In Africa XII

XII

A friend from Kyrgyzstan; Trip to Dodoma

We like to say that ‘it’s a small world’ when we see someone in a place far from where we ever would have expected to see them. The world is not small, but the circles in which we move are small. The world in fact is a large place containing more than seven billion people – with a “B” – and growing. The work that I have been doing for the past ten years or so is a narrow sliver of subject matter and is done by an even smaller group of people. The people I followed on my very first project in Bangladesh, I met on my second project in Kosovo. One I replaced and the other I eventually hired as my deputy. A colleague of mine from my prior career hired my deputy from Kosovo to his first international job. A fellow I knew in Kosovo I met again in Iraq. There are even more connections when we move to the second degree. We recently met a guy in Zanzibar who was working in Iraq and worked with a fellow I worked with in Iraq; and on it goes. Not surprising then that my wife recognized someone we knew from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in a local hotel here in Tanzania. That person, it turns out, is working here on an unrelated project and will be here for a year or so. The plus side of this is that these seemingly random reconnections bring a sense of familiarity and continuity to otherwise strange and unfamiliar surroundings. Or should I just simply say; it’s a small world.

Road to Dodoma

It was in October that I went to Dodoma. It was part of the preparations which we did before the project actually started in January. Dodoma is the national capital of Tanzania since 1973. The National Assembly moved to Dodoma in 1996, but nearly all government offices remain in Dar es Salaam. Its central location, existing infrastructure, room for expansion and moderate climate made it a logical choice. These attributes, however, are not enough to overcome the desire of leaders to remain in the cultural and economic center of the country; Dar es Salaam. Dodoma is also the capital of the Dodoma Region and the home of a “Zonal Office” of the agency for which I consult. I, therefore, made the trip.

Villages

The trip to Dodoma is, like all trips by road in Tanzania, long and tiring. It is a six-hour trip across generally good paved roads that are interrupted all too frequently by small villages and speed bumps. The traffic police in Tanzania patrol the highways and streets by standing along the road and waiving violators over to the side of the road as they pass. They do not have patrol cars that we are familiar with in the US. Speed, therefore, is controlled by the frequent interjection of speed bumps into an otherwise open paved road. The road is a two-lane road and, as in the US, is heavily traveled by trucks. The whole process of passing trucks, traversing speed bumps, driving through villages where pedestrians, motorcycles and cars, roadside markets, and even weigh scales for the trucks, add to the mix, becomes a tiring experience.

Drying rice

The urban sprawl of Dar es Salaam thins only slightly until the halfway point to Morogoro at Chalinze where the road north to Arusha diverts from the Morogoro Road. There are still many small villages interspersed with farming of varying sizes but predominated by flora; mangos, bananas, sisal, maize (corn), but not much livestock. Once you get to Morogoro and turn right off the roundabout and head northwest toward Dodoma, the scenery quickly begins to change.

Svannah

It is not far out of Morogoro that the terrain begins to rise slightly but steadily from the near sea level humid tropical environment of Dar es Salaam to open rolling savannah. From the top of every rise, the scrub trees and grasses stretch as far as can be seen; rolling away, punctuated by an occasional baobab tree in the distance, or a herd of goats driven by a Maasai herder, or a red brick house doorless with thatched roof.

Villages are smaller and more sparsely placed. Crops give way to herds of goats and cows, and the Maasai people can be seen in their natural setting; rather than parking cars at restaurants and hotels as they do in Dar es Salaam, they are herding livestock as they have done for centuries. They are the only tribe of the many that were in Tanzania, who has kept their identity. The others have assimilated into a generic Tanzanian culture. A common language and intermarriages together with a strong nationalistic approach taken by the country’s founder and first president, Julius Nyerere resulted in a populace who now identify more with Tanzania than their original tribes. The Maasai are the exception.

Baobab trees in center and left

When we reached Dodoma we were on a high plateau. The city is low rise and unremarkable. We stayed at the New Dodoma Hotel across from the railway station that was built by the Germans in the late 19th century. I am uncertain when the term “New” was connected to the name or to what it refers, but the hotel is actually reminiscent of a time long past. The rooms were very adequate with retrofitted screens on all windows and netting over the bed. The lodgings on two levels surrounded a rather pleasant courtyard with pool, fountains and scattered tables and chairs. This proved to be a very pleasant place to sit and the only place the free wifi had strength enough to access my email.

Dodoma

Dodoma

New Dodoma Hotel

courtyard

Courtyard of New Dodoma Hotel

Dodoma Railway Station

The lobby stretched across the front of the hotel and wound around the corner continuing partly down one side. Two restaurants were situated off the open-air lounge, scattered with arched top pillars. There was a bar and black tied waiters, although few. I actually found myself looking for Sam thinking he may have come there after leaving Casablanca, but the piano stood dignified and silent. There were no crowds there; no smoke filled noisy environs; but the walls clearly held memories, stories that will ever remain untold. I had a quiet dinner at a table for one.

Lounge area with restaurant in back

Lounge area

That October evening was cool despite the waning spring and single digit latitude of the place. To me it is counterintuitive to think of a sub-Saharan African country as having a climate that might at times require a jacket, but most of Tanzania is high enough to escape the heat characteristic of the tropical coast and Dar es Salaam where we live. Everyday I understand more about the continent, its people and its geography. For that I am grateful for this opportunity.

Until Next Connection,
Dan