Our First Festive Season in Tanzania

It seems that we were somewhat in the minority as far as expats go here in Tanzania. By the time we got back from Mikumi, the expat exodus was well and truly underway. By the time Christmas had arrived, most of our friends were back in whichever country they came from leaving behind a rather quiet and empty Msasani Peninsula.

Christmas was certainly different this time round, but I wouldn’t say it was any less fun for the four of us. It followed a traditional pattern but some things were just a little bit well….. different.

As tradition dictates, we were woken up bright and early by a couple of very enthusiastic small boys, keen as mustard to open their presents. As with generations before them (well their parents at least), they opened their presents in two seconds flat and then began angling for permission to open our presents too! Happily, the boys were very pleased with their haul- most notably a couple of big wooden vehicles from the “they don’t make them like that any more” era. Fortunately, someone in Tanzania does make them like that still- oddly though, he is a big Swiss bloke called Bernard Straub. Strange really- we always expected to find traditional wood toys here; just not Swiss!

The rest of the morning was a departure from the usual Christmas events in that we made a visit to the swimming pool. This was partly an attempt to kill time and build an appetite for dinner and partly an effort on Kieran’s part to test my new goggles. In a desperate attempt to feel Christmassy, we then phoned home to see if anyone was up (they were- just).

Soma and the boys outside our local pub, the George and Dragon just before heading in for Christmas Dinner

In the afternoon, we headed down to the George and Dragon- our local pub- for Christmas dinner. We spent a very happy afternoon with the remainder of the expat community feeling much more festive as we worked our way through a large dinner (Kieran has developed a major taste for turkey) and finally managed to listen to those great classic songs from Slade, Wizzard and (ever so ironically in a pub in Africa, full of regulars demolishing a massive Christmas lunch) Band Aid.

A quiet evening of Quality Street and Bristol Cream ensued to bring to a close our first Southern Hemisphere Christmas. We had had fun, bits were quite festive and we even got the music in the end. However, it will take a few more years before a poolside Christmas feels right!

The boys and I on the beach over the Christmas break
New Year duly followed a week later and we celebrated in a low key manner. Not only was this the end of 2007 but also of our stay in the apartment complex that has been our home for the past two months. We clubbed together with some of our friends (a group of South Africans and a Malaysian couple) and had a barbecue.

As we chatted through the evening, I cast my mind back a year to when Soma and I toasted the New Year in our apartment in Cairo. At that time we both felt that 2007 would be an eventful year. Well, undeniably this has been the case. Looking at the list of stressful things to happen in life, we’ve gone through some of the big ones! Happily we’re not divorced or widowed and, to my knowledge do not have any new offspring! However, if selling a house is meant to be stressful, then selling a $400 million power station is good deal more so! If moving house and changing jobs is tough then those boxes have been ticked and then some. However, this is not to say that we’ve not enjoyed ourselves. My job, though hard going at times this year, has also been deeply involving. Moving from Cairo to Tanzania has been stressful for sure, but also a lot of fun. We’ve said goodbye to the pyramids, the desert and the mosques but have so much more to see here in 2008. 2007 was a very full year for us all- I hope we’ll have many more like it!