Toodle-Loo

I could tell you my adventures, beginning from this morning... but its no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
~ Alice in Wonderland

kwaheri and asante sana

xxx

~ hibiscus

"If I know a song of Africa...does Africa know a song of me?"

One is pregnant, one is in love, one is famous (just about) and one is getting married.

As for me? I am leaving...not yet, but soon...following the swallows down South...back to my friends and family.

We have decided it is time to say goodbye to our blog...it seems so long ago that we where at Desert Rose's house excitedly putting together the 1st post and drinking bubbles to celebrate!

Much has happened...life has happened.

But there is no doubt in my mind that there will be laughed, talked, cried, gossiped and mused over many a glasses of wine in the near and not so near future with these girls.

You have all touched my heart and dusty Dar has changed me...

It has been nearly two years and my obsession with Karen Blixon shows no signs of leaving me!

So I think it fitting to end my last post on Mangotree Musings with a quote from my favourite Out of Africa.

In the final chapters when she has to except that her fate is to leave her beloved Africa she writes: "It was then, from hour to hour, a lesson in the art of living in the moment, or, it might be said, in eternity, wherein the actual happenings of the moment make but a little difference."

For my last months, in I will be living in the moment, or, it might be said, in eternity, in Dar...

Andizi

Time to say goodbye

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It is never easy to say goodbye to anyone, anything, anywhere....

But sadly the time has come that we have to say good bye to our friends of Mangotree Musings.

We are slowly being reduced to only two musers left in Dar es Salaam (at the end of May dear Andizi will make her way back to the bright and sunny SA)
Thanks for all the love, comments and support - we had a lot of fun telling you about our journeys, adventures and tit bits of a place that we all love.

All the best for 2011 - it's gonna be a good one!
Till next time!

~desert rose~

T'is the season

Two of my favourite things about Dar are in season:

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1.  Mangoes

Best eaten in the pool or in the bath - they are juicy and messy but well worth the threads stuck in your teeth afterwards!

Please note: you have to buy them from the fruit guy with the basket bicycle by the side of the road - they just taste better than the ones from Shoppers.  And because I am a regular with old John, he often rewards me with a "gifty" - usually an extra banana.  Best bananas and best mangoes in the world...even named our blog after the glorious mango tree and myself after the humble nzidi!

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2.  Flame trees

The intense orange cloud of flowers just bring me joy every time I see one!  It is one of the prettiest things about Dar and makes me want to rush out, buy paint and clumsily try and capture it...which would be impossible (Because I cannot paint and it is just too beautiful).  So instead, when ever I drive past a flame tree I just...smile! 

Two of the things that make the unmerciful summer heat in Dar a little more bearable.

Andizi

2011 Here I Come!

This year can ONLY be better than last year! 
So I am kicking it off being positively positive...
To full glasses! (and hopefully they are full of wine!)

Andizi

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.....

Seeing that we all away and trotting the globe for the next couple of weeks, we'd like to wish everybody a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and an exceptionally good NEW YEAR!

All the best and more from the Musers in the New Year!

Love is all around!

My little sister is getting married in 8 days time.  I am home and things are crazy but we are deliriously excited!
Just because planning a wedding was not enough (!), she and two friends hosted the first ever craft market in Ceres the weekend I arrived from Dar.  Everything was just so pretty!
And very fittingly...Love was all around! ;-)

All the lovely pictures where taken by Jomeri - Luv Photography (+27833932502)

Andizi

Plastic in the ocean

People can sometimes make weird and stupid choices.

Like for instance: yesterday was a public holiday in Tanzania (Independence Day I think?) and we all sat, sunscreened-up, hats on, drinks ice cold and geared for a mean booze cruise on the tender boat on our way to Dhow Junkie, our friends awesome dhow.

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All of a sardine the engine of the tender boat stopped and cut out completely....... We all looked at each other, oih, dhow is out thhhheeerrrreeeeee and the beach is a good swim away. There were murmurs about plastic wrapped around the engine .... and low and behold, as the "captain" lifted up the  engine, there was a  huge 50kg mieliemeal bag wrapped around it.

No problems, hakuna matata..... He just unwrapped it and unceremoniously chucked it right back into the ocean. I mean OH MY SOUL!!!! Was that necessary? Ready for the next guy to get stuck I guess.
Worst thing is that I couldn't get a word out to SCOLD this old guy for what he just did and the bag drifted away slowly.

I must say, I am pretty disgusted at the best of times with these Tanzanians dirty way of dealing with their rubbish. If you are looking to make good money quickly - start a rubbish plant somewhere and clean up this town. (not a nice job, but you'll make millions, because everyone will pay you to do it!)
Currently their reason for throwing plastic bottles, cartons etc out the windows of the dala dalas (taxis) is because it creates work for someone else. For GOODNESS SAKE!

Where's: Zip dit in 'n Zippy Blik! Hie hie!

Try and teach the people around you about cleaning up. We must start somewhere.

~desert rose~

The Race at Sunrise...or not...

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Every morning in Africa,

a gazelle wakes up.

It knows that it must run

faster than the fastest lion.

Or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up.

It knows that it must out run the slowest gazelle.

Or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion

or a gazelle; when the sun comes up

You had better be running

That is an African Parable. 

According to the above, Dar es Salaam is very un-African, because around here, people are rarely in a hurry and even more rarely running...except for the Masai...but that is not the point as they don't operate the business centers.  The culture around here is very much of the procrastination kind - "hamna shida, kesho" (no worries, tomorrow)!

But I can't really blame them  - if I lived in a place where I didn't need shelter from the cold, I could do a little fishing everyday and when I walk home a paw-paw falls on my head (tada, salad!) - who would want to run anywhere?  Let's rather...DANCE!  Yeah!

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Andizi

Mangotree musers moving up in the world

You guys might remember Hibiscus who delighted us with her quirky and delish recipes! Soon after leaving the craziness of Dar for the bright lights of Cape Town Hibiscus is already making a name for herself. Profiled on Spatula Magainze's 'We like your style' section and her work featured with a recipe for yummy Christmas icecream! And really..with that smile...how can she fail? We wish you the best for the future Hibiscus!

~maisha