Welcome to Dodoma

Written on June 5, 2008 from Dodoma, Tanzania
By Philip Arscott

It has been a couple days since my last entry, and since then a lot has happened. After we awoke at the hotel, we had a nice little breakfast of toast, jam and egg with tea, then set out to confirm our bus tickets. Interestingly enough, the bus carrier is called Scandinavian Express, but then again it is only a name. We confirmed our bus tickets and had some time to spare so we set out to meet Noel’s brother Julius and his wife, who live near the bus station. He invited us in and gave each of us a Pepsi, a very generous way to welcome strangers into his two room home. Although it was a small place, Julius seemed very happy and his wife was all smiles when she met us. His English was not very good, so we discussed a only a few things by the time we needed to leave. After thanking him for the sodas, we headed back to the bus station and prepared for our journey.
The bus ride would end up taking eight hours, but it was not too bad. The heat and smog of Dar was left behind us, as we passed field after field of corn, rice, vegetables, and cresol- remnants of Dutch plantations that used the plant for its fiber. It was absolutely gorgeous, and the skyline was rarely broken by man-made structures. The semi-tropical habitat around the coastal region gave way to the more arid landscape of central Tanzania, beautiful in its own right. It was great to have to slow down in certain villages due to traffic, because street vendors would come running up trying to sell their products. I purchased an orange that was refreshing and cleared some of the dust from my mouth and throat. At one of stops, where we could use the restroom and purchase some goods, one of Noel’s sisters met us, and it was nice getting to meet so members of his family in one day. It seems as though he is one of the more traveled kids, since she did not speak much English like Julius. When we finally reached our destination, after a several more brief stops at fruit and vegetable stands, the sun was fading beyond the mountains and we waited anxiously and exhausted for our taxi. The ride to Richard Mazengo’s house (the country director of Tanzania) was bumpy and disorienting, with the radio blaring news in Swahili and the roads twisting every which way. We could not have arrived at a more perfect time, as the food on the table was still warm and waiting to be consumed.
Our dinner consisted of rice, noodles, and two type of beef stew, and everything tasted amazing. We had eaten breakfast at 9am, so all of us were ready for the meal. Richard welcomed us after we had eaten and settled in, he was exited to have us here and as most people have told us, he said “Be free” or in other words, make yourself at home. We did just that and no sooner had I unpacked and begun to scribble a few lines in my journal, my eyes began to fail me. So I crawled under the covers and slept like a rock.
Morning came very quickly; maybe I was tired from traveling but the sun seems to rise earlier here. After a breakfast of toast and tea, we began our orientation and to discuss the schedule of our trip with Richard, Noel and Margaret, the office manager. The scheduling is difficult, as visiting villages requires informing the VBMs, arranging accommodations and attempting to be as efficient with our time as possible. The schedule we developed is tentative and I am sure will change but it was nice to get it out of the way. The rest of the day was used to get acquainted with the office and surroundings, and later I accompanied Noel on a trip to the Hospital to help out another one of his sisters. It was nice to drive through the area during the day and see what Dodoma looks like. You would not expect it to be the capital, with only a few paved roads and the dirt roads barely passable even in an SUV. However, the kids all smile when they see me pass, many of them giving me a “thumbs up” which Noel explained to me is the cool way to say hi for the youths. Everywhere there are scattered patches of gardens, the dirt slightly darker than the dry red dust that cloaks everything here during the dry season.
When we returned from our excursion, we had some time to relax and read. I have a feeling that I will see much more down time here than back home, as life ticks to a different clock. David and I played around with the monkey that Richard has in the front yard, it is tied up because it eats the leaves of all the trees. Apparently they have tried to let it free miles away from here, but he somehow manages to find his way home. For dinner, Noel took us into Dodoma and we ate at an outdoor café that had barbeque chicken. It was really good and I felt very comfortable in the cool evening air, although each breeze was just enough to wish you had a sweater. Obama has won the Democratic Primary, as evident on all the newspapers in Dodoma. The people here have taken much interest in our election due to Obama’s heritage, although Noel said that he may have voted for Clinton if he had the chance, due to the success of Bill Clinton’s presidency. After discussing our politics, we talked about Tanzania’s and then the African Union’s role. Noel shows great faith in his government and the African Union’s ability to calm political unrest, especially in the chaos of the current Zimbabwe election. So we will see if his faith is tested by the upcoming events. Well that is all for now, I hope that all is well back home and the election is finally getting into its final leg, since our government definitely needs to step out of the quicksand that we seem to be trapped in.