5:30am start. Excitement/1 bus and 1 daladala on which I was a passenger. Our 3 hour journey became 4 ½ hrs as we had missed the turn off and had gone through Dar. Arriving we were taken through the various landmarks related to the import and export of slaves then the cemetery/ Catholic Church/ Ivory Museum...Each one adding to my limited knowledge of this era. Such a sad waste of human life but a very real part of African history!
The girls were intense in their hunger for their history and visual detail. A prolonged lunch allowed us to sit and observe life in Bagamoyo until all of us were eventually fed........
Then we headed to the beach!
Almost all of the girls had never been to Dar es Salaam or the ocean/beach!
Sharing this amazing first has become an unforgettable experience for me. Overawed....some of the girls clung to my hands and couldn’t bring themselves to go into the water....another group hung back with me until they had watched the bold, brave ones run into the water immersing themselves in the warm, salty shallowness. Shrieks of fear became shrieks of delight. Eyes blazing, teeth flashing as their smiles remained fixed. Unexpected salty eyes were wiped clean by my damp skirt only to have them plunge back into the salty expanse!
They were soooo excited.
It was beyond comprehension for some of them to grasp the immensity of the ocean. The fishing boats intrigued some girls who struggled to understand the fact that these boats travelled way out into the blue beyond to capture simake for us to eat.
Thank you for your energies in organising the day Madam Grace. It will be etched forever in all of our memories.
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