Nevada Village

Well, once we decided to move, I had an entertaining week of looking at apartments and houses for rent, and poked around many neighbourhoods of Dar I might not have visited otherwise. It was lots of fun, and it seemed there are many vacant places in our price range, many of which would have been just fine, and all of which were much closer and more convenient! But it wasn’t until the end of the day, when we had almost decided on another place, that Peter, our agent showed me the Nevada apartments, completely in upheaval, but oh! the beach! the balcony! So that was that, and all that remained was negotiations about wire transfers and offshore accounts (they wanted the entire 6 months rent up front, as seems usual). The place was ready for us to move on the 14^th as  promised, and the landlords turn out to be very accommodating – we have some new furniture and the biggest, most embarrassing TV I have ever lived with!

Moving day was easy - except for saying good bye to Temius and Isaya...

And then of course, the rainy season, which is very late 

this year, decided to start just as 

we were driving up to the new place...

We are so happy to be here, not least because Lars walked to work on Friday, and it took him only 20 minutes (he got a little bit lost, so it should be faster next time). We revel in the views from our windows and the balcony...there is never a dull moment around here!

     One morning, this class of school children arrived by bus - a few minutes later, they were all down to their underwear, and frolicking in the water.

Most evenings there seems to be a pick up football game here, which we can watch from the little beach side bar on the other side - only problem with it is the litter scattered everywhere - where is Clean Nova Scotia's beach clean up when you want it?

These fishermen seem to go out at all hours

Always working...

View from the balcony (including laundry)

We inherited some lovely plants, including lots of these "Mexican Hat Plants" which remind me of my school at home.

And it seems that, like most neighbourhoods in Dar es Salaam, we have a truly terrible road leading in - this pothole right by the Old Bagamoyo road is capable of swallowing a car like ours! However, it seems that there is some work going on, and a rumour is going around that the road may be paved - I will miss this pothole!

So, it seems that Lars and I are very happily ensconced here and our daily life has become infinitely less stressful. It is all helped along by the existence of a little gym for Lars, and a small pool where I have been swimming twice daily...also by the fact that there is a rather nice international community living within these walls. There is a flotilla of small, naked children who descend on the pool everyday (mostly Danish), and people from Ireland, Congo, France, Sweden and Tanzania who live in the other apartments. 


Today, I venture out to visit a secondary school where I am volunteering my time. Of course the school year is winding down here (something I had forgotten about), so it may be that I will be more useful come January.