We're still playing the waiting game here in Tanzania. For our container, our visas and our car ... believe me if any of those had been resolved you would probably hear the celebrations from all corners of the world!
In the meantime, we are making do ... quite successfully really! We are surrounded by wonderful new friends, who not only made us welcome on our arrival just over four months ago but have also proved to be lifesavers in lending us all manner of things from their pyrex dishes and muffin trays, chairs and duvets, to children's toys ... and even their cars.
While we have no vehicle of our own right now, for the next couple of days at least, we are actually going to be a two-car-family because of the generosity of others. One family have put off selling their car in order to lend it to us and another is on home assignment, having a little baby for a couple months.
We have been so grateful for the use of the smaller car for three of the four months that we've been here. To give us the freedom to come and go as we please, rather than relying on lifts for everything as we had to at the beginning. Now we will have the use of the bigger one and will be able to travel further afield and over much less forgiving terrain which is all too common out here.
Life here in Dodoma, especially among the ex-pat/missionary community, thrives on lending things backwards and forwards. It's just how it is. Everybody arrives here without a lot of the things we take for granted back in our home countries. We all appreciate the comforts that we have left behind and so, for the most part, we make sure we share what we have here. I already have an advance mental list of things to lend people, of items that are in the container once it actually makes it here!
While we haven't been put in a position where we've had to beg for anything, borrowing has become second nature to us. We have yet to resort to stealing ... however if a car doesn't become available for us to buy over the next couple of months, it might cross our minds to mislay the car keys of the big car we're currently borrowing when it's owners return! (Only joking!!!)
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