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Title 6. 1996 – 2000. Mkadini Road, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

When we came to the end of service in 1995 after four years in Tanzania, we felt, that we were not finished with our presence in Dar es Salaam. Our life in Africa “had just begun”, even if we had been stationed in East Africa for eight to nine years already. We wanted to get back, if that was a possibility, and Else had the good fortune to be assigned again to a position at the Royal Danish Embassy in Tanzania, but now at a position as Consul.

As soon as Else had signed a contract with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for four years as Consul in Tanzania, we managed to get hold of our former cook and house girl, and employed them immediately again and asked them to move into the servants quarter at Mkadini Road, as soon as the former Consul had moved out, to safeguard the premises and to clean after the handymen, who would come to renovate the house inside and outside. We had promised to take care of the two dogs present, Julle and Calle, because we knew that it would take months before we could have our own dogs back, and by the help of the same friends, who helped us to find a suitable home for the dogs before we left Tanzania, we were promised, that if we waited patiently until the family moved back to Denmark, we could expect to have our own dogs Charlie and Choka back. We just had to wait.

We were all very happy for the reunion, when we finally returned to Dar es Salaam. The staff was already at place and working as a normal unit. Day watchmen and night watchmen were employed and the gardener was already working on a reorganization project of the enormous garden, as he knew that Madam wanted him to do, so Else went to work again at the Royal Danish Embassy, I reapplied for a position at the Royal Norwegian Embassy, but the application was turned down, and soon I hosted my first and last Morning Coffee Party for all the other Danish Spouses. That gave me an unique chance to see, what kind of work would be available among my fellow diplomatic friends, and soon it showed, that an administrative/Danish language/Math teacher was needed for the Danish School in Dar es Salaam, and as I was the only one who had the professional qualifications at that time, the Danish School Board asked me to take up the position and teach, at the premises of the American School, all the reporting Danish children twice a week for two hours. It was so much fun to teach these motivated Danish speaking children in all aspects of the Danish language, that I soon found myself working with an additional four IB students, teaching basic Danish literature, at the American Upper School.

2.

Near the end of the month of October 1996 I got a call from the Danish Embassy, that I was urgently requested to contact the Royal Norwegian Embassy. The Norwegian citizen, they had employed, had resigned a few days before his probation time had expired, and they would know, if I was in a position to step into the job I had applied for, with only a few days notice.

I told them, that I was interested in the position as Assistant Accountant, but they had to let me teach in the Danish School up to the end of the month of December 1996, as one of the spouses, who had just arrived from Denmark, would be able and interested to take over my position as a qualified teacher at the Danish School in Dar es Salaam. My four IB students would be required to meet at my premises once a week for study group, and for that the Royal Norwegian Embassy had to make it possible for me to stop early for work once a week up to the end of June 1997, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy agreed and I started working with all my former colleagues one week later. No wonder that I loved to work at the Royal Norwegian Embassy for all seven years.

We changed the premises for our dogs, and we had our Charlie and Choka reunited with us before the end of the year 1996, and Julle and his mother was even more happy to have an even bigger space to watch over than before, and those who moved into the house had sanctioned whatever changes we had made.

In August 2000 we returned to Denmark and I was for the next nine years teaching at Egebjerg School, which proved to be an incredible termination of my last nine years of service, before my retirement.

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