$25,000 on my back. I had the experience again, that is the first time was in 2012 of carrying 25,000 euros on my back. Fr. Patrick asked me to escort him to the bank in his thick Irish accent. I said, ‘Sure” He said, Bring your back pack”. I knew wha that meant the last time I was here. The Salvatorians are building and new dormitory and chapel at Jordan University College in Morogoro. There has been donations coming in from everywhere. So we went to the bank and sat for an hour. Then we left quick to the money exchange. In which we go through a gated door to the upstairs which is a spiral very tight stair case and enter through a tinted class door into a tiny room with a ceiling maybe 7ft tall, two desks and two Arab looking men. Fr. patrick pulls out the 50,000 Euro out of his bag.
The Arab man takes the money and puts it into the money counter to count the number of bills.
The largest Tanzanian Bill is 10,000TSH which is equivalent to 5 USD. Now can you imagine how many bills we were carrying $50,000 in $5 bills. My backpack was plume full, there was no more room. Fr. Gregory’s back pack was plume full and Fr. Patrick had his bag empty. So there is three of us. Father Patrick says. “When we leave this place walk quickly and stay separate from each other”. I felt as if I was in a movie again on a mission to deliver money. I zip out the door and I am constantly scanning the people around me as I walk fast. I make sure I keep my distance from every single person. We are in downtown Dar Es Salaam which is fairly safe put people have been shot and robbed before. If anyone knew what we had in our bags we would be targets very fast. But everything went smooth as expected. So this was the second time I got to carry $25,000 on my back.
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