May, 2018.
Maria is such a different Tanzanian. At least totally different of all the others I have met since my arrival. She is polite and very distinguished, her English is pretty good (and she just learnt by herself as me) and she is very cultural and has the knowledge about it, you know, the life. She has a twin sister, another sister and then triplet sisters. I met then in my first day here and they are quite like her: very smart and with good thoughts about life and the world and mainly, about being a woman in this patriarchal world. I was so happy to meet them and to have at least a small hope about the future of Tanzania, because even if are just the three of them, four with Maria, they can make the difference.
I decided to go to the port in the next day. I am so concerned about the whole thing that I knew I would not be able to go around town, doing a tourist thing, without to know before how could I get a way to Madagascar. After asking here and there, a police officer offers to another police officer give me a lift to the port by motorcicle. Cool!
I first talk with a nice man called Thomas and he try to help me as much as he could. We go to talk with another man in charge but unfortunately his boats do not have a route to Madagascar. Actually, they both explain to me that finding a boat going directly to Madagascar would be quite not possible, I would have to first reach Comoros and from there, to try another boat to Madagascar.
Next step would be trying to talk with the responsible for the ferries going to Zanzibar and try to arrange my place on it for free. Thomas arrange someone to walk with me until that man’s office and make my entrance possible, of course, but unfortunately he is not around anymore. I should come back at Monday and try again.
Next plan it is try to talk with the responsible for cargo ships to Comoros but I would have to do it in secret, because they are not allowed to take regular people (and even more white people) as crew. After waiting for a while, finally a man come to see me: Maurid Rashid. He tells me that there is a passenger ship to Comoros but I would have to buy a ticket. After explaining my situation to him he suggests we would go together to the Comoros Embassy and try something called “complementary letter” which, supposedly, would allow me to take the boat without need to pay. I took his number with the plan of calling him on Monday and arrange our meeting at the Embassy. I come back to give the news to Thomas and ask him what he think about it. We decide it is a good idea and in last case, if it does not work, we would try to talk with local workers and try to put me in a sail boat.
While coming back I ask to some boda-boda about the location of the Comoros Embassy. One of them give me the directions, quite easy from where we are, but I decide to not check because I am so tired and also it is just a few minutes away from getting dark and I wish to reach Maria’s house before that.
Monday morning I call Maurid and we make an appointment to 10 o’clock in front of the Embassy. I am sure that I could find so I just walk to the place and start to looking for. I arrive a few minutes before ten so if it was in there I would have managed. If it was in there. I start to ask around about it but no one seems to know anything about it. Weirdly, some of them do not even knew about Comoros itself but I start to think that if the Embassy was around, some one should know the location. You see, there are a few Embassies around, so I presumed…
After getting some nice help from a tuck-tuck driver, who makes some phone call to try to help me and a Indian guy (Indians are the best!), from this lovely supermarket (Food Lovers), who ask everybody around and make some researches in his phone, he tells me would be better going and ask at the Uganda Embassy, just a few metres ahead.
Once in there, I luckily talk with a nice man who knows the almost precisely location where the real Comoros Embassy is: just half a hour from Maria’s house. Yeah, I am that “lucky”. So he toell me about the street where I suppose to go and luckily I had checked the map before so I know that street in specific. In my way back I admit that I cried a little bit because I was really sad. But then I try to think positively, that might had be a reason for all of that happen to me, or even if not, at least being sad would not change anything or make things better.
I am tired, thirsty and starving but I decide that the best thing to do would find the Embassy that same day and try to make another appointment with Maurid for the next morning.
After finally finding the correct place I try to call Maurid but the call is very bad and he says he would call me later. But he does not. To not bother Maria again asking for her phone, I decide to go alone to the Embassy next morning. Once in there, after explaining my situation to two people, I finally talk with a nice old man, called Mr. Salim, and he puts me in the presence of the Ambassador while he explains the situation for me. The “complementary letter” used to be a kind of Visa in the past, which allowed people to go inside of the country but it had nothing to do with the transportation and they do not use anymore. Nowadays is all about the Visas: the transit Visa (which I thought I could use for a few days and do not needed to pay) is just for a few hours remaining inside the Airport and the tourist Visa is valid per one month but I would need to pay. What they would try to do it is talking with people from the capital of Comoros, Moroni, and see if they get a tourist Visa free of charge for me. I would have to wait one more day to have the answer.
To make it shorter: when I call Mr. Salim next morning, he tells me there is no way that I could get the Visa without paying. I say I appreciate all the help he gave to me but since I could not afford a Visa for a country which I would not visit and had not a place to stay, I could not go.
Making the decision of giving up of Madagascar it is hard. Even more because I already had a nice place to stay there. The plan now would be going to Mozambique and then, maybe from there, trying again go to Madagascar since it looks more possible to get a direct boat.
I am now waiting for a positive answer from the Workaway and Couchsurfing hosts in Mozambique. I sent four messages and until now I have just got one negative answer. Maria says it is not a problem if I need stay for longer because she is enjoying my company but I do not want to abuse of her hospitality. If I do not find a place to stay over there, I might get in trouble and a little lost.
P.S.: I visit the city centre a little bit but I just did not enjoy. Maybe I was not in the mood because of so many issues, and so many people like and come to visit Dar-es-Salaam. Maybe you can give a chance and be more lucky than I. Good luck!