Time for another episode from my car story...

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As I mentioned, I was supposed to have been on this sexuality training all week, but already ended up travelling from Kunduchi on the North beach twice into town, missing 2 half days. But didn't want to leave the car any longer in the port, as I had to pay port fees for every day it is parked there and it's been in there by far too long already! Also, I can’t start with the road licence registration process until the car is out of the port.
So I first went on Monday afternoon, when I had to identify the car with a customs inspector (a bit like going to the morgue and identifying a dead body...). It was so nice finally seeing it after almost 3 months! It's physically here and from what I could see at this stage it looked like most of my things were still inside! Just everything very dusty - a side window was open and the battery flat (so the electric window couldn't close), but hey, better than I had expected...
From the conversation I had with Roselyn beforehand, I was silly enough to think, I could actually get the car shortly after identifying it. But that turned out not to be the case, as some other formalities had to happen again! Paperwork should have been done the next day, they said... By Wednesday lunchtime I finally got the call from Roselyn, to come the port again and pay the port fees. So I headed back into town again (at midday it takes a good hour with 2 dala-dalas to get from the North beaches, where Kunduchi is located to town, so not too bad!). The port office was an interesting experience as well - different feel to it than the customs office, but similarly chaotic and antiquated! Just like there, clerks are behind big glass windows, desks with massive piles of papers and one ancient PC in the whole office with 20 people. I wonder how they manage to find anything in there at all or in what order the do things (if they actually do anything...). So my agent finally got to the paying-in counter after an hour. There wasn't really a queue in the classic sense, just a crowd of clearing agents trying to push to the front. So I handed over my bundles of notes to the man from Malai Freight Forwarders (despite the hefty port fees for storing the car still significantly less than the import duty). Then I was assured, I'll get the car within 2 hours. So I waited all afternoon with finally being told in the end, the port authority can't find the car keys! - They were there on Monday, when we did the identification... Aaargh! So it was back to Kunduchi again by dala-dala, tired and hungry (I skipped lunch to get to the port as quickly as possible). As it was rush hour the trip took now a good 2 hours, so I arrived back there well after dark, just in time for dinner at least.

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Photos

Port of Dar Es Salaam
My car is in this parking lot, but I can't get it yet!