" Say Something !"

In 2008 I travelled to the Tanzanian port of Dar-es-Salaam to pick a car which was purchased for the family from a Japanese company .

Since it was my first time to go there, I requested a friend who had been to the Tanzania before to accompany me.

In order to cut down on travelling time for the 4,000Km round trip to Tanzania, we flew from Lusaka to Dar. This takes just over two hours.

When we arrived in Tanzania, I was amazed by the heavy traffic and the crowding in the city of Dar-es-Salaam.

We spent two nights in Dar before the car could be cleared at the port.

Due to the heavy traffic within the city, we hired a local man to drive the car, up to some ten kilometres away from the port.

All vehicles that are imported via the Dar-es-Salaam port are given a specific route to follow up to the Zambian border, which is some 998 kilometres away.

There are four check points on the route at which the car's importation documents are checked.

After the local driver left us, my friend took over the steering wheel. He told me that he was now comfortable as to which roads were to be followed to be on the authorised route.

We travelled some ten kilometres when we crossed some traffic lights.

Soon after the traffic lights, we saw a Tanzanian traffic police patrol car behind us flashing its beacon instructing us to stop.

My friend thought that we were being stopped for going through the traffic lights when they had indicated "Stop". I told him that was not the case. They were showing "green" at the time we crossed the road junction.

When the two policemen came out of their patrol car, one of them, who could speak English ( Swahili is the official language in Tanzania) asked us where we were heading to ?

We told him that we were going to Zambia. He told us that we had gone off-course the authorised route by one kilometre.

We thanked him for pointing out this mistake to us and requested him to direct us to the right road.

To our surprise,he told us that we were under arrest!

He told us that we had to pay twenty thousand Tanzanian shillings (about US $12) for the "offence" or the vehicle would be impounded.

We were to appear before a Magistrates Court the following day. The charge was to be: "Attempted theft of a vehicle destined to go to Zambia and illegally diverted into Tanzania."

We were told that there was a gang of thieves who were involved in this racket.

After a protracted discussion with the English speaking policeman, the other officer who was of a higher rank, spoke to his junior in Swahili, which we could not understand. It looked like he was telling him that we could be let off after showing them our Zambian passports and the relevant documentation.

The junior officer then came into the back seat of the vehicle and closed the door behind him. He said, "Now my friends, say something!".

At first, we could not understand what he meant by "say something". After he repeated the sentence several times, we realised that he meant.

He was given a ten thousand Tanzanian note, which he quickly put in his breast pocket. He was all smiles and said, "Thank you my friends, greet people in Zambia and make sure you do not get lost again!"

Have you thanked someone who has corrected your mistake which could land you in deeper trouble if you went "off course" any further?

Remember next time someone corrects your mistake to "say something " or thank you !