Saturday, February 9, 2013

Dar es Salaam and Amsterdam


The eight of us are now in the DAR airport, Julius Nyerere International.  It is nearly 10 PM and boarding should start in about an hour for 11:59 PM departure.

Yesterday was a productive day.  The Pharms went to Muhimbili University’s School of Pharmacy.  They met with the outgoing and incoming deans for a mutually beneficial meeting.  I don’t know the language, but they did talk about capsule manufacture and pill making.  Or something.

Now Tessa and I really had fun!  We went to Power Foods where Plumpy’Nut is manufactured.  It is a small factory with stainless steel machines in a couple rooms where we could peer in, but not enter.  The workers wear special clothes, etc.  Most of the space is actually warehouse for the twenty tons of Plumpy’Nut they manufacture each week.  Twenty tons! 

They do make a couple other products, mostly special flours, but the real deal is the Plumpy’Nut.

Kulwa, our driver, patiently waited.  After our exhilarating tour, we picked up the rest of the group.  We still had a couple hours before dinner so we asked Kulwa to take us to the beach for a while.  He took us to Coco Beach, well known as a classy place.  It was.  We sat ocean-side and sipped a cool one.  It’s only an expression.  Kiswahili is “baridi.”  They warmed up pretty quickly in the heat.  We still had a great time.  Some walked the beach for a time then we sat in the cool shade.

Dinner was with Dr. Saga and his three sons, Grey, Fadhili and Godfrey.  Grey works for USAID, so we had a great talk.

This morning, we went to Slipway and caught the ferry to Bongoyo Island.  It has beautiful beaches and some nice little bandas, loungers and chairs.  We had lunch there too.  It was tasty, but we did need to hurry to catch our boat back to the mainland.  A couple of people who should know better got pretty burned today.  Despite the fact they did use sunscreen, the Tanzanian sun bested them.  I cannot tell you their names, but their initials are Ken and Laura.  Amazingly, the others did fairly well.

We went to Sea Cliff Hotel and ate at the restaurant Karambezi Café.  It has become more or less a tradition to do that.  It is so nice to sit in the open and look out at the ocean.  The food was good.  Several desserts were had and enjoyed.

And now we are waiting to board KLM flight 567.

Amsterdam

Arrived in Amsterdam and ready to board the flight home.  Slept a little.  Off to the gate.  Don't want to miss this one!


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