Old Bangers
August 22nd, 2007
Three vehicles - all 4x4 due to there being no roads to speak of, all over 20 years old - sods law dictates that all 3 will break down at the same time! The petrol land rover, obtained at great expense in Dar 6 months ago no longer has any body work to speak of and has to be driven in differental due to the front cam-shaft having fallen off somewhere in the bush. is now stuck outside the airstrip 14 kms away. The diesel landy, bought on Ebay in May 2006 and stored in Erith until October then shipped to Dar and stored at the harbour whilst we argued that a 22 year old land rover bought for £900 in the UK could not possibly be worth $50,000 and warrent taxes of $12,000 dollars, eventually made it to Mafia and promptly decided that it didn't like going off road and went into a sulk and now refuses to move. Lastly the Suzuki Samarai, bought from friends in Dar, lovely nippy little thing, can't be driven during the dry season - it gets stuck in sand, all the roads are sand...........................This morning i needed to go to town, i sailed, by Dhow, not romantic, WET and sloooooooooooooooow, and the money had not arrived despite the transfer having been put in place 10 days ago - it's been a very bad day, to cap it all we had a letter from the District Commisioner (a non-political position) asking for a $200 donation for the ruling party so they could hold an election meeting. They want the money today - i haven't got any money - 'you are european, all europeans have money', 'we have no money in our account, it hasn't arrived', 'when will you have money', 'when the bank decides to accept the transfer', this could run for a while!!!