I'm quite happy to stay on the farm & rarely leave it. Especially during this 2 month school holiday break. But, I cannot do this anymore because I am a mother and I feel I have to make the effort to get out more (!!) for my daughter's sake. So this holiday we have been to South Africa for 3 weeks, have had a few local trips into a nearby town and have had friends out with young children to play. But I was avoiding a trip to "The Big City" like the plague. Until last week, that is. My husband had to go in to collect bags for the beans - he was going in the farm Landcruiser pick-up (always an uncomfortable ride compared to my luxurious Landcruiser Prado - ha !) & I thought well, why not ? Justin also needed to get off the farm for a while ... heck, we could all do with a day out so we all piled into the pick-up early in the morning and headed off to the big city smoke. In the photo above you can see Justin sitting on the back just as we were leaving the farm (necessary to stop people pulling shopping off the back in the 'dodgier' parts of the city) ...
So, this is what the city looks like (above). The white building in the centre of this photo is a typical Tanzanian "supermarket" (Sainsbury's it ain't !) where I do most of my dry goods shopping ... people live in the upstairs flats on either side, & you can usually see all their washing hanging out here to dry. (This is the main street, by the way - tarred a few years ago - used to have terrible potholes.)
When in the city, we usually meet friends for lunch at a restaurant or at their home/s. We had lunch with friends last week in their cool, leafy, suburban garden (pictured above). It's a social event for Justin too, who gets to eat lunch with our friend's house staff who are all friends of his - he also gets to catch up on some of the city gossip (& flirt with the smart city girls - although he always denies it !)
This is us parked at our final stop at the end of the day ... around 5 pm and just about to head back out to the farm. It's at a hotel on the edge of town (final toilet stop before hitting the long +- 2 hour road home !) You can see all the bean bags which Justin is sitting on ... 3 coolerboxes, baskets of veggies & fruit and endless boxes of dry goods are all stored underneath/alongside ! We usually get in just after dark and I then have a huge job on my hands as no matter how exhausted I am, I have to put all the fruit & veg away in the fridge and get meat and perishables into the fridges/freezers after it's been sitting in coolerboxes all day. But Justin is there to help me, thankfully !I always bring extra fresh fruit, veg & bread back for the house/garden/security staff, along with Kiswahili newspapers, so that they can catch up on the latest local news, and everyone is usually excitedly waiting for our return and all the news from our day in 'The Big City', no matter how late we return the house is always ready for us .... lights on, curtains drawn, dogs & cats fed and hot water for baths. Which makes it even nicer to return home at the end of a busy day. I wouldn't swap my life for the world, honestly ! (Although a Sainsbury's just 'round the corner would be nice !)
