Luckily I got a free ticket for the Beaujolais Nouveau event this year at the French Embassy, My friend from the Ivory Coast was amongst the organisers so she dropped me the Tsh 100,000 ticket. By the time I got there, 20 minutes after doors open, there was a long queue hundreds of people inside the grounds.
The ‘County Set’ was there, the good and the great of expat Dar es Salaam, the movers and shakers, the influencers and serial networkers. My friend and predictably let me down and so I was pleased to bump into a friend I hadn’t seen for a while and joined their table.
Before going to the event, a few people had asked whether I would be taking a Tupperware to take away food. I thought it was a joke but apparently that’s completely normal at this event. Had I known what the food would be like, I would have taken a bucket!
Looking at the table creaking under the weight of cheese, pate, bread, cold meats, olives and many more luxuries, I felt like I was in a dream. As soon as one serving plate was near empty, another full one would replace it. I filled my plate three times and only drank the wine in order to w`sh down the food.
Beaujolais Nouveau is famously bad anyway and so the event is not one to go to if you’re into good wine, it seems to be more like a cheese feast and networking opportunity. The band was loud, the laughter was loud, the ambassador made his short speech and the raffle was drawn.
I was tired, sweaty, fed up shouting over the music and my stomach was full of cheese and pate. I said my goodbyes and waddled towards the gate about 3 hours before the end of the party. I was done.