Back in Tanzania, then back to Britain again

I hope this posting comes across as little more than a desperate attempt to keep to my “once a month” promise- although blatantly that is what it is!

We’ve had a few interesting goings on during the month, but since I’ve been travelling back and forth between here and the UK like some sort of homesick kid, I’ve not necessarily been there to see much of it. I’ve certainly been busy travelling in the past weeks- no sooner had we arrived back here from a month in Britain than I booked my tickets to fly back for a seminar in Warwick. I spent 10 days being very studious and businesslike before flying back to Tanzania and immediately booking my ticket for a course in London next week. There are good and bad sides to this state of affairs of course. On the bad side, the travel is rather tiring. I’m getting bored of the now familiar (but still quite scary) flightpath of Kenya, Somalia, Yemen, Oman, Dubai, then onto Iraq before hitting the more stable parts of Turkey and Central Europe. Most importantly, all the movies are the same- being stuck on a cumulative 12 hours of flying, watching the same movies and the same four episodes of The Simpsons gets a bit dull! On the bright side, however, I’ve made rapid progress through the various tiers of the Emirates loyalty programme and, according to my calculations should get my Gold membership around Christmas when we fly to Japan- free business lounges for the next year- cool!

Life in Tanzania is surprisingly good. The main bugbears of life seem to have receded temporarily. We’ve had very few power cuts this month- a situation I know can only revert to normal in time. This is a relief, since our generator is truly on its last legs and takes about ten attempts and some emotional begging and coaxing to get running these days. The traffic seems to be better too. Before we left, traffic was not too bad- mainly due to the budget session being held in Dodoma. However the first weeks of September the combined effects of budget being over, school starting and Ramadan happening meant that the roads were a nightmare. Ramadan is now over so we don’t have the mad rush to get home to eat (odd though that sundown isn’t until 6.30 and so many guys are heading home around 4pm- surely they haven’t all become paragons of gender equality and in fact are rushing home to cook?) For now, the roads are not too bad and I get home if not with a smile on my face then at least without the usual potty mouth!

The weather is still not too bad. We’re certainly seeing the end of winter however, and the temperatures are starting to rise. We can still sleep with open windows and a fan but I’d give it till mid October until the night time AC comes back on. Then we await the rainy season. Unlike earlier this year, where the rains never really came, we’re expecting some pretty severe weather this year. There have been several warnings that this year is El Nino year and that we are likely to get major rainfalls along the coastal regions, possibly hitting Dar es Salaam quite hard. I’m not sure what to expect really- the monsoons we had in 2008 were wet enough. This should be an interesting experience I guess.

I guess the main event of our month was the visit of our old friends from Cairo, Daniel and Janice. It was really good to see them after almost two years and, as with all good friends, the time lag seemed to make no difference. I do mean this, and am not just writing this because Daniel reads this blog!! We had a few days showing them our main haunts on the Peninsula- the Yacht Club, The Seacliffe, the George and Dragon and various other places. I was just getting used to having them around when I had to head off to Warwick, worst luck. Anyway, I think they had a nice time- well I hope they did.

For anyone else thinking of paying us a visit, there is still time. I’m very conscious of the fact that we’re about a month short of having been here for two years and equally conscious that three years is my normal attention span in a job- that’s better than my attention span in any sort of conversation which, as Soma often bemoans, is woeful.

Having talked with my boss, I can say that I’m pretty sure to be sticking around for the whole of 2010. Towards the end of next year it will have been three years and another country will seem tempting. I’ll also be more or less done with the MBA by then so a move in early 2011 seems likely. I guess in business as in life nothing is ever certain but, for now, I think we’ll stick around for a little while yet- the next destination is on the horizon but quite a way off as of now.

Anyway, I’ve nothing more to add and need to start looking for a good Central London hotel so will sign off now.