My last day in Tanga

Wait a second, I’m supposed to leave this place tomorrow? I’ve always known how time loses all meaning in this town as I’m sure it does in many African towns... but I never expected to find myself scrambling like this with only a day left in Tanga before my big tour to South Africa. I had so many good intentions of writing about life in this dusty town and tracking my progress in learning Kiswahili. Instead, I’ve spent too many days wandering the markets with Saumu tracking down everything she needs for boarding school. I’ve spent lazy afternoons drawing flowers, henna designs, animals and greeting cards with Saumu, Rachael and Asia. I’ve visited my friends homes, been welcomed for meals, washed all my clothes by hand every Sunday, learned how to cook a few local dishes, cried with friends in the hospital, practiced Kiswahili with locals, tried to navigate the messy web of lies and scare tactics in my mission to help Saumu, and then wasted an hour every night trying to numb and subdue my racing thoughts with endless games of spider solitaire so I can sleep in the stifling heat.

I’ve made rough plans for the next few days... I’ll take a very early bus on Saturday morning from Tanga to Dar es Salaam, then catch an afternoon ferry to Zanzibar for the Sauti za Busara music festival. I’ve got a reservation at a small guesthouse, which may or may not have electricity or running water now that the entire island is without power - and many smaller hotels, without generators. I’ve heard that the place does have back-up generators, and I’ve hear that they don’t. In any case, I’m bringing my headlamp and a few candles. In the worst case scenario , I can always search for another place to stay when I’m there (though accommodation was looking scarce when I was making phone calls earlier this week :S) or, take a ferry back to Dar es Salaam and stay at the beach hotel outside the city where I’m meant to meet my African Trails tour on Wednesday. In Zanzibar, I’ll be staying in the exotic Stone Town – not quite the white sand beaches I’ve been to on the island before, but I am hoping to get in one day of diving at the nearby islands, take in a day of shopping (and copious amounts of coffee) and take in a bit of this music festival. That should probably use up most of my 3 full days there!

I’m sad to be leaving my friends in Tanga, but happy that I’ve resolved the problems I came here to deal with. I haven’t been able to solve the world’s problems by any means, but I have been able to provide one girl with a high level of education and a safe living environment, and helped cover school fees and uniform costs for her sister as well. I’ll be posting details soon on exactly HOW the small amount of money I spent was able to cover so much and the steps I had to go through to get Saumu into a boarding school... For now I have a lot of difficult goodbyes to say...