Mtwara, Tanzania

I visited Mtwara this week and was pleased to discover this part of Tanzania.
Mtwara is in the South of Tanzania and it is far more developed than I imagined it would be.

If you have followed news on Tanzania recently, you may have seen that cashew nuts was in the news a lot. The nuts are mostly produced between Mtwara and Lindi. As we drove here, there were cashew trees all over. There are big cashew farms. Surprisingly, all the Tanzanians I was travelling with had never eaten cashew, only the nuts. Tanzania is one of the biggest producers of cashew nuts in Africa and it adds a percentage to their foreign exchange.

Nigeria's ban on potaotes

I walked into KFC Asokoro at lunch time yesterday, it happens to be the closest place to buy food to my place of work. I asked for fries but the ladies behind the counter pointed at a notice and it read something like “due to government policies, we cannot sell fries at the moment”. I asked what the policy was and they reminded me of the ban on certain imports. I burst out laughing and asked almost rhetorically, why local potatoes were not good enough to be used.

I looked at the menu wondering what else I could have, then I asked for a zinger burger but was told again that there were no burgers. I was shocked this time and asked rhetorically again, if Nigeria lacked bread. I asked the ladies what they had to offer and was told rice and chicken. I was in no mood to eat rice, fries were top on my list as I had not had any in such a long time! I thanked the ladies for their time and I left KFC for another place that had fries and are happy to work with what is produced locally, but that left me literally in shock and I spent the whole day wondering.

 

A day in traffic

On my way home one day, the whole place started to darken.

A storm was on the way.

It started lashing down, the heavy downpour was the heaviest in a few weeks.

The street hawkers ran for shelter under a bridge

But a few remained hawking right there in the rain

I saw someone buying a drink from a guy who was completely soaked.

The person rolled down his glass just enough to take the drink and took the glass up so quickly.

I could see the rain pouring but like I was not convinced, I rolled my glass down just a little and the rain slapped me to wind up quickly. And as is normal with rain, traffic slows down due to poor visibility.