The final leg of the trip...

Wednesday, May 20th...this is it, final leg of the trip. Wrapping things up in Nungwi ensuring we had all our flight details, enjoying the beach for the last time and gearing up for the long flight home. The reality of it all sinking in and knowing that we were finally going to see our families which is what we want but the realization and sadness that it was all soon to be over.

So we took a bunch of photos on the trip back, secured the luggage from the hotel...had one final lunch at Mercury's and then set out on the 4pm ferry. Little did we know this would be quite the adventure.

After such a smooth ride out we figured this would be the uneventful part of the trip. Yes well, this was not to be so....this ferry ride ended up being what I would refer to as "riding the hulk at universal for about 1.5 hours straight!" We started out up top in the fresh air enjoying the view but soon realizing that this came with a splash or 2 of sea water. After realizing that we were going to be soaked in a matter of minutes, we decided to sit in the covered section. Much to my surprise there were a few sea sick patrons. In fact, the job of the main porter was to walk around with vomit bags and ensure everyone had one just in case. I have never been in one place where so many people were getting sick at the exact same time in my entire life! Many of the young American and Norwegian girls were gunning it for the back of the ferry just to get fresh air (or have some privacy to do the inevitable!) . This went on for a rather long time all the while with me focusing on not losing my lunch. I quit reading, turned on the ipod and sat very focused on breathing. And thankfully, the luggage was covered but I did notice a few damp items in the suitcase when I got home!

The last negotiation of the trip was the fare to the airport. Thankfully we found a decent guy who took me to the airport for 20,000Tsh without incidence...other than the typical Dar es Salaam traffic jam. This was a lonely trip...reminiscing about all my new friends and how I might not ever see them again....but then also happy to be finally going home, back to the comfortable routine....

The bucket list...

So if you want to see the beaches in Zanzibar then you need to head North or North-East....we headed up to Nungwi after securing a good lead from Masoud from the Chavda....he hooked us up with Issa who was willing to drive us the distance to the Mnarani Beach Cottages up in Nungwi for a mere $50,000 Tsh. This was a good rate particularly in the low season.

This is also where, unbeknownst to me, I would check off a couple of items from the bucket list. I had never gone snorkelling or scuba diving before and sure enough that is what we did over the next couple of days.

Snorkelling - for $30 each we got hooked up with Captain Juma...our local guide who got us on the dhow that headed out to Mnembe atoll... I think this was the result of stellar negotiation yet again since it was worth double! You can negotiate alot in the low season. In any case we ended up on a boat with about 20 others and got hooked up with all the snorkelling gear required. This is where I learned the ropes on how not to panick in the water, how to breath and ultimaltey do a duck dive without drowning myself. It was soooo cool. We stayed in the water for a couple of hours and then when done headed to the island bar-b-q for beautifully grilled king fish and rice and fruit. Best fish we had on the trip!

Scuba diving - so the next day we decided we would try the scuba diving....something I wasn't sure I would ever do but thankfully they had beginners class (scuba for dummies...) that would allow me to get comfortable with the whole breathing underwater thing...it took a bit for me to be convinced that this was something that I really wanted to do but once I got the hang of it I actually really enjoyed the experience of it all. It was so cool to know that we were 12metres underwater (I was side by side the divemaster the entire time) and seeing all the beautiful coral reefs and tropical fish....in the end I got talked into 2 dives and loved every minute of it. I highly recommend Chris from East Africa Divers...really nice south african guy who knows what he is doing.

I can now cross off a couple things from the bucket list! Beats having to go to mexico at this point in time!

Up at 5:00am....r u kidding me???

So here we were on Saturday May 16th, still not really believing that the project was over...and up at 5:00am! A few of us bleary eyed (and puffy eyed due to various bug bites..ie me!) started the day out figuring out how to get out of Dar...we were headed to Zanzibar! Now until this point we had only ever read about such a place or joked about its exotic existence and here we were on a ferry to Stonetown! The birth of the spice trade way back when...this was truly an unexpected part of the adventure. The ferry ride was smooth and pleasant...enjoying the view and the good company.

Once we arrived we headed to the hotel, baggage and all....and had an interesting experiencing dealing with the over-eager locals (hmm...beach boys??? I think they are referred to as) who offered to help in any way possible (carry luggage, provide a taxi, offer a tour etc etc...). This of course is the way of life there but at some point you have to be stern enough to let folks know you appreciate their concern but don't require any assistance....mind you, having the chief australian negotiator handling all the extra attention is extremely helpful in dodging the locals!

In any case we spent the next 2 days walking around and getting a feel for the local history, heritage, the market and how to negotiate the "dodge" of the beach boys....Many a gift were purchased by all.

Plug for the Chavda Hotel – very reputable and comfortable hotel at an extremely reasonable rate. Omar is the greatest and will make a fair deal. Masoud helped us find Issa who drove us to Nungwi for 50,000Tsh….very reasonable and a load off our minds....if you stay here you won't be unhappy. The only thing is they don't yet have internet! So we spent most of Sunday scouring the other hotels for internet access...again! We went to the Serena - extremely luxurious however much more pricey! Anyhow, the view is spectacular and the beer is baridi sana...what more could you wish for.

The last team road trip...

Well here we are travelling back to Dar...seems like we just left. Everyone feeling sad but not showing it. So to make it memorable we held lots of euchre games to kill the 6 hour bus ride and have a few more laughs. If Dan makes hearts trump one more time Sandip is going to have a kniption right here in the bus....of course, it was no surprise who was the euchre boss, lol, ....I am pretty sure I didnt lose a game this day (smile)...not that we are competitive or anything....


Sad to be back at the Mediterraneo since it meant that most were leaving the next day. It was the final farewell dinner. Lots of sharing of memories and toasts to the team. Liz left early to head out on her adventures....will really have to follow her blog now to keep up on the excitement of her trip.

Last day at UDOM!!

Today we cleaned up and packaged all the project deliverables. We saw many of our UDOM friends for the last time and gave out some IBM gifts for all their support over the last 30 days. Hafide (our driver every day) asked us if we could stay a week longer and Glory gave us lots of hugs telling us what a sad day it was that we were leaving. We walked the 61 steps up to our office for the last time…although a good little work out – most of us wont miss that part but we will cherish our memories of the project, our team and the everlasting friendships and, of course, all the people at UDOM who have become our friends.

Presentation day and birthday party!

May 13th - Final presentation today!!

– about 25 UDOMers attended the final presentation. It was a feeling of relief to deliver it and know that we had completed our deliverables and could feel good about the work each team had completed. Kudos needs to go out to the Cloud team, the LMS team and the MIS teams...a job we could be proud of...although sad as we also knew that we were nearing the end of our mission at UDOM.

However, never to miss an opportunity we also had Roku’s Birthday Celebration !! We were able to surprise Roku by ordering a cake from the hotel and singing happy birthday in the courtyard. Fatima and Maniz and the girls (Reena Inaara and Yashne) came by to enjoy cake with us. which was really really nice....hopefully I will see them in Toronto some time in July.

Makulu Village Experience...

I am sure I have grumbled enough about the lack of consistent internet access while in Tanzania so won't dwell on it again...(the only real iritant of the whole trip). That said, I do feel compelled to provide the rest of the updates from the last week of the trip even though it is now officially over (sniff sniff :-0)...it doesn't quite feel "real time" but I took notes each day so that I could provide a glimpse of what went on.

I took this photo to the left of a woman from the Makulu village and just loved it...she was more than happy to let me take the picture and afterwards I showed her and she smiled. I connected with her...she seemed like a gal who had endured alot in her life but was simply content with it all....someone I can admire...as they say: life is tough, get a helmet.

The kids of course went crazy when they saw the cameras...

Tuesday May 12th: Visit to Makulu village:
Tonight we went to Innocent’s village which is situated on the road to UDOM. It was an unbelievable experience! Upon our arrival we were greeted by some traditional village dancers. The village is made up of about 3000 residents from the Gogo tribe. Although Innocent is from the Chagga tribe (based near Kilimanjaro) he has chosen to live in this village since it is so close to the university. He has a close cousin (who he calls brother – but also clarified for us “…but not from the same womb” ....so, yes, we got it straight!) who he is living with right now while he gets his house built. He has only just put in the foundation and hopes to have it built by the end of August at which point his wife and children will join him from Dar es Salaam.

It was very evident that the villagers went to a lot of trouble and planning to have the 10 IBMers at their village. They put on at least 45 minutes of traditional dance for us to enjoy and at one point (much to my shock & surprise!!) I was invited up to dance with the women. In an effort to show my respect I set about displaying my dancing (in)ability for all to see. What a neat experience!! Of course my dear colleagues did not disappoint ensuring there are various video clips and snapshots of me attempting the tribal dance. As you can imagine, it was really tough to look inconspicuous with the blond hair and blue eyes. We also had a tree planting session for Innocent...each of us was required to plant 1 tree in celebration of his new homestead.

Innocent also shocked us and prepared a cornerstone to commemorate the fact that we were there and to bless his home. I was lucky enough to be asked by Innocent to unveil the conerstone and was pleasantly surprised to see all of our names and countries on the cornerstone! What a privilege and honour to be apart of Innocent's life. I will never forget this.

Desperate times mean desperate measures...

Monday Night and still no internet! Grrr. The team is getting pretty disgruntled. No way to communicate to family from the hotel except through phone calls. Everyone seems to be resigning to the fact it’s the only way to stay in touch now. We have resorted to preparing our blogs in advance and cutting and pasting them when we get to the university….where we get to enjoy the internet although at a much slower speed than we are used to.

This is photo was taken at another local restaurant where it’s no problem to drink wine; The trick comes later. Firstly, describing what kind of wine you want (a challenge translating “dry red wine – the good stuff” into Swahili). Secondly, having a glass to drink the wine from…ok this one we are flexible on – when desperate your standard water glass will suffice. Next you have to be patient and wait for whoever got told to hire a taxi and find a place where they sell wine. Finally, the longest waiting period comes with figuring out how to take the cork out of the bottle. Its amusing how the DIY (do it yourself) characteristics start emerging. This is a photo of me using your standard Philips screwdriver with a 11/2 inch screw as step one in the new cork removal process. Handy man Dan went to get various other tools to see how we could apply some leverage to the bottle. Suffice it to say your standard bottle opener did not work as did not various other random tools he found in the restaurant bar. When Dan broke the scissors the DIY session ended and we had to relinquish the bottle….the liquid substance we hoped was wine came back with the cork in the bottle. The next trick was figuring out how to pour the wine without getting the cork stuck back in the neck of the bottle….a good dose of perseverance was required this night. By the time we poured the bottle we knew the request of “dry red wine – the good stuff” was lost in translation. Of course, we drank it anyhow.

Mother's day

Today I learned that I am the only mother on the trip. How lucky I am to have such a supportive family and be able to make this trip to Dodoma. It was a lovely day which included some phone calls from home (I was also able to call mom) and spending the afternoon wandering around the Dodoma markets with colleagues bartering for material. Couldn’t break the vendor on a discount so had to relent and pay the full 10,000 tshs asking price for 2 lengths of Tanzania material…..somehow though Dan got a deal for 9000 Tshs…I felt so slighted!

We also taught Innocent & Liz how to play euchre – so now the entire team is fully trained up!

Oh Yeah! Mr Sandip (Indian card shark who just learned to play euchre a mere 3 weeks ago) finally got his butt kicked at euchre both Saturday & Sunday night….not that we are poor losers or anything but a few of us were feeling tired of Sandip winning every game! One thing is for sure, I will certainly miss Sandip’s laugh when the trip is over.

Dinner at the Kara's

One of the coolest things that happened while in Dodoma was meeting up with some fellow Canadians - The Kara family. Maniz and Fatima run the local mini-mart just past the main round about, located on the left (at the petrol station). We discovered that although growing up in Tz they both lived in Canada and met at the mosque in Markham, Ontario. They subsequently married and moved back to Dodoma to start the mini-mart. They have 2 adorable girls (Yashne and Inaara) who go to the local international school in behind the hotel. After a few conversations and then meeting them at the pizzeria we were invited to their house for dinner (all 10 of us!!!!). We headed over Saturday night and had a wonderful night of stories, amazing indian food, the Sony channel (Indian) and listening to the girls chat on about school and camp activities. The best part was after dessert the girls put on a fabulous dance to some traditional Indian music….what a blast! I found it incredibly kind of the Kara’s to feed all 10 of us and I know that everyone had a fantastic night! Many thanks goes out to them for a fabulous evening.

Bihewana Hike

Saturday turned out to be a very adventurous day…Just when things started to not go as planned...with a bit more time, patience and perseverance, it eventually worked out. The transportation no show meant we had no other choice but to resort to plan b. This meant a call Mr. Chipe to renegotiate a rate for 2 cars ….this exercise took approximately 2 hours to organize and hammer out to everyone’s satisfaction. One thing I have learned and (actually have become comfortable with!!!) is that things just don’t happen here at the speed of light…it simply takes time. There is no sense really in getting too attached to any plans since they will, without a doubt, change. My colleagues were praising me for being ultra patient and working through the deal without having the smile leave my face. (…indeed, my friends and family at home would also be duly impressed… me, patient???) .

So we worked out a deal with Mr Chipe…(thanks so our key negotiator Sean) -80,0000 Tshs for 8 of us (2 cars) to drive 16kms outside of town (near Bihewana) to climb some unkown hill, trekking through some unknown farmlard….sounds like a solid plan, right?

Mr chipe refused a lower rate (“this will kill me…” he says) and explained that the reason for the higher rate was because he would guide us right up to the top of the hill (nice) and protect us from any wild animals or unsavoury types (yikes! Got a little nervous again). Everyone agreed a little protection with a guide who spoke swahili was not such a bad idea.

So off we go. The ride out was interesting….all was going well until the 2nd car had to pull off the road due to an unknown source of smoke emanating from the dash. As you might expect, this appeared to be the beginnings of a mild panic session (ie where there’s smoke, there’s fire?) however after further discovery it looked like the electrical problem only caused a few items under the hood to melt (no flames) and didn't cause any engine problems...this is good! As it turns out, the panic was more around the fact that there were no inside door handles to get out of the car quickly if required. Quick decision making meant car 1 would take group 1 to some yet to be determined location and drop us off at the side of the road, preferably under a tree and wait for group 2 to arrive.

Finally got en route trekking through several farmer's fields with Mr Chipe leading the way speaking swahili to any non english speaking farmers (translation = all of them) explaining our desire to get to the of the hill. Apparently we were to be climbing about 1000metres (harder than Simba Rock). We passed some hearty tomatoe gardens, and vineyards (likely for the Dodoma Presidential wine we like so much) and various village homes (made out of baked red clay and mud – very fascinating and usually a tin roof kept on with rocks of various sizes. )

Got about 30 minutes into the trip and one of the gang started feeling unwell and realized that a back to the car to was required. The rest of us carried on. It took about an hour and half from the time we started to make it to the top. It was pretty cool but unfortunately we could not make it the largest rock. We took a few pictures, called our colleagues to make sure they were ok and headed back down the hill. We saw many water holeswells used to water the crops where many of the locals we doing by hand. We also saw a couple of baboons, we met a farmer herding his cattle and goats somewhere and saw some sort of white snake, various multi coloured bugs, and what we think was a chameleon…very cool.

Grumpy Simba!

Grr…..experiencing blogger’s frustration of having intermittent internet connection at the hotel so multiple updates will be happening at the same time.

Friday was the only day that we worked from the hotel for the entire day. This proved to be a good strategy since we really needed to limit the interruptions and focus on grinding out key documentation to meet our final deliverables – this last week is looming over us and I think a few of us are feeling mixed emotions. We are definitely feeling the panic set in to get the work done and leave feeling that it is a solid state for the next group but we are also starting to feel that it will be sad for our time together on the project to be over. Its been an amazing IBM group to work with but we have also met so many wonderful Tanzanians from the University and from Dodoma town. In any case, we accomplished what we set out to do for the day and just hung out at the hotel that night playing euchre later on in the evening. Everyone is getting so good that new euchre champs keep emerging. Naturally, the appropriate level of friendly gloating and berating of lesser card players is happening…as it should be between friends.

Mathias ( our main man from the New Dodoma Hotel) tried to help us arrange transportation from the hotel on Saturday for our yet to be determined road trip destination (we were torn between the local Bihawana mountain climb and the longer haul to Mpwapwa and Kongoa to see some villages. Didn’t exactly work out as planned as we find out…due to some sort of Tanzanian/Canadian miscommunication….

The "Net"...

For some reason I am still on the Mosquito net topic. This is truly an essential part of the sleep routine while staying in Tanzania however it is important to note how critical it is to master the "entrance" and "exit" techniques of the "net". Believe it or not, this takes some foresight and planning. Of course, my novice flight into the "net" was a complete bungle....nearly hanging myself. The trick I found was to figure out the technique early in the game (this is a nightly routine). So, I was an early adopter of the "swim in" entrance technique (translation: I wave my arms about in a breast stroke fashion to lift and separate (think wonderbra)) and this will get me secured safely inside the mini cocoon. The next stage is the "tuck in"....sheaths and sheaths of material must subsequently be tucked into the perimeter of the bed. This can be done fairly quickly however it is severely annoying to have to untuck forgetting that you need to turn out the light... but again, this is just part of the drill. The real trick is to bring everything inside the net....flashlight, water bottle, alarm clock, book, cell phone, tv remote...or any other sundry items you can think of ) and this should have you settled in for the long haul. Now watching tv from inside the net is interesting....everything is white and fuzzy....cheering for your favourite soccer team can be somewhat limiting when they score a goal. Another drawback of course is the accidental skype call....where someone from home forgets about the 8 hour time change. Trying to escape from the net at 3am can be a very disorienting experience when half asleep. Naturally, as you migh expect, escaping the net in the morning after a full nights sleep is a whole other routine in and of itself. For this part I have adopted the "feet first" exit. Don't ask me how I decided this, it is what it is. I guess after a few "entanglements" one tends to learn quickly from experience what works and what doesnt work and what it's like to feel sheer claustrophobic desperation leading to a keen desire to escape.

Another trick to watch for is the "reverse net setup". This occurs out of the blue one day when you dont expect it. Just as you get used to the opening being of the left side of the bed...you can get thrown for a loop with a right side set up (ie just getting ready to get tucked in only to discover the your hotel buddy prepped the net from the opposite side of the bed!)...Great, so panic sets in as I contemplate how I will now be able to read and subsequently shut the light off without the entire untuck procedure? I wonder if I should just leave the light on all night..but then what about the mosquitos??? Yes, of course, that is why I have the "net" in the first place. I am thankful for the net.

ok enough about my inadequacies managing the net. Here is the daily low down.... we don't have a tonne of spare time here...we get up, we eat, we go to work, we come back from work, we prepare to eat dinner, we eat dinner ( and it takes a minimum of 2 hours to do this) we finish dinner and it is usually 9:30 pm or later....which means little time to connect with family or blog or what have you....

Typically most of us stay up late to get all the blogging or ensuring we have our other social networking obligations completed.

Thankfully I was able to connect with family today which was very satisfying...the last few days of poor internet connection or one sided skype conversations was getting extremely frustrating.

Still trying to make plans for this weekend...sounds like we'll have to make the most out of it and spend it in Dodoma area (would have been great to get up north to Arusha and Kilimanjaro area but just isn't going to happen due to difficult flight arrangements.) The funny thing is that I was just getting used to the idea of a very low key (boring) weekend when suddenly a few ideas presented themselves independantly. In Dodoma we are finding that if you wait long enough, things will simply happen. Within a couple of hours we went from not having any plans and no transportation to having multiple villages to visit, with 2 modes of transportation......patience is still a virtue.

Observations from Dodoma

-The beer comes in larger bottles - which is wonderful except for the few of us who have had certain "side effects"...yes I wanted to believe I was above this, but was proven wrong. I am now officially only drinking red wine....I think you can figure out the rest of this story.
- You need to specify very clearly that you would like it served cold! (baridi! baridi! baridi! ie COLD)...totally bummed out that there will be no more beer for me in Tz (unless, oh brain wave! I switch to Heineken...now here is a thought!)

-Wa-lee Kuku is traditional Tanzanian meal (chicken & rice) - can't wait to go to Chako ni Chako!
-There is a big difference between local chicken and "other chicken"....you want local chicken (translation = free range, for you naturalists)

-Dompo is NOT Dodoma Presidential wine...it is a fortified sweet wine (translation = Port... and no offence, but not the preferrable cigar smoking kind!)

- The ketchup is an 'interesting' colour & texture (not heinz....it is a much thinner, pale pink variation). I prefer the chili sauce while I am here.

- Despite the fact the local Canadian Starbucks boasts the usage fresh Tanzanian beans....we cannot find a single whole coffee bean in Dodoma....we have resigned ourselves to Africafe....a powdered coffee-like mixture that boasts 100% pure instant coffee flavour...puried beans? I can only guess....if only I could get to Arusha to see a real Tz coffee bean, this would make me happy right about now.

-Organizing a cab ride is a complete exercise in the fine art of negotiation. This should be a mandatory requirement for everyone to experience. This would enable the learning of the of various negotiation negotiation strategies (ie ones that work and ones that will immediately foil your colleagues' tactics in one fell swoop). Thankfully, we have a designated on-site team of chief negotiators who thrive on getting us the cheapest fares!!! Thank heavens.

- You will pay more in the local street shops for Tz crafts than you will at the tourist shops??? What the heck...!

-Sometimes people will not turn up for meetings despite organizing the time days in advance and double/triple checking....what can I say - things come up.

-There is a secret Pizza location, but I have been sworn to secrecy on any further details...all I can confirm is that it was worth the wait, the crazy cab ride and the price...jeez it was good!

-Bongo Flavour music is really cool! (hip Tanzanian music)

-People from Dodoma (well Tz for that matter) are incredibly nice & very helpful...you cant help but fall in love with this place.

- Football (soccer) is the game of choice...many ManU fans....although the crowd went wild tonight with Barcelona tying the game with Chelsea and advancing to the UEFA Champions League cup final scheduled for May 27...my oh my, what will happen to the Norwegian Referee???? The Chelsea fans are absolutely gutted!!

-There is a distinct knack for crawling into and out of a mosquito net...and once you are tucked in it is rather annoying to realize you must still turn the reading lamp off...hence the reason I must sign off now. It is really difficult typing in the "net".

Canadian eh?

Sunday we travelled back to Dodoma but managed to explore more of the hills in Morogoro and some of the local villages en route. It was fascinating to be able to stop in the villages to see what was being sold - we saw hand crafted baskets, a fresh market of beans, peas, tomatoes, yams and onions. We learned the peanuts are raw and not the kind we were used to! We also saw nyama choma (smoked meat on a stick - like kebabs) and various cuts of goat ready to be purchased. It was a pleasant drive back to the hotel listening to various Don Williams tunes taking us back to the good ol days!
Today was heads down all day at the office and we really cranked out alot of work - the time is passing by so quickly that we are starting to get more and more conscientious about each day passing by. The process mapping will be complete by tomorrow and we will shift focus to the final requirements documentation and MIS/SME deliverables and hopefully completing the last of the interview phase.

We had our daily visit by Innocent and shared our weekend stories. We were eager to hear about the "workers day" celebrations and sounded like it was a great day of festivities. We wanted to give Innocent a commemorative MIS/SME team gift for the wonderful Tanzania bracelets he gave us so we decided that he in turn should be truly Canadian...the picture above is Innocent wearing an Earl Paddock Transportation 50th Anniversary cap...very appropriate that he should don a truckers cap! 10-4 good buddy!

Safari Salama! Twiga Twiga!!

We stayed at the Hilux Hotel in Morogoro friday night (about an hour outside of Mikumi National Park) and dragged ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn to ensure we had an early start on our Safari. We arrived at the entrance to Mikumi greeted by a small group of Baboons (Nyani)! It was as if they knew we were coming and insisted on a proper greeting (we did not see any more Baboons until we were leaving wierdly as if to bid us adieu...Great marketing technique!). Once we entered the Lodge entrance area we were able to see various herds of animals in the distance (African Buffalo (Nyate), impala (swalapala), elephants (Ndovu - also a fine Tanzanian Beer!). After the initial shock of this sight our next surprise was realizing that a family of elephants was drinking from a small pond about 30 feet from where we were enjoying a cup of coffee!

Our heavy duty safari jeeps arrived shortly thereafter and off we went exploring the rest of Mikumi for the remainder of the day. We saw several other wild animals like Giraffe (twiga), zebra (punda milia), wildebeast (nyumba), hippopotamus (Kiboku), crocodile (mamba) and of course Simba (lion)! We also had the pleasure of seeing giant millipedes (they tickle when they crawl on you...ick!) and a very colourful bird called a lilac breasted roller. The landscape was amazing and we saw many Baobab trees - in fact we were able to climb one and took some really fun pictures of the team.

We spent the night in the Mikumi lodge and had the experience of hearing a lion roar a couple of times and an elephant trumpet...it was very surreal going to bed knowing that such wildlife was literally in your backyard!

In short Mikumi was an awesome experience...

Friday's Trek up Simba Hill

Its been a very busy long weekend but we have had a blast! Friday morning a few of us decided to get up early and climb Simba Hill. No its not Kilimanjaro but it was local and a short cab ride away. It would be considered easy to medium difficulty for seasoned trekkers taking us a good 45 minutes to get to the highest climbable point (unfortunately we could not get quite to the very top although we tried!) In any case, the view of Dodoma was fantastic and we managed to get a few good photos of the region. I learned that after a climb one must take the requisite "stance" photo indicating success (translation - " I have conquered this mountain... I am invincible! )...still don't think I am ready for Kilimanjaro yet - lol!

Later in the day we went back to the curio shop to buy some Tanzania carvings and crafts to bring home. It was a fun morning of bartering for deals with each of us using one strategy or another (later we found out that we had all over paid for most of our purchases...oh well, its all about the spirit of the game). The funniest part of the excursion was how I acquired my new earrings....I casually mentioned to the waitress that I admired her earrings and the next thing I knew they were swiftly extracted from her ears and with the utmost precision promptly put in my ears, the price was stated, the money exchanged and presto I had a new set of earrings....the 10,000 Tshs was worth the entertainment value provided to the group. You just had to be there!

Off to Mikumi we went...

Truely Tanzanian now!

This is a photo taken from the Mazengo Primary school today as part of the interview work

we are doing for the MIS Small Medium Entreprise piece of the overall MIS project . I love this photo! This young boy followed me around for a couple of minutes before I even realized it simply because he wanted to meet me...how sweet is that? I am not sure if it was the blond hair or what that compelled him but we managed to have a very nice english/swahili exchange and shook hands (his english was far better than my swahili)....then off he trotted to his class. Afterwards we realized that he actually skipped out of his current class just so he could come talk to us....boy oh boy, what a sweet heart!

Its was actually another very interesting day....yet again one of those days where we had one set plans which basically got thrown out the window about an hour into the day. Today was supposed to be a head's down day cranking out process charts but we got whammied with the announcement that we were off to visit 2 more schools today - a government run primary school (Mazengo) and a privately run secondary school (Jamhuri). We met more fantastic people and confirmed again that although most processes are very manual they are very well thought out and precisely followed. The main consensus here is that (at least with the folks we interviewed) everyone hopes eventually to have their data consolidated in some type of centralized system or database but its anyone's best guess when it will actually happen. In fact, today one of the headmasters actually told us that if we are going to get computers in the schools we ought to do it real soon otherwise it will be "harmful" to the outlook of the teachers (guess they might be tired of getting their hopes up). We told Double Masoud (our main TA from the university) that he needed to get cracking on the new system!

We also had an impromptu visit to the grocery store where I met an Indian woman who actually lived in Markham, Ontario (near the main IBM Canada Office) and whose in-laws still live there. That was kind of cool and then we met some street sellers selling some pretty neat Tanzanian arts....Sandip bought some carvings, Beth & I bought some hand drawn cards and prints. Every day we find new places in town and feel more and more like Dodomites!

The most fun of the day occured first thing this morning when Innocent Siriwa joined our update meeting bearing gifts. Everyone received their own bracelet and key chain which was accompanied with his personalized nickname for each of the team ... it was a half hour process but with Innocent you are sure to get your money's worth of entertainment. He is now fully versed in the complete american high five routine....and knighted us all as official Tanzanians from here on in!

k...need to get to my Dodoma wine....its begging me to drink up.

Another day at the office...

Today was fairly uneventful from a wow factor perspective. The team spent most of the day grinding through process mapping for the UDOM functional areas....(oh please let us get to the requirements stage soon!). At some points in time it truly felt like the blind leading the blind but in all honesty I think everyone is loving the challenge....sprinkled with a little humour and the odd dose of complete honesty when it all seems too much to take. Basically, we recalibrate and continue on our path of making great progress....its all good! We also managed to sneak in a quick "demonstration hand" of Euchre to get Lucia trained up...this made her happy since she is fairly competitive (translation - she doesnt mess around) in card playing. We also explored some more cultural differences.... ie. What people from different cultures say, what they actually mean and how it is interpreted. For example, in our 4some we all say different things to mean "I understand"...the Indians say "I think so..or this is true", The North Americans say, " I got it...", the Tanzanians say " it's fine...".

Another langauge difference is when talking about having a meal. The Slovakians & Indians will say " I will take lunch at 1pm", the North Americans say, " I will have lunch at 1pm..". Today we had to reconfirm that were were not actually "taking" anything to Mikumi National Park on the weekend...although we agreed to have lunch there.

Culturally speaking....you really need to be aware of the words you are using and how it translates for the people you are working or speaking with.

PS - this is another great shot from the University office, second floor.....what an amazing view of the clouds and the various mountain ranges both near and on the horizon.

Patience is a virtue...

Yesterday was a day which required much patience. Of course they day began by drawing up the plan of tasks and activities we intended to accomplish by the end of week to ensure that we were meeting our interim project deliverables - a very proactive activity indeed. This type of planning is reassuring for type A's like me and also provides me great pleasure in being able to check off those "completed" items. It's an important activity (yes, a form of validation)...and I will even go so far as to add things to be list that I did by chance only so I can cross them off the list....I know there are others out there like me but likely too shy to admit it....in any case the main point I want to make is that yesterday we didnt accomplish anything we set out to. Everything we planned did not happen, things we didnt expect to happen happened and at the end of the day I felt somewhat frustrated. I had to reflect on the days events and think about the cultural differences and remind myself that I really needed to take things in stride. After a good work out, an inpromptu "evening meeting", playing a killer game of Euchre the night ended well. Dan and Beth were skunked 10 - nil by Sandip and I .....how sweet!

PS - all but 2 of the team is trained up for Euchre....and the TA's from the University want to learn how to play....this is good!

Mystery Solved...

Well we finally met up with Brian Polkinghorne yesterday! Brian is an Australian chap connected with the Anglican church & who works out of Mackay House in the city centre. Mackay house is part of the Diocese and is a local health clinic and I was made aware of him through a work colleague who connected me to Bob from Markham....what a small world (thanks Nadine and Bob!).

We started looking for Brian the day after we arrived however it took 3 or 4 trips over the course of the week back to Mackay House before we finally bumped into him...it was starting to feel like a bit of a scavenger hunt - each time we went there we found out a little bit more information and felt closer to our goal! First trip, we learned the hours of operation. Second trip, confirmed that Brian did in fact exist but was not there and we should come back the next day around 9am - confirming this information took the efforts of 4 people using their bits and pieces of Swahili and effective hand signals or body parts. Third trip, no luck at first, but retrieved a phone number from a kind man who was curious about why we kept showing up. Finally we were about to leave and turned around and low and behold there he was....only to find out through conversation that he had been having breakfast 2 tables down from us at the New Dodoma Hotel! In any case, we are glad we finally tracked him down and will have a sit down conversation with him early next week to find out more about the work he is doing and some of the local regional sites he might be able to advise us on.

We also had another new experience yesterday while at the University. We had noticed an ambulance at one point down below where we sit and didnt pay too much attention until suddenly there was what sounded like a very large choir singing a church hymn in swahili. We went to see what was going on and it was quite a moving event - there had to be 500 people gathered around the ambulance in honor of someone who had passed away. I had chills watching and even as I write about it now I feel goose bumps. We found out later that one of the students meet an untimely death and this was the ceremonial farewell of the student for the family. It went on for at least 15 minutes and we watched in amazement and respect for the tradition. I think it gave all of us in the room a moment of pause....life can be short but there is still alot of love in the world.

off to work now.

What a game!!!

Today we managed to catch a live soccer (football as it is known here) match between The Dar Es Salaam Lions (Simba) and the Dodoma Police...man what an experience that was! We took a cab from the hotel to the stadium and joined the throngs of fans in the mile long line up to get tickets for 2000 Tshs each (less than $2!!!). At one point I thought there was no way we were going to get in but through shere diligence and football fanatacism on the part of Sandip he bullied his way to the front of the line (proper thing to do) waving his shillings in the air to get the attention of the gate master to ensure that we got our 7 tickets to get in. We had a little celebration ceremony on the spot because it was so amazing that he actually got the tickets! Mind you he had to risk getting his wallet pick-pocketed but was saved by Dan who had his back! (we definitely have to stick together here...)

On the way in to the stadium we were drawing quite alot of attention amongst the locals and as I was walking by one of them grabbed my hair to touch it....guess they dont see too many blondes in this neck of the woods....its no problem though, a courteous JAMBO! and all is good.

The game was fabulous....the crowd really got into it and we figured out right away that we were sitting on the Dar side...there just happened to be more seats there but we did go in with the strategy that we would simply vote for the team that the crowd around us was cheering for! It was too bad that Dodoma lost but the Dar team really stepped it up at the end and we managed to catch 3 goals although the first one didnt count as one of the team was off side....definetly the highlight of today.

Although, we were pleasantly surprised by an onsite dance troupe and bongo players at the hotel tonight....we saw most of it but had to go to dinner. It was very good african dancing that really mesmerized us....Roku was the brave soul that got up with the dancers and touched the fire and then did some fire eating...yes, just your standard day in Tanzania....

Visit to meet Justinian's family

Last night we were invited to Justinian's home to meet his wife (aptly named Happiness) and his 2 boys Eriky and Edgar....talk about adorable! OMG they were the cutest kids ever...(this pic is of Edgar, Justinian & Happiness..need to add Eriky in another blog...I just couldnt resist this photo....)

We had a traditional Tanzanian dinner prepared by Happiness - chips, fried banana, chicken, salad of cucumbers and tomato with some pretty potent piri piri peppers. And of course washed down with a few Kili (beer). It was a very lovely evening watching the kids play with some of the IBM trinkets we brought with....amazing that the kids could turn a bookmark, tape measure and a pen into a simple, yet effective, airplane contraption in mere minutes...budding engineers!

We didnt stay too late and came back to the hotel where a few of us congregated to embark on the Euchre training sessions....I wouldnt be doing my Canadian duty if I didnt try to teach a few of the teammates how to play Euchre...definitely a must-know transferrable skill! So luckily a few of us knew how to play and now 2/3 of the group is trained up.,...by this time next week we'll be in full on Euchre tournaments...this should be good fun - the competition begins!

Who woulda thunk it!

OMG, yesterday I was the happiest person in Dodoma....we discovered that Dodoma is an emerging wine region and managed to arrange a wine tour with the whole group. We rented a bus for 100,000 Tshs...which worked out to about $10 each...it took about and hour to get there on a fairly bumpy dirt road for most of the way but we saw a few villages and a pack of donkeys...yes, the real kind! I would add a picture but it is not working right now...(grrr very frustrating!!)

So we met with Adam Njovu the general Manager of the CETAWICO (Cantina Sociale di Dodoma) and he spent an incredible amount of time with us explaining the history of the birth of the winery and how it has grown over the last 4 years. We noticed that there were no vineyards near the winery and learned that they actually buy the grapes from the local farmers who are incented to harvest grapes in the Dodoma area....Adam will actually make field visits to test the grapes to ensure they have enough sugar content. They hope that within time more farmers in the area will start to grow grapes. The winery is actually held by an Italian company and Adam did some training in Italy. They export 70% of their finished product to South Africa and a good 25% to local distilleries for the distribution of hard liquor (this gets rid of any spoiled wine and reduces the amount of waste). Adam let us try Sharyde, Sharyde Reserve, Presidential & Presidential Reserve in both the vat and the barrel.....very generous tastings and we didnt want to leave. The funny part was that this was Sandip's first ever try at wine....what a way to start! We took photos of him to commenmorate his entrance into the world of wine - no turning back now! Of course we bought a few bottles to bring home but chances are they may not make it!

What a great afternoon!

Catching up over the last few days...

Alot has happened since Friday...as a matter of fact we have been going non stop since we arrived and so I am going to do a few short posts to get caught up.

Friday turned out to be a great day visiting 2 distinctly different schools: Msalato Secondary School and Martin Luther School.

Msalato was a public girls residential school for Form 1 - 6. The UDOM MIS/SME Team met with the headmistress Ms. Anisia Nenze and spent about 1.5hours chatting about the admissions/registration & tracking systems used at the school....in a nutshell everything is done completely manually - starting with taking a ruler and drawing columns in a note book with handwritten titles and writing in the student details line by line....the book was dated back to the 1970s tracking students in no particular order right up until 2008 admissions...computers (about 3) only appear to be used by the admin staff and only use word processing (the computer lab had only 4 working machines and several that were unusable). Anisia was a lovely, calm natured woman who at first seemed reluctant to share info with us. However, Beth did a great job of asking clear questions and pulling the information we needed (I take copius notes)...all said, we gained great perspective on the challenges faced by the school: 700 residential students, 45 teachers (25 who live on site), usually 50-55 students per class, very tight in the dorms....70 Tanzania shillings per year to attend (alot of money for the daughters of peasants)

Conversely, Martin Luther school (a private primary school) was at the opposite end of the spectrum. Firstly, the building was 3 stories high and spread over a fairly large well landscpaded campus. 950 students, 550 who are residential and the remaining are day students. 550,000 Tshs per term (3) or for day students about 900,000 Tshs per year (still alot of money for the parents of these kids - mainly diplomats, doctors, university profs etc). The headmaster ( Emmanuel ) was very young and very progressive in his approach and thinking. When Dr Mvuma commented and referred to Emmanuel as a "young guy" he immediately retorted back that he was not a guy! We were all a little taken aback not knowing what the issue was but figured out later that Emmanuel was only 26 yrs old and was already the headmaster of the school! He was very interesting in that he was from a Masai tribe near Arusha yet was dressed in very trendy clothes. Although he said he dresses in traditional Masai tribal clothes when he is home visiting his parents. Computer use was by all of the admin staff however teachers were not tracking grades or attendance through any programs yet. Mainly 2 spreadsheets were used for tracking: admissions of students providing registration numbers & fee payment...but the twoo were not linked into a central database yet. The computer lab had 45 working computers and were used mainly to teach the children how to use word and play games!

hopefully we'll be able to visit at least 2 more schools next week.

UDOM MIS Project Update - Week1

Here is the view from our office of only a of the University campus. What an amazing week! It seems impossible that we have been on site at UDOM for 5 days. We have accomplished alot. When I look at our project plan we still have miles to go....lol! thankfully we are a team of 10 and everyone brings great skills to the table so am confident we will get there.

As each day goes by for our MIS/SME team we come away feeling that all our days on site have been very productive (and we sprinkle a litte fun in there too). When I think of back to the tour and coming away feeling in awe and (yes, admittedly) a little fear of what we were about to embark on and see where we are now I feel very good about it. We have spent the week getting to know our UDOM collegues, working directly with 3 Tutorial Assisstants (Masoud Masoud or Double Masoud as I like to call him, Tabu Kondo & Frederick Chali), interviewing with Finance/Accounting, Admissions, Library (more next week with HR & Procurement), speaking with Justinian and finding out more and more about how the University runs. We are finding that it is mainly a paper based system but each department is very well aware of where their troubles are and want to make some improvements. The Tanzanians have been incredibly kind and are very willing to spend time with us.

Today is a really exciting day because our sub team is going to visit an all girls secondary schoool to see what type of vision is possible to start linking the full education system in Tz...a very daunting task but the will of these people is inspiring so anything is possible!

off to work now....

First Day on the UDOM Project - Karibu!

The last 2 days have been a whirlwind in Dodoma but have been absolutely incredible. Monday the team spent the day touring the campus of the University of Dodoma (UDOM). We had had a few briefings and read some documentation in advance about what to expect but we were still amazed by what we saw first hand. The Tanzanians are definitely dreaming big and going for it! The vastness of the campus, the number of construction workers on site and the buildings still under construction were absolutely mind boggling and I really spent most of the time feeling in awe of the people, the land and the entire scope of the University project plan.

Firstly though, in order to get to UDOM it is approximatley a 15 minute drive to the campus. The roads out of town are paved but not quite all the way in to the main buildings. We follow a dirt road for about half the trek. By some standards this part of the road is pretty good however we did have to wait for a vehicle to intricately manage itself around a large ditch this morning; we had no problem since we are in quite a nice Land Cruiser (although I am holding onto to the upper grab handle for stability the entire way).

The campus in all its entirety spans 15 Hectares - it is amazingly large and seems to go on forever. We started Monday by touring each college (eg College of Education, College of Humanities & Social Sciences & College of Informatics & Virtual Education) checking out the main teaching and lecture buildings for each including the dorms/housing & cafeterias for the students. Many of the buildings were still under construction as the University continues its plans to build forward to eventually accommodate up to 40,000 students in the next 3 years.

We met many people and struggled with their names but in general are finding everyone we meet extremely hospitable, friendly and generous with their time. Our main contact is Dr Justinian Anatory - he is such a cool guy and incredibly knowledgable. Like many of the existing Profs at UDOM he came from the University of Dar Es Salaam last year. Dr Justinian as we call him is the Dean of the School of Informatics and Virtual Education - the location of our project. We are split up into 4 main project teams working with Dr Justinian and his Tutorial Assistants - The UDOM MIS team, the MIS for Small Medium Entreprise, The Learning Management Systems team and the Cloud Computing Team. I am on the MIS project with 3 other colleagues however we are finding that there is alot of overlap and we are all staying pretty connected as a team to ensure we minimize scope creep.

Today was actually Day One! on the project and I believe the consensus was it was a day of accomplishment. Personally I felt like we accomplished more than I expected but was really ready for anything and was really pleased. The 4 teams are split into 2 project offices and so the first order of priority was to get set up in the offices, get on internet (I think we are going to give up on this one pretty quickly), get access to UDOM email (should happen tomorrow), printer access etc etc.

Our MIS team spent the morning building some new relationships with the Tutorial Assistants - largely getting name details straight so we can recall who is who. We learned alot from the group of 10 TAs - the story of their names (Masoud Masoud who is named after his grandfather (I call him Double Masoud) and Frederick Chali who actually goes by the nick name Fletcher...). Many of them were from Dar Es Salaam but we got an introduction to other parts of Tanzania both familiar (Kilimanjaro) and unfamiliar (Tanga, Musoma, Kibora). We also learned some history about the current President Kikwete and the Founding Father of Tanganyika and Zanzibar union which form Tanzania today - Former President Julius Nyerere.

By far for me personally, the best part of the day was meeting the Vice Chancellor of UDOM - Professor Iddris Kukula. The Principal of UDOM - Professor Mvungi & Dr. Justinian arranged for a special visit between the IBM Project team with the Vice Chancellor (serious Top Dog) and it was quite the experience. When we were greeted into his office we first observed the Stately furniture....it was opulent without strings...but that aside it was the man himself who was so impressive. It was evident by Tanzanian standards that he had obvious status in the room but I was mesmerized by his presence and charisma. He actually reminded me of my father in law - a person large in stature and presence. He was a very knowledgeable, charming, calming man who seemed to always be in the know and in complete control. He used simple but concise language to talk about the UDOM project and described how they managed from the beginning (barely a pencil) to where they are now....it's really unbelievable. He also talked about his career and his education - he completed his Masters degree in Australia but low and behold I found out when I introduced myself that finished his undergrad in Canada! Can you imagine my surprise that after I said I was Denise from Canada he asked me if I was familiar with Sudbury of all places!! Laurentian University.....alas, I was bonding with the Vice Chancellor! What a day....

On the topic of food and drink: Our food staple seems to be Kuku wa-lee (chicken and rice)...not sure how much more I can take of that but tomorrow we are definitely looking around town for some restaurant alternatives. I dont think we have much choice at UDOM - it looks like a fairly fixed menu (chicken & rice, fish & rice (yes, head & tail on......not for me - well not yet anyhow), ugala, rice and beans, some sort of beef (really not sure)...you get the drift.

There are 4 kinds of beer which we have been sampling - Kilimanjaro (my fave), Safari, Nduvo, Serengeti ....all good when cold (you have to be sure to ask for ya bia baridi). We also tried Dodoma red wine which was actually very good. We plan to visit the winery at some point and check it out more thoroughly.

Link to UDOM,
http://www.udom.ac.tz/

PS - Karibu means Welcome! in Swahili

First few days...

Finally made it to Tanzania!...32 hours later but at least made it in one piece. As per the way things were going had to endure yet one more plane change in Nairobi but at least the flight was on time! Landed at the Dar Es Salaam airport by 9:30 but traffic was pretty heavy so did not make it to the hotel until after lunch. Met all my team mates for the first time which was pretty neat after 3 months of weekly calls....it was easy to figure out who was who based on the voices.

We decided to trek back into the city centre as a group to figure out currency exchange and cell phones. We each have a cell phone for local calls which is helpful. We also went to the local Shoprite for water and discovered a heathly sampling of South African wine....figured things were about to start getting better by the minute!

It is strange getting used to the TZ schillings....the exchange rate is 1330 Tz schillings for every dollar...for $300USD I received 399,000....2 large bottles of water and 1 750ml of wine was about 29000.

It was extremely hot and humid in Dar - felt like about 35degrees

We stayed at the Mediterraneo Hotel just outside of Dar and on the Ocean and had a great dinner followed by the monthly party the hotel hosts (this went on til 6am!) Unfortunately we had to be on the bus by 8:30am so many of us went to bed much earlier than that (of course I slept in due to jet lag...but made it on the bus in the nick of time)...it was a very very long bus ride but very scenic and the bus was air conditioned.

We did not arrive in Dodoma until 6pm and hadto rush off to a dinner at 7pm with the University Deans. It was a formal dinner and we were required to wear our suits...although we were told it would be fairly casual from here on in.

Attaching a couple of pictures taken from Precision Air Flight from Nairobi to Dar....can you guess which Mountain this is?

Ah, the joys of travelling. Well I knew things didnt look good when before I even left a 100 mile radius of my home only to find myself delayed out of Toronto! Despite the fact it was middle of April and a gorgeous spring day apparently "maintenance" issues can occur. The hour and half delay wouldnt have been so terrible if it didnt affect my transfer flight from Zurich to Nairobi however, you guessed it, it did. Once in the air everything was fine ( seat mate was tolerable :-)) but I arrived in Zurich to find out I had missed my 9:30am connecting flight and was now rebooked on a Flight that transferred out of London Heathrow Airport. Oh joy oh bliss...not only do I get a 4 hour stop in Zurich airport (yes Zurich is lovely) I also get to backtrack west to head east - makes perfect sense....the best part is that I also get a 3 hour stop over in London to change planes and catch a flight to Nairobi to have a 2 hour lay over there to change planes again to finally get to Dar Es Salaam a good 13 hours later than originally planned.

Just goes to show you....the best laid plans!

Wish my luggage luck that it finds me in Dar.

Clearly I am a novice blogger. Yes, I have tried to make several updates over the last 2 weeks and failed...hopefully now I have it right.

Leaving for Tanzania today...no more sleeps! This is it. The good thing is that I am much more calm today than yesterday. Suffice it to say I was bouncing off the walls yesterday hoping I had everything set up and ready to go and running last minute errands.

We had our last team call on Tuesday and most of the team is travelling today and we will meet up in Dar Es Salaam on Friday night. This will be the first time any of us have met in person.

The weather in Dodoma is about 27 degress Celsius with a chance of showers Friday. We have a bus set up to take us the 6 hour journey to Dodoma on Sunday (chance of thunder showers)...should be an interesting ride. I hear the road to Dodoma is pretty good.

Have had many of you help me out to get ready for this trip. So thanks to all of you who either provided me with documentation on requirements gathering, gave me tips about travelling in Tanzania or simply helped me stay sane and focused on what I needed to get done.

cheers....next note is coming from TZ.

Decided to finally get into the world of blogging today since this will be the easiest way to keep friends and family up to date on my upcoming experiences in Tanzania starting April 16th.

I have booked a flight from Toronto International Airport via Swiss Air on Thursday April 16th pit-stopping in Zurich and then flying into Dar Es Salaam via Nairobi at 8:10pm on Friday April 17th.

13 days to go! I can't believe the days have passed by so quickly. Thankfully I feel very well prepared logistically. I have my entry visa secured, will get my last 2 shots this coming Tuesday, flight arrangemnts finalized, packing is under control. Still trying to get organized from a work perspective & wrapping up projects in NA and preparing for the UDOM project (University of Dodoma).

Our team consists of 10 IBMers from 7 different countries. I am the only Canadian on Tanzania team 4 but will be working with folks from the US (3), Slovakia (1), Japan(1), India (2), Australia (1) & Germany(1). Our team name on the Corporate Services Corps (NING) website is Dodoma Kikoa 1 and this is how we stay connected as a team. We have a fair bit of pre-work that has been required of us and I am finding it challenging keeping up to date on that but am making some good progress. The pre-work topics range from in country logistics to articles on TZ, cultural adaptability topics, consulting and client learnings, & communication topics. All very interesting!

We will be working on a project for the University of Dodoma. Dodoma is approximately a 6 hour bus ride (hopefully with few breakdowns and decent roads!) from Dar. When I arrive in Dar Es Salaam I will stay both Friday and Saturday nights. This will allow for a day or so of site seeing and settling in before embarking on the trip to Dodoma.

We have received our SOW for the project and it looks pretty interesting...more on that to come.