GBC Elections 2009

Some of you are curious. Let me explain Ws (what-why-when) of the last blog 'Ideas for GBC Elections'.

GBC is an elected student body of Simon School. We call it 'Graduate Business Council'. I was running for the post of '1st year Rep' for MBA class of 2011. And guess what. I lost .. by margin of 1 vote. See the opportunity cost of that 1 vote now. But does it matter...

First the curiosity, then the desire to be the voice of first year. Small meetings and casual discussions give you an idea. It was a stressful week, starting from 'Writing a platform' to calling individuals and answering their questions. But to sum it all, it was fun.

A good beginning to my first year. Win or Lose. I am happy.

Ideas for GBC Council - Election Platform

Dear friends,

An opportunity to contribute to the effort of 'Simon GBC' council. I welcome all your ideas that you think will help
1. A prospective student learn more about Simon
2. First year student
3. Second Year student
4. Alum

I plan to add them to GBC election platforms.

Orienated Officially

"FOCUS..FOCUS..FOCUS" .. Two weeks of Orientation are over and we are officially 'Oriented' to start our transformational 'Thinkers become Leaders' journey. One must complement the ability of the organizers of the event to keep such a large and diverse crowd engaged and motivated for such a long time. From Professionalism to Lunch Etiquette and Personal Assessment to Interaction with alumni, everything something to offer something or the other.
The 'Rock Climbing' event tops the list when it comes to teaming and was like an ice breaker and 'Lunches with alumni' reiterated the importance of networking.
Thanks to Chris for arranging a 'Just for Fun' beer party at Elmwood Inn. 'Cheers to Simon and Cheers to batch of 2011'. Its gonna be an incredible journey for next two years.

Coming alive

And I am back .. so says Arnold Schwarzenegger. I am not Mr. Schwarzenegger but I am back again, after a long break. Its been a hectic 1 month where I was wrapping up things, saying good by to my beloved job and adieu to friends. Was thinking of writing a blog dedicated to Bangalore but could never realize those plans.
So, today's blog will be about my first impression of 'Rochester'. They say it was a FLOUR City .. and now it is 'FLOWER City'. I still need to explore these terms. But one thing is certain, its a beautiful city. Landscapes and River canals. Glofcourse atop mountainhill .. good looking girls and plenty of senior citizens. It was named 'The sixth most Livable City' in USA.
UorR is situated at the centre of city and my school is on River campus. Canada border on north and niagra falls somewhere nearby. I am yet to visit the downtown place here. I live in University Campus at Goler house for graduate students. See the attached picture.

It's been a nice week. A party at Whipple to begin with, International Students Orientation at Simon School and 'Happy Hours Get Together' on Sunday. Its exciting to meet so many people from so many countries. And names .. probably first thing to learn would be to find some ways to remember name vs country correlation.
So, all you viewers keep tuned in for further updates.

Monkeys raid my house

I am writing this blog after a long gap now. Well, ever since I am back, there was nothing much to write, as nothing exciting was happening out here until ...

Thursday, 11 June, these little monkeys barged their way into my house. Few months before in a rain storm a flying tin object broke the glass panes of my apartment window. Fortunately it did not break the glass completely, and so .. I decided to put off the fix until further damage. And yesterday, these monkeys found their way into my house. I still wonder how did they manage to remove the patches of card-board, break open the cracked pieces of glass .. and barge their way inside. The site inspection shows the aperture to be not more than 3 inches wide .. and probably 10 inches long. But these little monkeys managed to slid through, tear the curtain and enter my 3 BHK apartments.
Once they entered, they feasted on mangoes .. which our dear shetty had brought from mangalore, found the tin boxes that had biscuits .. and spoiled the whole kitchen. I wanted to find if they opened the fridge, but somehow .. they couldn't .. or didn't.
The whole house was in litters .. and the scene was an evidence of what we call .. 'Monkey Business'.
So, prevention measures. First fix the window panes .. I have fixed the cardboard again and gonna call the secretory of apartments immediately. I wish I could lodge a complain against these tiny little creatures .. but I cant :(

But I must appreciate their intelligence .. afterall.. they are our ancestors.

'OASIS' T-Shirt Shop at Dodoma

Ok, Finally I sit down to write my experience about 'OASIS' shop that we came across while we were walking in market of Dodoma - apparently somewhere near One way street.

So, the main purpose of my walk was to find a shop where I could buy a T Shirt with local names or symbols on it. While exploring small shops we came across a shop which said something like '**** printo ***'. For curiosity sake, I asked the shop keeper if you can print, and if yes, can you print something on a T Shirt. Apparently he understood what I said. He took me to a nearby shop. We took a plane T Shirt. I felt confident. I explained him my requirement with mixed swahili and english. He was nodding his head in agreement. So I told him to print my black color T Shirt with a picture of Simba and text Dodoma below it. He understood. I was happy, I got what I was looking for. I got a deal .. and that too for just 2000 TSH. He told me to come after three hours and collect the T Shirt. I was so happy, I ran down and told my friends about my latest discovery. Well, it was worth mentioning. Afterall I found a shop to get custom made T Shirts and that too in Dodoma. And all that for just TSH 2000.

I waited at hotel for next 2 hours, and went back to the shop at 5 pm. Liz accompanied me as she wanted to buy some 'Congas'. I had some milestones in mind. And what a surprise. The scene was completely different when I returned the market at 5 in evening. The flags were gone. My first milestone disappeared. But I managed to remember some static building. First right from One Way Street and I reach the corner.

The scene is completely different now. The Conga shop where we we bought congas was closed. No congas on display. And I look at the corner where I had found my T Shirt shop. And it was gone. Disappeared. There was nothing. I walk around next two corners. Reassured myself that I am at the same place. The shop simply disappeared. I was completely disappointed. I asked some onlookers who were kind of curious to see me walking around a corner suspiciously. I asked one person about the shop. He didn't understand a word and gave me a weird look instead. I felt like I am in a completely different world now. I am an idiot now. How can something change so drastically in 3 hours.

So, my friend Mr. Dan named the shop 'OASIS'. But I was determined to find the shop. Next day I visited the site again. This time morning 9. But to my disappointment, I saw a guy laying wooden planks at the 'OASIS' place. Well, the inquiry was useless.
But what happened to my shop. So, if next CSC members happen to read my blog. I would be happy if someone finds that shop and get my T Shirt. :-)

photos uploaded

I have uploaded selected photos from my Tanzania trip on picasaweb. Now you can view them at http://picasaweb.google.co.in/sandeep.hell/DodomaTanzania#

Gogo Tribe and Corner Stone

Today was a special day for all of us. We visited Innocent's village and his house. Innocent is coordinating our visit at UDOM.
When we got out of the car, we were greeted by a group of Gogo dancers. Tanzania has many tribes (more than 100) and Gogo is the prime tribe around dodoma region. A group of women dressed in traditional dresses were playing drums with their hands, blowing whistle, dancing to the tunes of bells tied to their feet and singing folk songs. The whole town turned out to welcome us. It was quite a scene. We stand still near our cars, surrounded by children who were curious at everything we had. Cameras were their favorites.
So, the dances went on for some time. This ceremony was followed by a short lecture (in English and Swahili or Gogoii ?) by the pastor of local church. Then he called each one of us and asked us to introduce. And we go again.. our trademark introduction like I am Sandip and I am from India. Every sentence we said was translated by pastor in swahili and local group cheered to show their recognition. Beth, Dan and Sean were greeted with short songs like mama .. , kaka .. and baba... In swahili mama means mother, kaka mean brother and baba is father.
Then Innocent came in and said that his village would like to do something to make our visit memorable. He had planned tree plantation from each one of us. So, we planted 10 trees (1 per person) around his proposed house. It was quite a fun and honor. But best is not over yet. He took us to another corner where we were supposed to lay corner stone of his new house. Huh .. it had never happened to me before. We saw a memorial plate with our names and country names. It was unbelievable to see our names on a golden plate.

The dances continued for some time. We talked to some people. There were so many children and they were so eager to get pictured. We kept clicking. A few games of hi 5. Some cheers. A lot of swahili practice. We were all over. A great experience in all. Million thanks to Innocent for arranging this.

Trek to Bihawana Village

This is our last weekend in Tanzania. We were going over many plans. From chartered flight to Arusha and Zanzibar to trekking the unknown territories nearby Dodoma. Finally we decided to go to a place called Bihawana near Dodoma. We got two vehicles for 8 people. Our master negotiator made a great deal this time. From 70 USD per person to 80000 TSH for 8 of us. It was like he brought down costs by 1/8th of total costs.
So, our adventure begins with printing maps through google, explaining our plan to Chip (he was our driver cum guide).
Half way through the trip, one of our vehicles stopped. We noticed that smoke was coming out of bonnet and the driving wheel area. The vehicle stopped in the middle of nowhere. We decided to take two trips carrying four people each, but the driver managed to get the other car started. And we did not need to do that.
We trekked through a few villages. The traditional Tanzania houses, as described by Chip are made of mud and roof made of fodder like material covered with mud again. They are barely 6 feet tall. We could see some chicken, goats, and dogs around those huts. The best part of trek was our conversation with villagers. They seemed happy to help us find our way to the foothills. We passed through maze fields, grape fields and then saw some groundnut and barley crops. Finally we found the way out of fields.

One shepherd helped us find our way. We were greeted by a bunch of monkeys, baboons may be. Our journey was becoming more interesting.
We started climbing the hill. We were 7 of us. Interestingly, 7 people from 7 different countries. And chip kept us calling us by our country names like Ms. Canada, Mr. Germany, How are you Mr. India, Where is Australia, Come on Mr. Japan. And Mr. Obama (Mr. US). Chip was Mr. Tanzania. He led the way through woods. It was a tough trek. He was fast and kept his pace through bushes and slippery trail. We witnessed different types of weeds, couple of pits where they make charcoal. Interestingly, the village people cut trees on mountain, dump them in a ditch and then burn them in absence of oxygen. This results in Charcoal which they sell for TSH 5000 a bag.
We were greeted by a drizzle of rain, a small panic moment but it didn’t last long. After pushing through the thick bushes on top of the hill, we finally found the giant rock we were eyeing for some long. Mission accomplished. We sat there for some time. View was great, and the sense of fulfillment was even better.
On our way back we witnessed some ditches with filthy looking water. Our Tanzanian friend said some village people use it for drinking water. That was hard to believe. But clean drinking water is a major problem in this country.

So, we were back to our vehicles. Chip invited us to his house for Nyoma Choma, but we had some other plans for night. We were invited to one of our Indian – Tanzanian – Canadian host for dinner. Yes all 10 of us.

Amitabh Bhachhaaan and Hindi Cinemas

Its been a month and I haven't seen a movie. So, I am looking around to see if I can find a movie theater, or a CD shop at least. My quest lead to this wonderful conversation with Chali.

Sandip: You said you like Hindi songs, have you seen any hindi movie ?
(He smiles, sparkle in eyes. I realized he's got something interesting to tell)
Chali: Yeah .. I watched few movies sometime ago ..
Sandip: Wow .. so you watch Hindi movies. Thats great. What do you know about Bollywood.
Chali: Yeah .. I know amitabh bhachhaan, Mithun Chakrawaati, Dharmendra. And Govinda is my favourite.
He gave me a Govinda Smile.
Sandip: Wow... Thats cool. What movies did you watch ?
Chali: Yeah .. I saw 'Mard', 'Disco Dancer', 'Hum'.
Uhh .. I am prepared to go back .. ages.
Sandip: Thats good. And what about Govinda.
Chali: Hatyaa ..
Sandip: Which one ?
I am trying hard to remember
Chali: Hatyaa ..
Sandip: Yeah .. Govinda movie. ;)
I cant remember
Chali: And I know Amrish Kapoor.
Sandip: Amrish .... was that Amrish Poori or Rishi Kapoor?
Chali: Yeah .. Amrish Amrish ... He is like 'Katili'.
Sandip: Katili, what is that supposed to be?
Chali: Katili is like .. ummm ..
Sandip: Hero .. Villain .. negative role, positive role ..
Chali: Yeah .. negative role. Bad guys who commit crime.
Sandip: Ohh ... Then it must be Amrish Poori . Who fight Hero .. Amitabh .. Govinda
Chali: Yeah .. right. I like Hindi movies. They are very good. I used to see them long ago.
Sandip: Do you know any latest .. young heroes .. like shahrukh .. hritik ?
Chali: I know shahrukh .. Sunny Deol, salman, shetty ..
Sandip: And what about actresses ?
Chali: What ..
Sandip: Heroin .. female actor .. aishwaryaa rai ??
Chali: Yeah .. I know Hemamalini.
Sandip: Good !!! So, what was the last movie you watched ?
Chali: I saw .. 'Tum Paas AAye .. Tum ne na jaane kya sapne dikhaye' ..
I am struggling now .. it just takes time .
Chali: Its 'Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai'.
Sandip: Wow .. you beat me now. So, where do you see movies.
Chali: We go and get video cassettes. We have cinema theater in Dar ..
Sandip: I want to see one movie now.
Chali: Here in Dodoma, we do not have theater. We can buy CDs or Cassettes from One way street.
Sandip: Thats great news. I will go and check out.

I found my place. One Way Street.

Between IPL and UEFA Champions League

Its been a sporting week. I am fortunate to get a room where I get sports channel. Not every room in hotel gets the Super Sports channel here. But it was a bit of disappointment earlier when I found that IPL was not featured here. But as game progressed, we started getting IPL matches in bits and pieces.
There were moments of desperation when the channel operator used to discontinue IPL and start Champions League matches. But the way Man U Vs Arsenal and Barcelona Vs Chelsea game went on .. it was a treat for sports followers.
Yesterday we watched Barcelona Vs. Chelsea at the hotel lobby. It was fun watching matches with the die hard fans cheering around. It was a scene to watch when Barcelona scored the last goal and one of the fans (Dodomite) went running around the lobby. We call cricket is like a religion in India, but here soccer is more than that. Its like every bar has a TV or screen and everyone has one local plus one european team to live with. Can you imagine seeing more people in front of TV screens at a night club than that at the dance floor. It is possible here.
So, for us watching soccer and discussing it at university has become a routine.

Now, lets move to IPL. After Chicken Tikka Masala and Chapatis, IPL is the favorite topic for our team. One day we watched a IPL game at Butterfly Bar in our hotel and Sean and I taught cricket to our friends from Germany, Canada and US. Dan was lucky to catch Mumbai's match and see Sachin blazing sixes after sixes. He is a great fan of Mumbai Indians and Sachin Tendulkar now.

To top it all, I could catch this Chennai Vs Panjab match today. It was such a thrill to watch a close match with magnificent hitting. Sports Mania is ON again.

Blog to follow daily

A different perspective to our daily activities in Dodoma and University can be found at Beth's blog. She's got some interesting stories. You may follow them at ..
http://bethgoestoafrica.blogspot.com/

Schools in Dodoma, Tanzania

So far we have visited 4 different schools in Dodoma. Our decision to visit 4 different schools proved vital since every school had something different to offer. We visited 1 Primary and 1 Secondary school is each public and private category.
To begin with, let me explain the schooling system in Tanzania. Here Standard 1 to Standard 7 is considered Primary school. There is a big difference in private and primary school system. From free education (though they accept donations) to a very costly private school education that costs upto 900,000 TSH every year the difference was prevalent in everything. Most of the public primary schools teach in Swahili medium whereas private schools teach in English medium. Though I must say; almost all Teachers understand and can speak English.
So, after primary school, if you wish to enroll in public secondary school you should apply to Central Board of education and they do selection for you. We were told that earlier the government had this idea of ‘National Integration’ and hence the Central Board wanted to make sure that students from different regions mingle and study in different areas of country. Residential Public schools still follow this system. Private schools have their own criteria to admit students. Secondary school is for 4 years. They call it Form I to Form IV. Here students can take courses related to Science, Mathematics and Biology along with Social Science subjects.
After Secondary school, you can either go to Advanced Secondary school or enroll for Diploma courses. This is for 2 years. Diploma courses give you additional knowledge in terms of job specific skills helpful for small and medium industries.
After Advanced secondary school, students apply to universities. Some universities have entrance tests. ICT course is the buzz these days but in general Business Management and Humanities looks popular. Not many students go for Higher studies, but Government and Universities are doing heavy investment to boost the student enrollment in Masters programs.
First school we visited was Msalato Secondary Schools near Dodoma. The headmistress was so helpful that we could spend a good 2 hours talking to her about education system and challenges related to book keeping. It was a government residential girls school.
Then we visited Martin Luther School. It was a private primary school and it was evident from the building and security outside. We were surprised to see the huge difference in tuition fees, but the processes and facilities that private school provided was worth that money.
After a gap of a week, we visited one public primary school and a private secondary school. Scene was so different here. Public school deals with a different set of problems than that of private schools. I still struggle to understand the funding arrangements of public schools.
So, the fun part of our visits was the greetings by students and a few clicks and gifts that some of our team members distributed. Kids were so curious to know why we visit their school. They responded with a huge Hiii .. and Byeee .. when I called them. For a moment it reminded me of schools where we used to recite poems after our teacher. World is a small place. Though systems are different, kids and their behavior looked same everywhere. And we were so lucky to experience that here.

Simba Twiga and Tembo

African Safari. It was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard of my CSC Assignment in Tanzania. And here we are. Thanks to UDOM for arranging such a fantastic trip.
Friday, 1st May 2009. We depart to Mikumi National Park in 2 vehicles. We stayed at Hilux hotel in Morogoro. Morogoro is a town between Dar and Dodoma. Its right in the middle of hills and has plenty of beautiful landscapes around.
Saturday early morning we depart from Morogoro. All excitement in air. It feels so good to be driving on road between the woods. We noticed a few joggers .. probably they were practicing for marathon . and bicycles are very common here.
So, 30 Km before the main gate, we were greeted by baboons. And we were all excited. Safari begins. Then we witnessed a herd of buffaloes near a mud pond and a few birds on and around them. Observation the crows look so different. They are not all black, but have a strip of white belt around their neck.
We reached the main gate, got some arrangements done for our stay at Mikumi Wildlife Park and then hired two open Jeeps and a guide to go for Safari. We spotted a big bird sitting on top of giant tree, as if it was greeting us 'Karibu' (means welcome).
Then we saw some lazy buffaloes wrapped up in dirt and mud all around. They didnt mind we taking pictures. Paparazzi moment for them!!
Then we could spot some deers, antelopes, zebras. They were shy and we couldnt get a good shot. We passed a wooden bridge which could carry only one jeep at a time. I doubt if an elephant ever attempted to use that. disciplined animal. So after crossing the bridge we were greeted by lots and lots of elephant. One thing was prevalent. They were as free as we feel when we walk in our backyard. They didnt mind Jeeps going around them. I had seen many elephants in India or Kerala to be specific, but I could see the difference. Here elephants have long tusks, big ears .. and they are agile .. very active. This Jungle has a traffic rule. If elephant is crossing some road, you dont want to mess with him. One of that gigantic animals showed his discontent when our driver tried to raise his engine roar .. Well we better keep off them.
Then we go On and On. We were in Lion region. Apparently there are 200 lions in this park. I dont know how did they count. Our driver was so sure about there whereabouts that he went offtrack .. took his Land Rover Jeep in the woods near one bush close to a ditch. He said we should see lion here. hmm .. we were not so lucky. Need to explore more.
We kept going .. witnessed many more Elephants. It was afternoon now. Our driver kept going offtrack .. showing us some lion tracks .. but we couldnt find any lion.
Then we could see some poles near trees.. They were Giraffes .. And plenty of them. All watching at us .. looked like they were amuzed .. looking at us as if they never saw human beings .. or probably they were simply imitating us !!
Then we spotted some Zebras .. they like deers and antelopes probably .. because we saw them together ,, most of the time.
We stopped at a Lake. More like a large ditch with green colored water. There were 8-10 Hipppos in it. They looked pretty comfortable sitting in water. Our driver made some sound .. and all hippos responded in succession. Looks like there is some established communication. I didnt expect that in Jungles.
After eating a small piece of sandwich that we were carrying, we continued our safari. Then there you go. A big herd of deers and antelopes. They didnt mind we going close to them. They seemed to welcome their guests. Afterall we were in the middle of jungle. It was fun watching some deers running around, and some demonstrating their running and long jump skills.
On our way forward, we witnessed elands, wilder beast (Wolfgang called it GNUs and I liked the name, so I decide to call it GNU). Our guide said it is hard to see Elands as they are very shy. We were lucky I suppose.
Ok, then we stopped at a huge tree. It was a camp site. We could see some remains of campfire. We noticed a wild pig near a pond. So, coming back to the huge tree. We were a bit tired by now. So we decided to take a break. Meanwhile someone invented this game of climbing a limb of a tree. When everyone was playing with branches, Sean climbed the main trunk. It was spectacular.
Now we are back on our safari Jeeps. Final Mission. We need to find the Lion. Simba Simba where are you. Our Jeep starts the exploration. We go off route, driver could follow some trails. And there you go. behind a bush, halfway into the ditch we see the King Lion sitting quite. Probably he was taking rest in afternoon. He was watching us, when we were standing on roofs and bonnets of our open car, picturing this incredible animal. Mission accomplished.
And we came back to our camp .. happily, seeing each other's photos and voting for the best shot of the day.
We stayed at Camp in the night. It was an experience in itself. We could hear the chirping of birds and the wind outside. At around 10 pm, elephant made its presence felt with loud elephant trumpeting. Well scared us all for sure.
Everyone woke up early to witness the sunrise and take a last look at those incredible animals. It was drizzling in morning so we could not see the sunrise but we did notice some animals .. running around as they do every morning.
So, we depart, reach Morogoro and then to our New Dodoma Hotel. Happy. Fulfilled and Satisfied. Mission Safari Accomplished.
And for your information. Simba is Lion, Twiga is Giraffe and Tembo is Elephant. These are Swahili words.

A Week that Was ..

A Week that was ..

Friday, 16 April 2009, Early Morning. I said bye bye to Kullu and Shetty. While checking in, I figure out that the luggage limit is actually 30 Kg and not 40 Kg as I was expecting. And what a luck, my luggage weighs 30.3 Kgs. The staff of Emirates generously accepted my request to let 0.3 me take Kgs extra.

Friday morning, 6.30 Dubai time. My first visit to this part of the world. Looking down the windows, I could see a plane sheet with think black lines drawn in a specific fashion. The whole city looked like a painting or rather diagram with straight lines on desert side and circular lines on side of sea. And then I see those tall towers and a row of ships and boats. Dubai has many small islands around it. And city looks very impressive at first look.

Transit time was 4 hours. And there I go, watching people, looking around the way I used to do when I used to travel from Solapur to Calicut during those 36 hours train journey. The airport was like a centre stage of world. I could see people from Gulf, Europe, middle east, Africa, India, east Asia, and Americas. And it was fun listening to all sort of languages with all sort of accent.

10 minutes before the next flight I met Kate from CDC. She was our NGO Partener. And that was the beginning of my CSC assignment. The excitement was evident in the conversation we had.

The landing at Dar wasn’t that good. I had to hold my seat and breath for sometime. I could see a lot of small planes around.

We met Dan, Wolfegang and Roku at Hetel Medittariano. Dan was the first to arrive. Hotel medittariano is a sea resort located near area where most of the embassies are situated. Friday evening was our first meeting with ‘Dodoma Kikoa1’ Team. Sean arrived in evening. We were sitting at the dinner table for about 6 hours, waiting for Beth and Liz to arrive. After 3 months of talking over phone, we were seeing our team mates. It was fun talking to everyone and understanding cultural differences. You can imagine a dinner table with Japanese, Australian, Indian, German and American trying to evaluate travel and eating habits of every country.

The plan for next day was to regroup at 9 and go out exploring town. I wake up when Roku knocked my door shouting Sandip, Sandip. I was late.. old habit. As per Kate’s suggestions we went out to do some shopping, exchange money and visit another resort cum market place.

At night there was a party at Meditteriano. And it turned out to be a hot shot party of the town. They had a DJ .. supposedly from USA playing songs of all genres and languages. It started with old Arabic style hindi songs and then went on to play the pop and rock music. The place was getting crowded. And by 11 pm it was full. It was such a mix of people that Beth mentioned that she feels as if she is in a James Bond Movie and he is gonna show up anytime. Apparently this party was hangout place for diplomats, embassy people and UN and NGO volunteers. It was the first chance to experience the richness of cultural diversity that towns of Africa posses. Lucia was the last one to join us and we got our house full.

Sunday morning we said Kwaheri to Hotel and started our journey towards Dodoma in a small private bus. Sitting beside Lucia, I was testing my geography and history knowledge. Well, it was a good lesson to know the differences between different European countries and the history behind their existence. And I had my part of stories as well. The landscapes were beautiful. We witnessed some Masaai Villages. Occasional showers of rain halted out speed but we managed to get to Dodoma by 6 pm.

A small party was organized by UDOM to welcome us to Dodoma. It was such a warm welcome. The Principal of college introduced each one of us. I felt like being a part of world delegation when I say ‘Sandip from India’.

Monday was our first day at work. It was great experience watching the construction work and amount of progress they have done in last two years. We met some students, teachers and the Cafeteria staff – important people !!.

In the evening I decided to check out gym at our New Dodoma Hotel. At gym I met a person who told me that he owns a hotel and transportation business. I said I got my first client for my project at University – MIS for Small and Medium businesses.
In evening we went out to African Dreams. It was closed so we went to African Royals or something like that. And what a coincidence, it was the same guy who I met in gym. He was owner of this restaurant. Food was good but highlight of the evening was the giant spider that we witnessed. Not in our food.. but on the floor.

Tuesday, we start our work. We met department heads, then our respective team members from UDOM. They were all Teaching Assistants at UDOM.
In evening, we went for a walk down the road. And you can see the action in another blog called ‘A walk down the road in Dodoma’.

Wedneday, we met Finance dept, trying to understand how they operate. Evening was Club 84. This is the Infamous club of Dodoma. It was evident from the responses that I received from receptionist at Hotel. We had a dinner there but could not stay for long to see the buzz of night party of Dodoma.

Thursday was our meeting day. We met UDOM Library. Slowly we were getting back to our work plans.

Friday we visited our first School. It was a public(Government) secondary residential school. I will write a separate blog about schools in Dodoma. This is a big part of my project now - the schools management system.  sounds cool.
Thursday night we visited Police mess. They say this is the safest place in Dodoma. Reason, it is near the main police head quarters. Good enough. This place had a live music and a dance floor. I was trying to see the relation between music and two to left, two to right – 4 step dance.

One week was over. Here we go. Saturday again. We have a trip planned to Winery. A visit planned to Justinian’s house. And a Eucker game to be played at Hotel. A lot to do.

Bongo Flava and Traditional Dance

It has become our schedule now. We check at the reception, talk to some people and check out whats happening in Dodoma today. And someone told us that Kilimani club will have Live Music program today.

We were back from a soccer match, and were in no mood to go out again. So, we decide to stay at hotel and to our surprise we see that a group was playing some music in our hotel itself. There was a group that started playing drums and only drums. They had 3 or 4 different types of drums. And if I get it right, they were playing "Bongo Flava" music. Then there you go. A group of dancers, well I do not know if dancers is what you call them .. appear in their special tribal looking costumes. A group of 4 men, 3 women dancing to the tunes of ‘Bongo Flava’ set the stage. The set up was to depict a short story in dance form. The group was organized in 3 couple and 1 master kind of formation where 3 couple dance in some formation and 1 master dictate some terms.

They started the second dance with their face painted with while strips, carrying spears and beaded strings and dancing all around. The story telling went on depict some heroics. A part of dance involved fire dance. Women were carrying fire pots on their heads and men dancing around them.

The best part was towards the end when they started showing those fire tricks. They were playing with fire they way we play with colors in Holi. I must say it was pretty impressive but.. but .. to beat them all, our fireeater from Japan dares to rub those fire sticks on his hands. Well, the performers found a match. The next challenge came when they brought those small fireballs (made of cloths soaked in oil) and they were picking each fireball full of flame and extinguishing the fire by putting them in mouth. And here we go. Roku picks one fire ball and puts it in his mouth without a single sign of hesitation. We were all stunned. And he smiles and says, if they can do it, so can I. Japan Zindabad.

To Drink or To Taste

‘To drink or to taste’ The Manager at Dodoma winery asked almost every time we extend our hands to fill (atleast partially) our glasses of wine.

Mr. Augustine from New Dodoma Hotel arranged for a trip to winery of the famous ‘Dodoma Wine – Presidential’. And thanks for Mr. ..., the manager at Winery located almost 50 km outside Dodoma. The winery was set up by an Italian investor in association with local investors. We were lucky to test the famous Dodoma wine right out of the barrels. Well I was one of those unfortunate persons who knew nothing about wine and wine making. It takes a lot of time and patience in making good wine and it was evident in the passion with which the manager was explaining his processes and secret tests to determine how good a wine is. And there we were, 10 people with wine glasses in hand, tasting one wine after another.

For records, I understood that the wine made from grapes is fermented for 21 days, and then kept at certain temperatures for almost 6 months. This involves filtering and cooling to ensure a uniform mix of all ingredients. Dodoma is famous for its Presidential Wines. And we tasted the wine right out of those giant storage cylinders. Another type of wine was ‘Presidential Reserve’. And even an amateur like me could tell right at first sip that Reserve has that ‘special’ taste associated with it. And that explains a huge price difference between the two. For making a Reserve wine, the normal wine is kept in special wooden barrels for minimum of 6 months. The manager took us to the secret chamber where he had kept all those wooden barrels in cold storage. We tested the wine right out of barrels, and were not ashamed to ask for another round of ‘tasting’.

So, we had a good trip out. Our hotel guy Augustine enjoyed his few glasses of free wine and we were back to our hotel by evening 6.

Soccer game between Dar Simba and Dodoma policiei

Time for another story. Its the same day, but so much is happening here.

So, its 3.30 pm on 26 April, 2009. Dan called for two taxis, we negotiated TSH 3000 for a 3 km distance. We reached Jamuri Stadium only to figure out a large crowd was waiting to get their tickets. The cheer that we could hear was showing the enthusiasm. The game between Dar Es Salaam Simba and Dodoma Police was underway.
Simba is one of the most favorites teams in Tanzania, and needed a must win in order to keep them in tournament. Dodoma Police were the local favorites. So, we got to see a good mix of supporters.
So, we (7 aliens - Sean, Dan, Sindu, Beth, Denise, Roku and I) were standing there wondering how to get tickets. The long queue didnt seem to move and there was chaos all around. We figured out that tickets were sold at one counter, but everyone was huddling to get the tickets. And I decided to volunteer to fight the battle. I handed my Wallet, goggle to Dan and then pushed myself into the crowd that was trying to grab the few tickets available. With some brutal force I could stand my ground and get my hands till the window, and probably my appearance helped my grab the attention of the ticket distributor. I won those precious 7 soccer game tickets for 14000 TSH. It was the 'V' moment of my trip so far.
So, we get in and find a huge crowd cheering every move in the game. Soccer is like a religion here. Wherever you go, you see people watching the soccer games. And this was an experience for us to see the live action.
Dodoma police were good in first half. They made quite a lot of attempts to score but could not convert any. But it was Simba that had the final laugh (Simba is Swahili word for Lion). They were simply unstoppable. They scored 2 goals and conceded none. I must appreciate the goal keeper of Dodoma police. He had saved a couple of very good shots. I was lucky to capture one in my camera.
The rain made its presence felt. We had a few panicking moments, but we preferred to stay our ground. Afterall we had no other option.
So, the final score was Simba 2 - Dodoma Police 0. Simba has a huge fan following. The celebration was worth mentioning. The crowd lifted the striker of Simba team and carried him held high for a short procession.
And thats the end of story. We rushed back to our hotel to share our experiences with others who missed the party.

Service at Dodoma Church

26 April, 2009. Its sunday, and we decided to attend a Church Service at Dodoma. This was the church that we noticed during our walk on streets of dodoma.

So Wolfgang, Liz, Sindu, Roku, Lucia and I decide to go and attend the morning service. I had visited churches before but this was my first time at Service, and I was very keen to experience that. We reached the church at 9.10 am and were surprised to see a large crowd there. Dodoma is a small but multi-ethnic town. So, we were standing there, assessing whats next (at least I was). We were approached by a gentleman who invited us to come inside the prayer hall and attend the english service.
Every Sunday, at the church they have prayers in two languages - swahili and english. To begin with, a group of young girls and boys sing those 'melody' songs, and dance with 'two steps to left, two steps to right'. The Pastor of church reads the prayer and others recite. Between two prayers, a pastor calls the 'volunteers' to come and sing the songs. I was amazed to see the energy and enthusiasm. Most of the people of Tanzania love music and can sing music. And I must say, they are very good at that.
So, we were sitting on one of the back benches, following the prayer instructions and reciting them. In the end, the pastor of the church announced our presence and invited us to the podium. And here we go. Another paparazzi moment. On the podium, we give our introduction that has become our signature now. It goes like, Wolfgang from Germany, Liz from USA, Sandip from India, Roku from Japan, Lucia from Slovakia and Sindu from India – and public says Wow!!. And sindu was nice enough to add a note of appreciation and amusement.
In the end, we followed them to the area outside the prayer hall. Everyone was standing in a circle, greeting each other. The handshake is so common here and we are getting better and better at the 3 step handshake and the Asante greetings.
We talked to a few people. One of them was an Investment Banker who managed Pension Funds. He mentioned that he has visited Ahmedabad, UP and Rajsthan in India. And he was happy to share his business card and wish us a pleasant stay at Dodoma.
So, we take a couple of pictures with kids there, exchange pleasantries and come out with the sense of fulfillment. What an experience.

A Walk Down the Road in Dodoma, Tanzania

A Walk down the road ..

I am late again. Thanks to Roku who called me and reminded me that the team was planning to go out for a walk and find some place for dinner. And that is adventure in itself. We hardly know the city and we decide to walk down the market place and find some place to eat.

So we walk. 10 aliens in a place like Dodoma. We are walking on road, some taking picture, and ocassionally saying .. Asanti , Asanti Sana. That means Thanks, Thank You very Much. We saw a group singing songs on backyards of a church. And we applauded when they finished.

So, Sean took us to some place that shows a closed sign. Sean and Dan run around the hotel every day, and come up with these ideas to take us around.

We decided to extend our search. We walked half a km more, saw a restaurant. That reminded me one of those 'local eating places' where you have a small plastic table with four chairs around. And there are like 4 such tables and an adjacent kitchen. Sean is our leader now. After all he is the one who got us here. The waitress hardly understood anything. Looked like for the first time she got the foreigners to her restaurant. And then we regroup again. A round of discussion. And group decides to go back to hotel. After all it was getting dark and we can’t experiment with food.

But some of us decide to check it out. Roku, Sean, Dan and Sandip decide to eat at the 'Local' eating place. The menu was unheard of. No prices mentioned. There were few items written on wall. And we try to decode, decipher. Roku identifies 20% , Sandip gets 10% of it and Dan and Sean are Ok to anything. Brave men.

We wanted to know what is Kuku. And the waitress waves her hands to show that its bird, and Dan makes this 'kuku kuku kuku' sound to confirm that its a bird and it chirps like Chicken. The waitress agreed. And here we go. We found out what you call chicken in Swahili.

So We order following items.
wadi kuku ..meaning chicken rice
wadi .. something ..
Pilao Special - fried Rice, chicken curry and some alien object - Sean said it might be tail of an animal .. elephant may be !!

We took coke, Roku wanted to try another local beer. Some kinda ginger beer. But let me say, food was tasty. It tested better than the one at University.
and we paid some 2500-3000 TSH each. Not cheap as we had expected. Probably we should have asked the prices before we order. Not sure if we paid the right money.

Then we are out for a walk .Lets explore the place. On one road we see some lights. Sean says that must be Bollywood music place . And I ask why ?? Sean says the you see so many lights, it looks colorful after all.
It was a casino called 'roses or something like that'. But we didnt dare to enter, atleast for now. And in the process we find one more casino . I never expected this in Tanzania. At least not in Dodoma.

We came across a place where we saw an advertise saying Liverpool vs arsenal match and 500 TSH for video show or something. We expect that to be a sports bar. Let us see if we can catch one of those matches.

Then we go to a place at the fountain square (there is a fountain at the square). We see a place that looked like a bar. We go and check out . its a coffee shop .. ppl sit on those round seats around the semi circular table .. and drink coffee .. Thats cool. You should name the place ‘Coffee Bar’.

So we take coffee. It was instant mix coffee. We were little disappointed as we were looking for a proper coffee .

Then we walk again. We see one restaurant . Nureen restaurant . The owners name was Mehboob. A nice and polite guy. And I was quick to find that he was from India. He said his dad came from India and wife is from Gujrat, India. They serve most of the Indian dishes . lets see what we get when we visit it again. At least I should find some good Indian vegetarian food. I am dying to eat Daal and Roti or simple chapati.

And finally we trek back to our New Dodoma Hotel, finding our way along the road, without streetlights. The sky looks great in nights. It could be because we were close to Equator. We could identify a spread of stars and Sean named it as Milky Way Galaxy.

So, we find our hotel, and rush back to rest of our team members who were still at the table enjoying their 'Indian Food' at the Dodoma Hotel Restaurant. And we get back to our regular session of 'I saw this, you saw that etc.’

The Curiosity

On your mark, get set, GO. And I begin writing my first blog now. So what better topic than to write about curiosity, expectations and the butterflies. Let me start with my travel itinerary.

Unless Emirates pilots go on strike or Bangalore traffice jams prevent me from boarding the flight, I should reach Dubai by early morning on Friday. And what do I expect to see in Dubai ? Arab King or Shaikhs of Dubai or Dawood and Chhota Shakeel .. May be. But Rodrigo gives this news now that Kate from CDC will travel from Dubai to Dar Es Salaam in same flight with us. So I should get to meet Kate atleast. And for those of you who do not know Kate, she is our NGO Partner and she is from US.

I am supposed to take next flight to Dar Es Salaam in afternoon and I should land in Tanzania by 3:20 pm. And this is my Jambo to the Country of Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar .. or to say .. land of ‘Hakunaa Mataataa’.!!!

We will stay at Hotel Mediterranio for 2 nights before we leave to Dodoma on Sunday morning. So this is where I should meet the legendary team ‘Dodoma Kikoa 1’. And the stalwarts are, from East to West - Roku from Japan, Sean from Australia, Sindu and Sandip from India, Lucia from Slovakia, Wolfgang from Germany, Beth, Dan and Liz from US and Denise from Canada.

So how do I picture them. Roku should be a silent person. Japanese are known for their genius. And I just love the way they speak English.

Sean said he likes to run. And he promised me that we will play cricket when we meet in Tanzania. Let us see if he brings the spins of Shane Warne or the charisma of Ricky Ponting.

Sindu is from India, and she is a likes to talk and talk and talk. I have met her twice in Bangalore.

Sandip is Sandip. And that’s me.

Lucia is from Slovakia. And I have not met anyone from Slovakia before. And let me say this. You look beautiful. In your picture atleast.

Wolfgang is from Germany and he is interested in politics. He is sort of a tech genius. He is the one who set up google docs, added a few interesting gadgets to our ning sites. He said he plays guitar. So let us look forward to listen some german songs during our camp fire nights.

Beth will be my colleague for assignment at UDOM. And let me tell you beth, I loved your spirit to volunteer, inspite of the fact that your team lost the basketball game.

Dan is from Kansas City. And I believe Kansas City is the best city is United States. Why? Because that’s the only city I visited in US.

Liz is from Colarado. I know they have a lot of ski resorts there. Liz can say hello in 16 languages. I am going to ask her to say Hello in ‘Hindi’.

Denise is Canadian. For an Indian, Canada is country where you find more Punjabis, than anyone else. I will ask her if she has heard any of the famous ‘Sardar Jokes’.

And I guess a short get together at Dar Es Salaam should be interesting. Let us see how many of my projections go right.