Trip to Dodoma

I met Giovanna and Nino by chance. A beautiful connection that made the day I met them shine. I had been living in Dar es Salaam (the largest city in Tanzania, some 250 miles far from Dodoma) for a internship for less than a month when they arrived, together with their family, to the guesthouse I was staying in. In a few days we became friends and they invited me to their place in Dodoma. And with no hesitations, there I go!

So, on the 9th of November 2007 Roberta – just arrived from Italy – and I got on a coach and left for a part of Africa I hadn’t experienced yet. The 6–hour trip was itself a discovery. I could witness under my eyes the huge change in the landscape : from green and red it turned into yellow and brown and aridity replaced plantations. This was happening at the sides of long and straight road overcrowded with cars, carts, vans, coaches, mini buses, bikes and people. Along the way, colourful small villages bumped from time to time into the perfection of the road.

Dodoma is what one expects from Africa. It is dry, hot, average size, very colourful, surrounded by large rural spaces where the mind can surf with no distractions. People are very welcoming, curious with the wazungo (white people) and, if they can speak English or you Kiswhaili, willing to communicate : this is obviously not a Dodoma proper feature, I would quote the same qualities in Dar es Salaam.

On our first day at Nino and Giovanna’s place, we went to see the orphan children at the reception centre that the association manages in town. Our arrival arouse a pleasant curiosity, even though we were the most excited and curious among them. We spent a couple of hours playing with the children, taking pictures, eating sweets, running, smiling and trying to learn the numbers in Kiswhaili… I still have the piece of paper on which Ester wrote the numbers from 1 to 10!

On the following day Giovanna took us with her for shopping. This would sound a rather ordinary thing to do, though having a walk through the market place in Dodoma is much more than an expectable experience. Together with the baobab seeds we bought and appreciated, thousand other items on the stalls did not have a name for us, nor a taste. In return, the smell of the spices filled us with exoticism and want to try them. Furthermore that day Dodoma was very sunny, the Christmas Trees displayed their bright red petals and the mangos and pineapples season was about to begin.

On Sunday we went to Kigwe, the small village where Kisedet activities are centred: their schools, their accommodations, their workers, their students. Their projects are well explained in this website, though seeing the words I had previously read translated into facts in front of my eyes made my esteem to Nino, Giovanna and their colleagues rise even more. Everything is complementary with the environment surrounding their projects, which have been developed with care and engagement.

So we left Dodoma to go deeper into aridity an large empty spaces. Kigwe spreads joy from its colours and is spangled with baobab trees. Such huge trees seem to have the roots at the place of the branches, and are the unquestioned masters of the landscape, by challenging the low sky on the top and the burning ground at the bottom.

Later we headed with Nino and other travel mates to a big lake and a tiny fishermen village. The road from Kigwe to the village is once again a pure contact with nature. Clay and concrete made dwellings were scattered on our sides, and people came out to greet our passage or to be given a lift on the jeep. At the beginning, when we reached the shore on the lake, the children looked quite afraid of our arrival, and every time our eyes met they turned shy and run away, but slowly they got closer and we started to take pictures. What an invention digital cameras. Thanks to them they could see themselves in the small screen, which made them laugh and willing to play “the cinema”. My staying on that shore was somehow timeless, as if it was an in-between world suspended between reality and imagination.

It was a wonderful Sunday, and also a Saturday and Friday.. My weekend in Dodoma and Kigwe was probably too short, but I am not likely to forget any single detail. It is when travelling, culture, good company and authenticity meet.

Martina Bianchi