This week has been action packed with an amazing trip to Dodoma – the capital of Tanzania. On Monday morning I travelled with the Transaid coordinator to the bus station to begin our journey. After purchasing the tickets over the weekend it was very straight forward on our arrival at the bus station. Once we located our bus we were able to board immediately – I had my reservations about the benefits of travelling VIP as it was only slightly more expensive, however when I saw our seats I was delighted. The large seats at the front of the bus had a ridiculous amount of leg room, which for everyone who has met me will know is a bit of a waste for me! The seats were so big when I sat down my feet couldn’t reach the floor (I felt like a child). The bus station was again a hub of activity, with the vast array of bus companies waiting to depart to various location. Just by looking at the buses it was easy to identify the difference in quality between the different companies – I was eternally grateful for the local expertise of my travel companion in choosing our bus company. The bus station had lots of people selling things; the sellers had their goods in baskets that could be hoisted to the windows of the buses to sell to people who had already boarded. The types of goods for sale was extensive, from drinks, fruit and biscuits to USB power packs and handbags. The comfort of the bus made the journey to Dodoma very pleasant and in between enjoying the views of the amazing rural areas of Tanzania I slept a lot – I was far from a good travel companion on the eight hour journey. We stopped briefly in a few places during the journey, but only enough time for some people to get off / on and for the sellers in the bus terminals to try and sell their goods. We had one stop en-route where we were able to leave the bus to get some lunch, I bought some delicious curried beans and rice and an apple and then returned to my favourite ever bus seat. We arrived in Dodoma late afternoon on Monday, and went straight to the guest house that had been booked for us. It was quite small and located in a very typical Tanzanian city street, next to a restaurant and some small shops. I was not sure what to expect in regards to accommodation on our business trip, however I was very pleasantly surprised. I had a large room with a double bed and en-suite bathroom, but best of all a powerful shower with hot water! Running water is something that I have come to appreciate as a luxury, but running hot water is truly amazing! After settling into our rooms we decided to explore the local area. We made it about 200 metres from the guest house before we were spotted by the head of the Dodoma driving school, who was on his way to meet us. We went in his car to meet the HGV (heavy goods vehicle) trainers who had travelled in the truck from Dar es Salaam on Sunday, and I was able to see the new vehicle livery for the first time. Unfortunately only one side of the livery had been completed before their departure, but it was great to see that NIT had at least been able to display some advertisement for the driver training during its journey to Dodoma. After meeting the other trainers and seeing the HGV we had dinner with the head of the Dodoma driving school. He took us to a bar which had a BBQ at the front with lots of chicken and bananas cooking, I was advised that this place was very famous for its chicken and it was the best in the area. It was indeed delicious and when he ordered ten bananas between the three of us, I thought it was far too much but every one of them were eaten! On Tuesday we went to the driving school, where they are currently running a PSV (passenger service vehicle) course alongside the HGV course and an additional VIP course (advanced driver training required by any driver who drives a government vehicle). During my time in Dodoma there were a total of 46 students at the training school. After a tour of the school and a chat with the head, I was introduced to the students in the middle of a theory lesson. I was surprised at the respect that the students have for the trainers at the school, most of them were at least thirty ranging up to late forties, but they all stood when the head of the school entered the room and responded to his questions in unison. I couldn’t imagine a group of grown men in the UK acting the same way; they were all very engaged in the class and eager to learn. After the introductions I experienced the first of many photo shoots that I participated in during my week. Agreeing to have one photo soon leads to having at least one photo with everyone, by the end of the week I was starting to regard it as normal to turn around to find someone with their camera phone pointed at me. In the afternoon I went with the practical training groups for the PSV, they were training for two vehicle classes in PSV this week – a large bus and a mini bus. Practical training is very interesting and I learnt a lot about the teaching methods by being able to join the trainees for this aspect of their training. During the training the students were taken to a local area with road signs and shown the practical side to the road signs and markings theory that they had been learning in the class room. The way that the training was conducted allowed the students to ask lots of questions and get the most out of their time with the instructors. During the practical training we also went to where the Tanzanian president lives when in Dodoma, his main residence is in Dar es Salaam however – even though Dodoma is the capital. In the evening the head of the Dodoma driving school took the Transaid coordinator and I to a plot of land where he plans to build a new driving school. He has big plans for the land and is slowly gathering the required material and funds to make it reality. If he is able to expand the school in this location it will be a great opportunity for him to further develop and increase the training capabilities in the region which can only be a good thing for improving road safety in Tanzania. On Wednesday I joined the HGV trainers and observed some practical training, on previous days they had been practicing driving the vehicle without the trailer attached. When I joined the group of 6 students they were learning how to couple and uncouple the trailer safely. I found that the teaching of this was very comprehensive and adaptable to the students learning speed, offering them lots of opportunities to practice before moving onto the next element. Once they had spent a significant amount of time on this, one by one the styudents went out on the road with the to practice driving with the trailer attached. The practice route used had two roundabouts, so offered some variety and required considerable amounts of vehicle control to negotiate the road safely. A key benefit of training in Dodoma over Dar es Salaam is that the roads are relatively quiet. I was appreciative to have the privilege to travel in the HGV with each student and observe the one-to-one training, I was also amazed at the competency of all the drivers. On my final day in Dodoma the students were all taking their theory exam, which consists of 100 multiple choice questions and three hours to complete it in. During the exam I had a good opportunity to speak to the head of the training centre and gather information for the report that I will be writing on my visit to the centre. After the exam concluded I was asked to have a photo with the HGV students, which soon snowballed into a photo with each student and various different combinations of student! After everyone was happy that they had enough photos of me, the PSV course was closed by the head of the school and I happily wished the students luck for the future – I think if I could have addressed them in Swahili they would have been much happier but they seemed happy anyway. We then had one final group photo of all the students and trainers – as they setting up for the group shot one of the students told me (while giggling) that I was going to cause conflict in a lot of houses with the photos I had posed for – I can only imagine that everyone in Dodoma now has a photo of me! To celebrate our last night in Dodoma I went with the Transaid coordinator to meet the HGV trainers from NIT in a local bar that had a live band – to our surprise the HGV students were also there. It was a great evening, listening to a modern Swahili band, dancing and talking with everyone in a relaxed setting. On Friday we travelled back to Dar es Salaam – the Transaid coordinator wanted to provide me with an experience of a different bus company, I was advised that it was as nice as out outwards journey – this was not quite true! I soon was dreaming of my luxury seat when I was shuffling less than an hour into the journey to get a comfortable position, but everything is a learning experience! The journey home took almost an additional two hours because of the traffic on the way into Dar es Salaam, I was exhausted when I finally got home – tired enough to do what I thought was impossible and fall asleep while watching the Leeds Rhinos beat Wigan! On Sunday I made my much anticipated return to the underwater hockey team, which, for the first time since I have been in Tanzania, was held at their normal swimming pool with a flat bottom. The pool is about 10 metres longer than the other pool which surprising makes the game a lot more exerting. I played in defence this week, and while the lovely people at the hockey team said I did really well, I felt they were being a bit too nice on this occasion as my team lost by a huge margin! On a positive I managed to play for the full 90 minutes and not sustain any injuries (only a few bruises). It was a fantastic week and I am looking forward to using the information I have gained from my trip to help with my efforts to improve reporting in Dar es Salaam. |