Day 11 28/2/2022 Dodoma, 429 km / 3168 km

De Nazareth canteen provided breakfast. It was not much so I asked for an extra sweet bun and an egg. Sitting outdoor in the early morning is really a treat in this climate. The sun is shining and everything looks fresh. The birds are singing in the trees and you get the feel of living. Last night I hoped to do some more reading in Speke’s travel book. That however initially failed because the light bulb went out. Fortunately I remembered where I had put a small torch light so I could still read a bit more of Speke’s adventures with the Uganda king in 1853.

After breakfast I asked Erik to drive to the old German Bomba. It is now in use as an army building. There are signs not to take pictures but I just wanted to take one from the outside. That was a mistake. A large landcruiser straight away blocked our road and a man was shouting at us that we were not allowed to take a picture. Erik did his best to calm the situation but to no avail. Quickly out of all corners came military dressed people towards us. One with more strips than the other. They treated the man in the car with great respect. He insisted that I should be taken away and dealt with. Later I was told that it was the district officer and his wishes were their command. We got a military person in our car and drove to one of the nearby army barrack. There we spent several hours making statements and signing forms. Everybody was very cordial. I of course apologised and said that it was my idea and that the driver had warned me. I did not want to get him into trouble. In the end I had to pay Tsh 100.000 ($43) for the cost of the investigation they had to do. I was promised that they would send me the receipt and a copy of the penal code by whatsapp.

A bit later than planned we were on our way to Dodoma. On the map the road is not all the way surfaced but in fact all 381 km of it is in very good condition. Halfway Erik had lunch and I was hoping to buy some samosa’s but they did not have them.  So no lunch for me. Just coffee but somehow the water they poured on top of the instant coffee was spicy tea. The strange mixture tasted OK if you add sugar.

In Dodoma I had an appointment with one of the people I knew from the Sekenke project. Due to the morning incident I had to delay the meeting by an hour. Fortunately Brown and I had set up a whatsapp communication so nobody had to wait too long. Brown was then a lab assistant in Sekenke. I did not work directly with him. When we went through my photo’s he was surprised to see himself on one of the pictures. We had a pleasant chat about the Sekenke period and what happened in our lives after that. Since he did not want anything to eat we said goodbye around 20:00 hrs. I only have internet on my phone (big mistake) so Brown had to call my driver Erik to pick me up. Since I have not had any pork yet in Tanzania, Erik therefore drove me to a dedicated pork restaurant. It was not so big but was full of people, TV screens and loud music. We were seated on a long high table shared with others, and served a dish of pork bones which little meat on it and fries. It made a change from the chicken or fish.

I was hoping to stay in the same guesthouse as last week. However it was full. I was directed to another guesthouse in the street behind this one. It looked ok. Now that I am there I notice that there is no water towel or bed sheet. The water system is down. They did manage to fill up some buckets when there was some pressure. Who know maybe I can have a European shower tomorrow morning otherwise it is a Malay mandi.