10 March: Today is my brother’s birthday so I got up pretty early to wish him in real time and realised it is Saturday and everyone is just getting some extra sleep J
I am missing Thomas and Ethan especially because it is a Saturday and it’s a little lax from the other days so far. We are planning to work for 2-3 hours as a team and use some “me time” to do our personal stuff
I really wanted to maintain a daily journal and I have missed couple of days and hope to remember all those ‘aha’ and ‘wow’ moments…
Jon, Ashish and I landed at Dar-es-Salaam airport to be greeted by Shaun and DoT staff who took us promptly to the hotel and despite our long flight we decided to meet in half hour flat to take a walk in the streets. It was great to soak in the sounds and smells of the market and head back to the hotel for some great sea food dinner and call it a night…I was amazed of the size of the red snapper that was cooked in delicious tomato gravy and we tasted some good local beers like Tusker, Safari and Kilimanjaro
Day 2 [Mar 4]: The whole gang met over breakfast…I met Ian, Ross, Jon and Shaun who were already at the table at 8.30 a.m and we remained seated as everyone started to arrive and continued to chat up and decide what the day should look like till about 10.30 AM. It was decided the team shall go for a walk and for some reason I was feeling very tired so I excused myself. It turned out that the gang landed at coco beach and has some good continental food…Shaun was adventurous to plunge into the waters and went ahead of some locals who were just taking a dip…only to realize he stepped onto some real spiky sea urchins…Ouch ! Thank god for the talented surgeons Petra
That same night we had a welcome dinner organized by our 3 hosts organizations and our key host COSTECH where we did brief presentations on our project and most importantly introduced ourselves and networked with the group of people. There were other guests from important functions from the Tanzanian government. We felt overwhelmed by their cooperation and support and felt we will achieve something really important that could help them at the end of the assignment.
Day 3 [Mar 5]: After breakfast, we all traveled to the IBM office and met David Sawe who is the GM of IBM Tanzania. Our hosts came to pick us up and took us to their respective offices. Our host organization is RITA – Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency and their CEO whom we met previously over dinner Phillip Saliboko took us to his office.
We were shown the host office and the various functions and processes, we asked lot of questions, had a demo and were treated to some scrumptious Tanzanian lunch which consisted of a variety of dishes like Ugali (Maize) with Beef and Okra, Beef and Bananas, Tanzanian Rice, salad, fried chicken, Tilapia Fish, beans and some local green leafy vegetables. It was really tasty and honestly I did not miss home as the ugali reminded me of Puttu ( a Kerala specialty) and the idea of banana and beef together was like kappa-meen or kappa-beef again a Kerala specialty J
We continued to work and had a de-brief and visited our host with revised project objectives and proposed tasks which were received very well… In th evening we visited the market and took some pictures with the locals and ate at a place run by a Gujrati Muslim called Chef's rpide. We feasted on some skewers of meat... and walked back to the hotel...
Then it was time to wind up at Dar-es-salaam and go to Morogoro where we will be based for the rest of the month only to visit Dar for our mid-term review.
Day 4 [Mar 7]: Travel to Morogoro. We checked out of our Hotel in Dar and loaded our huge bags into the van and all 15 of us boarded the van to travel to Morogoro. We were delayed a bit and did not know what to expect...after the first 100 kms we started observing a change in the landscape. We spotted some black faced monkeys and further up some real big baboons on the roads…we also spotted some masai tribesmen as well..they were tall, carrying a huge stick and wore beads around the neck only wearing cloth known as the masai wrap…(I have to buy one) and large white sandals…they look gorgeous J
And them the range of Uluguru mountains were in view and everyone was excited at the beauty of nature and were busy clicking pictures as the Van sped by. Only to realise that the best view of the Uluguru mountains was from the hotel…The Arc hotel where we were put up is at the foothills of the Uluguru mountains…enveloped by the clouds it was so serene, calm and so so breathtaking…I could get used to this…I was like…do we have to work? It’s gonna be tough if you stare at those mountains often J
We arrive at 2PM and were very very hungry but as a matter of respect had to rush into our business suits and report to the Regional Commissioners office to pay a courtesy visit. He was excited to have us on his region and urged us to visit National parks especially Mikumi which was in his region…It was a good visit…we took some photos and went on to look for some lunch at 4 AM and could snack up on some samosas and other stuff (I don’t know the names) as we were being welcomed by a dinner again by the local hosts…btw, Morogoro town has a huge Airtel clock and I was proud to see a Indian telco making it big in Tanzania
At the dinner, I was surprised to see that the menu was totally Indian or American and was disappointed not to see any local cuisines but the good thing is I will not miss home food and I officially became the food consultant for anyone who wanted to order Indian food…I must say the chef was good as most of the Indian dishes I have tried so far have been authentic – kadai paneer, fish vindaloo, chicken tikka masala and Tandoori chicken…
The region has a good source of seafood and the highlight so far as been the fresh and tasty Tilapia that has been tried by everyone on the team- baked, fried, steamed and it has been delicious every time.
Day 6 [March8]: we went to the Morogoro district and met with the District Admin Secy for project work and in the noon continued to work on the project. All work and no play made us dull for sure…but as a team were are really dedicated and committed and not ofr one moment did I think we are slackening. Jon is our leader and we are in good hands…Jon, Shaun, Ilona, Petra
Day7 [March 9]: We took another field trip and visited Mvomero district and were amazed by the District Commissioner’s governance esp as it was a new district set up in 2008. ON the way back we stopped by a memorial of President Edward Moringe Sokoine and headed back to the hotel for lunch
We continued to work and plan for the Sunday trip to Mikumi. I think all of us are eager to get a first peek into the glorious natural sights of Africa ’s famous national parks…We had a small house warming party to celebrate our stay in Morogoro and this is where we will be based for the rest of the month. The guys brought down ‘stuff’ they had brought from their respective countries and it was a good time chatting up…
I did not stay up long as I was having a back ache and wanted to rest up and also speak to my family…looking forward to the weekend !
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