The Weekly Sneak: The Mnazi Operation.

Yaani, sometimes when The World's Best Housekeeper tells me stories from Uswazi! See, what happened was:

This past Eid (ul Fitr I think it was), a car full of Indian Tanzanians showed up at her local mnazi* tapper's house. There is only so much palm wine a palm wine provider can tap in a given day, so we're talking about finite supplies here. Well, these gentlemen came with a pick-up truck and bought her entire supply to the immense annoyance of her regular customers. They were left high and dry, stuck with lesser forms of alcoholic entertainment over a long weekend. They made their displeasure known to their friend, neighbor, and palm-wine tapper. 

So guess what happened this past Easter Weekend? Hehe. Pick up truck, cash in hand, wheeeee! Two whole days' supply of palm wine was whisked away by our enterprising gentlemen who clearly know a good deal when they see one. TWBH tells me lips were dragging on the floor the whole weekend in her hood, and dire warnings issued to the palm wine tapper. I couldn't stop laughing. 

This is Dar es Salaam. We celebrate everyone's public holiday (although we really need to do a bit better with Diwali). We live in each other's pockets. We even know how to appropriate each others' palm wine. Jamani, religious strife? Wapi na wapi?

"We’re a resource-rich country with obvious stress points. Try as it might, the Congo still can’t get rid of its infestation of predators. They’re right next door. How much more of a cautionary tale do we need? I can’t bring myself to imagine that we would be so stupid as to fall into the trap of religious strife with barely a poke and a push in that direction. The ability to resist provocation is a fine skill that we have honed over the years, it is clearly time for us to pull it out of storage and put it to good use."