December Madness

So the long awaited December break (or should I say life re-evaluation period) has arrived for most people and its with mixed feelings that I embrace this one.

There is essentially something wrong with the fact that we yearn for these blissful two(or if you are lucky three) weeks of peace, where work and its issues are but a distant memory, for the whole year just to start the process all over again as the clock strikes 00:01 on the 1st of January. Is this the life we are meant to live?

It was literally an exodus of expats the morning we flew back to SA, even Desert Rose and her beautiful family was there. The mood was jubilant as we returned to the 'Hom' land. I mean we have spent a whole year complaining, and reminiscing over the 'braai vleis vuur' about the pros of SA and the cons of TZ and this was the happy return.

But as they scan your temperature for swine flu and you wait for immigration to stamp your passport the striking differences between SA and TZ is already apparent at the threshold of entry.

You are not greeted by a friendly 'jambo, habari ya leo?' (hello how is your morning) but instead your friendly 'morning' is ignored. Granted we are lucky in TZ that there is only one official language (kiswahili) where SA is blessed with (is it?) 11. So where do you start to build kinship with your fellow countrymen? Learn 9 languages? Can work.

Driving back from dinner with friends I can't help but compare the feeling of literal fear(hijacking, armed robbery, horrific accidents) with the feeling of peace I had a week ago walking down a deserted african street alone, at 12 at night after dinner with a friend to find my electric windows stolen(we are trying to buy them back, its not the windows itself but the motor that powers them) The car was still there, the door neatly closed and only my windows and expensive organic muesli (which will probably end up as chicken feed) gone.

I am probably oversensitive, almost like a tourist but I still like feeling safe at night without electric fencing, three dogs, alarm system, armed response AND a paintball gun loaded with Kevlar and pepper spray bullets.

So although I have not left the shops (catching up on year without shopping) and love spending time with my family I already miss the peace of my second home and the friendliness of her people.

~maisha