Friday, May 29, 2009

'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#

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

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.

Monday, May 11, 2009

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.

Friday, May 8, 2009

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.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

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.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

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/

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

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.

Monday, May 4, 2009

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.

Friday, May 1, 2009

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.