Home Stretch

Just one day left on the line, then it's homeward bound.  I hope.  There's always that little bit of "what if" that could send plans awry, but I'm hopeful.  Nothing is for sure.  Even returning.  What to leave and what to take is always a concern, and as I now have a guitar, a mountain bike, snorkelling gear, hangars (you can't buy 'em here!), a variety of toiletries you can't get locally, a tea kettle and coffee press, bags of coffee from Mombasa, tons of granola bars and electrolyte mixes, bug spray and medicines, soccer gear and cycling gear, flying gear, going out stuff,  swimming stuff, hiking stuff, and a myriad of odds and ends collected after two and a half years of the same posting (despite a few forays up into Kenya), you get to the point where you just have to walk away from some of it.  It all depends on how confident you are of returning.  After this tour I'm not too sure I want to, and I've made it known.  After making this place a second home new blood has brought about changes that are rather silly in my opinion, and my options as I see it are to smile and accept the new order, or request a change and hope there are other opportunities.  I've not yet had responses to my queries so I'm pondering how to pack....

I've been spending more time at the "rustic" Msemo, a popular restaurant/hotel situated on the beach, with an enviable vantage point allowing one to watch the sun rise or set among gently swaying palms, as heavy offshore support vessels chug past, small fishing dhows with home made plastic sails navigate the shallow channels, or timeless dug out canoes, as often as not in from dynamiting the gorgeous reefs of Tanzania's coast, glide past riding the tidal currents.  It is a very far cry from our accommodations, the Laso View, oft referred to as "soul sucking", situated in the heart of town, across from a noisy truck yard and a Muslim school, with thee loudest speakers in East Africa (blasting a prayer presently!), now so much the better (sarcasm) with security concerns raised by paranoid newcomers thinking we need to be living in a compound not unlike our Nigerian counter parts.  Hanging out at the Msemo is a nice break.  Ah, but enough whining.....back to packing.