Tanzania, Day 2

July 18 2010

Ah, Africa! Here we sit at the Twiga Hotel in Dodoma. The Twiga ('giraffe') Hotel was chosen as the best accommodation for the Canadian participants on this assignment because a) it's a cozy & attractive place; b) it's close to the Mineral Resources Institute, and c) it has internet connectivity. Well... it is pretty & it *is* close to MRI, truly within walking distance. But the internet connectivity is a bit more hypothetical. Be assured, the lack of success is not due to a lack of trying. I tried it first from inside my room & although it showed 4 out of a maximum of 5 bars of signal strength, the message I got was 'limited or no connectivity' and indeed, I could not get anything. I went outside, I tried closer to the main building, I tried further away, I faced the east, I faced the west, I did everything short of stand on my head, but --- no. Advera (the manager?) promised she will look into it in the morning. And there is no hot water. It's true: I ran the tap for a full 5 minutes while I did other things but the water never got warmer than ambient. That's ok; today the temperature never got hot at all so I don't feel the need of a full-blown shower but eventually I might. And then there are the (hypothetical) swarms of malarial mosquitoes & no secure screens for the windows. And the matter of the rather large insects & potential snakes in the rooms that we were indirectly warned about.

Hm.

Otherwise, it was a lovely day. Mr. Mdabazi & his driver picked us up just before 10 and we left the hotel, heading for Dodoma. We spent the first hour just getting out of Dar es Salaam, which is a huge city. The traffic jams slowed us down but just think: this is just on a Sunday morning. Imagine what it is like during a working day! We stopped for lunch at a semi-outdoor truck stop place on the way, with a buffet sort of spread of traditional Tanzanian food. Then back on the road... all in all, we were on the go for more than 7 hours. The road was good. We travelled at speeds between 10 and 140 km/hr, with plenty of time spent at both extremes (!) The scenery varies a fair bit. Throughout the region of Dar es Salaam it is obviously an urban sort of environment but when you cross over into the coastal region it is more lush and green, where wild monkeys run across the road. But even before you cross over into Dodoma region it becomes dryer, hillier, stonier, and more open. The land feels clean and spacious. The baobab trees add a surreal, middle-earth like quality to the landscape. And everywhere -- all along the entire journey, for 7 hours straight, there are people: walking alongside the road, riding bicycles, tending roadside shops, hauling water in pails balanced on the head, nursing babies, playing in the dirt, herding goats. How do SO MANY people make a go of it in such marginal conditions? It boggles the mind.

Dodoma is the official capital city of Tanzania, although parliament meets here only for a few weeks twice a year. The city, nevertheless, has more than its share of infrastructure and fine buildings. We are somewhat at altitude here which makes the overall temperature more comfortable & the air not so moist.

Tomorrow we will head to the Institute and start our assignment. We are also hoping to sort out the internet issue and perhaps address some of the other issues that make this accommodation location problematic. But for now... bedtime.