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.