Best laid plans

Well it was all pretty simple on paper. The car arrives on the 1^st, as do we. We run down to the Tanzanian Revenue Authority (TRA) office get our Tax Identification Number (TIN.) After getting a TIN and being on the books we just let our booking agent do his magic and we would have our new Hilux Surf imported from Japan in 5 days at the worst 7 days!!!

Today is the 14^th and we just got the car last night at 10:00pm. GREAT we have a car! Wait a minute yes the TRA and port have been on holiday for 5 days straight and our paperwork was submitted on the 1^st, and our vessel sat off shore for 5 days, But we still can’t drive the car! Apparently the TRA is updating “their system” and no one knows when they will be printing registration cards again! Bloody Hell, updating a system. No warning, no backup plan, no alternate method… Well we hope an alternate method is still available.  We have approached a few people to ask if they could point us in the right direction to bribe someone. Apparently our paperwork is too far into the straightforward process to be retrieved. So here we wait for the TRA. (Update, our broker is going into work today trying to "persuade" someone to get us our registration.)

Funny thing about doing business here is that the government agencies and services are small, and the good thing is the agencies are small. I called the TRA which is equivalent to our IRS. I got a human to answer the phone, who not only politely took my call, but when he didn’t have the answer about when the “update” would be completed he offered to call me back with the answer. Guess what? He called me back and had an answer! The answer of “we hope Friday”, I think is a complete stab in the dark answer, but I am still blown away that he called me back.

You may notice that I use quotation around update. I am skeptical and intrigued on what system they have in place to update or what new functions this update will have. Carbon copies and pen and paper are still King here. When I got my TIN from the TRA office they had a dozen people and nearly as many lines to stand in but only one computer. My TIN certificate did come from a computer and the last line I stood in was the line with the computer, so I assume my information did make it to some database, but I wouldn’t be surprised if an extra copy was printed and some guy with a big ledger book was writing the information.

We have a brutal case of Cabin fever and want out of the city big time. Today I had a driver take me to the intersection of Libya Street and Mosque to shop for our kit of the car. Today’s outing helped break some of the ground hog day feeling and gave me some more confidence in navigating the city. I bought a Hi-lift jack, new spanner wrench, jumper cables, fuses, oil filter, jerry can and tow rope. There are no Shucks or O’Reilly’s in Dar, but they have Libya Street. The entire street was automotive part dealers. Every shop was a specialty shop, and had only about 10’ of street front. Want an oil filter?  Go to the guy with oil filters.  Don’t expect to find anything but oil filters. You need a jack? Maybe see the guy with tires? Nope only tires. You need to find the guy with tools. Actually the guy with the jack also carried Land Rover parts, but no wrenches.

 playing age of mythology

Entrance to the Tanzanian National Museum

Despite the wait, we are very excited about the Surf. My first look at the car was in the dark, but it looked like we picked out a good a car. I drove the car 100 meters and was excited by the performance. Ah just joking, but eminent failure didn’t seem too likely. When I got back in the room, Kelly was so excited that she said she wanted to get to sleep quickly like on Christmas Eve.

In the morning before breakfast the whole fam damily got a good look at the new rig. Name is still pending till we hit the road. The entertainment system looks real impressive but since everything is written in Japanese we are a bit clueless. We had a user manual for a dvd/cd/TV player, but we couldn’t figure out where and how to put in a disc. We thought maybe it was stolen, but it looked like everything was in place. George found the one button that is actually in English “open.” Years ago when Sean was learning computers faster than me he gave me great advice or maybe it was a critique. He said “you don’t push enough buttons”. George is gutsy about most things including electronics. We can’t get the DVD to play yet, but we know where to put the disc. When the car starts up we get a nice greeting in Japanese from the automated toll paying system. I assume it is nice, because it is a more pleasant thought than someone reminding you that you owe the toll company, and besides she sounds real nice. I am going to need to remove that, I see down the road in a moment of frustration the Japanese voice gets stuck on a loop, or as we are trying to sneak away from Zombies she will perk up and blow our cover. You never know about these things.

Original Museum building built in 1940 and dedicated King George V.

Concerning the car! It is immaculate and pristine. The jack and spanner look like they have never been used. The engine and underneath the car is spotless and looks like it has never been off the tarmac. At 90,000 km, it is still a 2001 baby. The interior is SPOTLESS. Our boys will foul this car in no time, but it feels good to know someone took such good care of the vehicle.

My driver today Jumani was a very nice guy who was proud of his city and very helpful. He was blown away that a place existed where the winter days are short and the temperature may not get above 5 centigrade about 40 F. I didn’t think I could convince him that much of the country doesn’t get above 0 C for many months, besides I was talking about Seattle. He also asked if we had “fly overs” which after some conversation I determined he was talking about Highways. He was really excited to hear that we have roads bigger than 4 lanes and we can drive 110 km/hr.

The people here love children and go out of their way to say “mambo” (local hello) or “jambo” (tourist hello) or “hello.” Our boys, not used to the attention, stare blankly and freeze up. Henry is actually coming out of his shell and actually just mature enough to handle the attention and reply nicely. Just think about going to a restaurant at the states. How often does the wait staff stop what they are doing come over get down at the kids level with a big smile and say hello. Me and Kelly love and appreciate it, but it is a bit odd for the boys.  Side note: Henry got up the courage today to get a room key from the front desk by himself.  Later the lady who helped him said how polite he was and that he looked just like the kid from Home Alone.  Now it’s official.

We saw monkeys today at the botanical garden next to our hotel. The garden was started by the Germans at the beginning of the 20^th century. The park overall at first glance is a little under whelming, but some of the specimens especially the Madagascar Palm are amazing. We hit the National Museum which was very nice, but only took about an hour to go through the entire museum.  Incredibly, nothing is protected in the museum and George made a point of touching every bit of history he could.

Mysterious bite that Benadryl solved. It was big enough that I circled it to see if it was growing.

So here’s to hoping we have a registered vehicle come Friday.  But as we’re learning it will probably be Monday, or Tuesday....at midnight.