Last days in Tanzania

I keep meaning to post about the last days we had in Tanzania. 

So here it is..

The Wednesday before we left, I walked with my friends for the last time. When we approached my house, I'd asked Michael to fetch my camera from my desk and to take photos of us. 

Moi, Marita and Tilla

Me and Tilla

Marita and me

Marita and I started walking together on 12 October, 2013. We eventually increased our distance from 5km a day to 8.5km. And we talked about everything under the sun while walking! Tilla had walked with us until she had to go out to SA for an operation on her hand. This particular day she joined us for the last time. 

I've already posted about the very precious farewell the Client gave us the night before we left Mwadui. Marita was en route from SA and in Dar when she heard we were leaving. She immediately bought me a pair of ethnic pictures, framed and glassed. When she presented them to me, she said she knew I'd already packed my suitcase and it was full to bursting. So she said I'd have to carry them in the gift bag. 

Which I did...

One of the beautiful pictures which Marita chose for our farewell gift. I carried then across Tanzania all the way home to Marquard in the bag visible in the photo

Reading a message from my friend, Amanda who was out on leave at the time

Grant was presented with a personalized bottle of wine with a WDL label. Looking at the funny  expression on my face you'd never guess that I'm actually tee-total! 

My sweet friend, Tilla and I share a last joke 

A photo of  the four "oldies" on site: Grant and Wessel with me and Tilla

The next morning early we departed by car from Mwadui for the last time. Our driver, William dropped us off at the Mwanza airport; we boarded the plane for Dar and by mid-morning we were in the city. Our driver, Mohamed collected us from the airport and drove us to the New Africa Hotel. We'd last stayed at this hotel on 1 February 2012, when we flew in from Nairobi, for Grant to start his contract with the new company. We'd come a full circle! 

The view from our hotel room was over the Dar harbor

We also had a view over a church. That Saturday we witnessed a wedding that had already taken place. The wedding entourage was waiting in the shade of a large tree for the bridal car to arrive

Finally the car arrived and the bride and groom climbed in and pulled off 

We watched enthralled as the cars left the church yard to another venue where the reception was obviously being held. While we watched, we saw another wedding entourage arriving at the church, complete with a priest (a woman at that) at the head of the procession. 

A second wedding procession appeared in the church yard as we watched the first one departing! 

Guests arriving for the second wedding (the garbage and cleaning materials at the church entrance, were eventually taken away!) 

Finally that wedding was over and the group posed on the steps for photos!

As this wedding group dispersed, I focused on the harbor and ships again

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYBODY! 

Good Fences Good Travel

Two weeks ago, once driver Mohamed and I had dropped the cats off at Dr Sinare's PetCare House, Dar Es Salaam, we traveled back to my hotel. The cats would be taken to the airport en route to Johannesburg the next morning; I spent the night in Dar Es Salaam, and ultimately returned to Mwadui for the last time, the next day.

At a red light I spotted an interesting fence and gate, wound the window down and took a photo. No soon had I leaned back in my seat, when Mohamed wound the window up again. Uh-oh, so this was a dodgy part of the city?

An interesting bounding wall and gate surrounding a property in Dar es Salaam

A hundred meters further I snapped these ladies selling food against the backdrop of the high concrete wall. I kept the window UP!

Nearer the hotel area, these beautiful homes nestled behind fences trailing with bougainvillea and secured with strong looking gates

This ornate wall caught my eye too

I'm linking my post to Good Fences Thursday here

It's over!

As Ambrose isn't near my laptop this afternoon, I'm writing his post for him. 

Although we never thought it would come, our idyllic sojourn in Tanzania in general and Mwadui in particular has ended. Although we knew that Grant's contract is only for three years, we imagined that the company would be able obtain the necessary work permits and documents to enable us to stay another two years. However, this was not to be. Grant flew to the company HO in Dar es Salaam on the 7th January to see if he could sort his permits out. After lunch he phoned me and said, "We're leaving Tanzania!" 

Now, although I would have loved to break down and weep, I did NOT. Instead, guess what I did first and foremost? 

I immediately phoned our pet travel agency in South Africa and asked them to put the wheels in motion to get our kitties home. Then I phoned Zahra of the Dar Es Salaam expediters with whom I did business in December 2013 (when I sent Rina's cats to SA) and asked her to arrange to get the cats out of EA. Next I phoned Siv, the PR at Coastal Aviation and provisionally booked a flight on the charter airlines. 

The cats are always very inquisitive when I bring their travel cages out of storage. Can you believe that they had their booster inoculations on the 6th of January? 

What followed then was two weeks and two days of intense concentration to arrange the paperwork, e-mails, telephone calls,  veterinary health certificates endorsed by the vet and scanned to the SA pet travel agency and the Dar expediters. Finally on Friday 23rd January every i was dotted and every t was crossed. All that remained was for me to confirm my flight on the charter plane with the cats as my luggage and get onto it! 

 

You have to experience this to believe how involved it is to get the cats moved from one country to another! 

The travel cages with cats inside, waiting to be loaded onto the 12 seater plane

The three cats in the luggage compartment of the small plane. From left: Ginger, Ambrose and Shadow

As I post this, all three the cats are in a friend's kennels near the Bloemfontein airport. Grant and I will pick them up on our way home tomorrow afternoon. More about their travels soon. 

Meanwhile, I'm catching up on blogger while on the hotel WiFi. We're sleeping overnight in Dar in a hotel overlooking the harbor. We fly home tomorrow. (I use the term "home" loosely here as it feels as if I've LEFT home in Mwadui! )

Please forgive me, everybody, for not letting on about our changed circumstances until now. I just had to knuckle down and get moving. Apart from the task of getting the cats out, I sold almost everything we owned in Mwadui. Since we knew we were leaving we attended one farewell after the other.

(And that was including the exciting weekend we had when the new trucks were commissioned! )

I'll post all about the emotions, heart-ache, laughter and tears as soon as we're all settled in back in Marquard. (Suffice to say, I broke down proper  this morning in the dark when I fondled Princess' ears and patted Nando to say goodbye!

 

Happy Saturday to you all.

Good fences, Good blogger!

I'm back on blogger after two days of searching for my own! Phew! Thanks to all who've helped me via e-mail. I've changed computers (more later about this beautiful new machine!). My son, Angus loaded my e-mails, Skype; I transferred all my zillions of photos and documents to an external hard drive. But I never thought I needed to know my username and password to log onto my own blog. Now I'm memorizing them both for future reference. 

A view of Dar Es Salaam Harbor from our hotel window

Pretty, isn't it?

We're finally back on site (those who know me, will also know that I LOVE returning home to Mwadui!) and had a wonderful reunion with our precious kitties and the pups.

Ginger dozes in the sun, after three weeks confinement inside the house! 

Shadow enjoys the sunshine and new grass 

Ambrose searches for any hapless lizards or bugs to pounce on !

As always, Regina and Mary looked after the cats very well. Ambrose has gained weight and is finally showing a certain maturity. Watch this space for when he posts on my blog over the weekend! Regina tells me that Ginger and Shadow got on very well while I was away. For those who missed my posts before I went on leave at the end of October, I was caught in the crossfire of a serious fight between these two male cats. The result was several nasty wounds on my calf. I'm fine now, BTW!

Then the reunion with the pups! Of course they've grown. And once they realized that I'd returned, they jumped up against the fence, clamoring to get out!

The pups at ten weeks! 

Princess proudly poses with her beautiful pups

Although they're weaned, the pups still try to suckle whenever they get a chance!

The pups explored every inch of our back garden on their first introduction to it!

Although the pups are of a mixed breed, and all have pointy faces, they are fat and healthy belying the fact that they're African dogs

Michael sits in the garden with me while Princess and her pups cavort all over the lawn

Back in their enclosure, the pups recharge their batteries for the next outing. Michael and I take them out for a romp on the lawn at least four times a day!

The time is fast approaching for me home these pups. I'm still working on my darling husband, (who doesn't know it, but is a pushover when it comes to animals!) to keep two -  and not only one - pup.

Meanwhile I'm linking this post to Good Fences Thursday. I also wish you all a wonderful Thursday. It's become good for me now that I'm back on blogger again!

Last Critter Party till we return

As this post is aired this morning, we'll be at the Mwanza airport checking our luggage onto the domestic flight to Dar Es Salaam. 

At 2.45 this afternoon we board the SA Airways to Johannesburg. Landing in Johannesburg at around 6.30 pm, we collect our luggage, and catch the shuttle to our regular overnight hotel. 

Tomorrow morning we take the first domestic flight to Bloemfontein where  we'll be met by our precious family and dear friend, Rina. A 160km road trip from the city to our home town of Marquard where we'll be greeted enthusiastically by the dogs and cats and then our holiday proper will begin. 

Meanwhile, I've joined Eileen's Saturday Critter Party while we're in transit!  

Earlier this week Grant and I were in Mwanza. He had his bridge fitted at the dentist. Afterwards we did our shopping at the supermarket and then it was time for lunch at Malaika Beach Resort on Lake Victoria. Of course, as always I wandered around with my camera and took photos of interesting critters and scenes.

 Common Sandpiper

Cormorants fishing 

 Lizard basking in the sun

The beautiful gardens on the lake shore at the hotel

 Isn't it pretty?

As usual on the way home Grant and I spotted many birds. And of course we didn't stop but an hour before our town, we saw a few donkeys with their young. Frank, our driver pulled over so that I could get a photo of the smallest donkey we have ever seen.

 Mama donkey and her very tiny foal

And finally a look at our pups we've left behind in Mwadui! They're in exceptionally good hands, as I said in yesterday's post, so I'm not concerned; I'm just going to miss them! 

 Princess and one of her little girls

 

Last day with the pups and kitties

Firstly, let me apologize for the wrong setting on my video in yesterday's post. I'm still learning the ropes but I went into settings and managed to change it from private to public.  

Here it is again!

Next, this is the day that we leave for our three-week holiday in South Africa. I'm always loathe to leave as it means three weeks without seeing our cats. But now there's an added sadness to my departure. I have to leave my pups who have filled my every waking hour (and many of my sleeping ones) with great pleasure for the past six weeks.

I know they're in good hands with Michael, Zechariah. Armani, Joshua and Regina caring for them. I know I've made arrangements for their four meals a day. I know that they're as healthy as any pup can be, but more so than any other pup in the country.

On Wednesday Michael and I administered worm meds to Princess and all the pups. This was so much easier than doing cats. I mean, it was because I was giving the cats worms meds last week, and I inadvertently stood on Ginger's tail. He yowled, Shadow attacked him and in trying to restore the peace I was caught in the crossfire. (Many of you know about my week-long treatment at the hospital and the agony of the twice daily double doses of antibiotic injections.)

 The worm medication for Princess (the bigger dog!) and the seven pups. In the center is the pack of worm tablets for our three cats. I asked the vet to send me extra for future use. I have to force the tablets down the cats' throats and this is where the trouble started last week!

The worm tabs arrived with friend, Louise who brought them from SA for me. I placed the  tablet on the rail running around the enclosure fence. The pups were jumping around excitedly; Michael went into the pen and picked up one pup, we fed it the tablet (I licked one, it tastes meaty - says the vegetarian, LOL) then he'd put the pup inside the hut and lock the door. This way we managed to do all the pups without confusion. Princess was easy too; she simply swallowed her meaty treat! 

 One nugget tablet to deworm one pup. Princess' tablet was about four times larger 

Michael holds the worm tablet which the pup chewed and swallowed

 The second pup gets hers, and so on until we'd done all seven

Once we'd done all seven pups, he let them out of the huts and they made a beeline for the water bowl. For the past week the pups have tipped their water over constantly. I brought out an empty ice-cream container, Michael placed a clean stone in it and filled it with water. 

Voila! (the water around the container is because they dribble!) 

On Thursday during our morning play on the lawn, I brought out the puppy, kitten, bird and pet mouse flea powder which I'd used on Princess all year. Michael applied powder to the backs of each pup and Princess avoiding their eyes, ears and mouths. 

The pups relax all around Michael while he applies flea powder!

As I said, the pups are healthy and clean; their meals are lined up in huge bins (the ugali and dog pellets) and on the kitchen shelf: the oats, milk powder and tinned dog meat; blankets and towels are available for night time. yes, the pups are in good hands while Mum Bibi is away from home. 

We're leaving for Mwanza (160kms away) just after lunch. We spend the night at a beautiful hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria. Tomorrow morning early we fly to Dar es Salaam. 

 Our flight between Mwanza on Lake Victoria, and Dar Es Salaam on the Indian Ocean

At 2.45pm we board South African Airways flight to Johannesburg. We sleep over in a beautiful hotel just a few minutes' drive from the airport. On Sunday morning early we catch the domestic flight to Bloemfontein. By 9am we touch down and we're met by our son Angus  his wife, Amanda, our two little grandchildren, Joel and Abbey and friend and house-sitter Rina. 

Till I connect with Blogger again from my home in South Africa I wish you all a wonderful weekend.