grateful farewell to our driver Mohammed (both of us quite sad to see the back of each other but not as hysterically upsetting as Iman thankfully) and disappeared into the departure area of Cairo airport- the same terminal into which three of us had arrived back in 2005. The leaving was over, the three day trip to Tanzania via Dubai- two adults and two excited, nervous and generally rowdy toddlers- was about to start.