This afternoon, I took the pram with Ben in it and Esther and I walked across the dusty local streets to the other MAF compound, where there are 4 other houses for MAF staff. Esther was on her way to play with her new little friend, Elisabeth, age 4. Elisabeth is Swedish and apart from her native language, is becoming fluent in English and will soon be learning Swahili in school.
As we walked out of our compound, we greeted the guards in Swahili (very basic Swahili!!) and set off on our little journey. The first sight to greet us was a group of 7 or so Tanzanian men in orange overalls felling a large tree with the aid of a long rope, supervised by an imposing man in a khaki uniform, his arm resting on his rather large rifle. It was apparent that we had to walk through the centre of this group, which was a little unsettling, as I had correctly assumed that here was a group of prisoners from the Dodoma prison, out and about on work duty. Fortunately, Esther was distracted by the local ladies wandering past on the adjacent street, attired in bright kangas and gracefully bearing enormous loads on their heads. This took little Esther's attention away from the gun and she ambled past the prisoners without a backward glance, but full of questions as to what the ladies might be carrying and wondering, why can't Mummy carry the shopping like that when we go to the shops? (It would be a very messy affair if I did try such a skill- it wouldn't take long for the contents of the shopping to fall off and be strewn all over the ground!!)
Once on compound B, Esther ran off to play with her new friends in the communal garden, whilst Ben and I shared a cup of tea with Elisabeth's mum and admired Elisabeth's 4 month old brother. When it was time to go home, I went outside to find Esther. Following the sound of great shrieks of glee, I discovered Esther and 4 other little friends being wheeled around by the Tanzanian guard in a wheelbarrow- and there was Esther, sitting up front, with a little Dutch girl, 2 Swedish children and another little English boy! A multi-cultural barrow of children, with a Tanzanian escort!
We walked home, to the amusement of many of the local teenageers, who enjoy shouting to the "wazungu" (white people) as we pass them. I'm not sure yet whether I should be happy that I can't understand what they are saying, or whether they are being friendly! On arrival at our home, we made hasty preparations and then joined Mark Laprini, a South African MAF pilot we met whilst we lived in South Africa. He is here in Dodoma for a few days and was taking us out for dinner at the city's main hotel, to their Chinese restaurant. So we ate Chinese food, with a South African, in the Tanzanian capital, after a day with a mixed group of nationalilties... This is our new life with MAF: a real cross-cultural experience.
As for venturing into the city centre of Dodoma, I am still coming to terms with the fact that we really do stand out with our white skins. It is strange to be in an environment where we are so obviously foreign and it can feel very uncomfortable at times. Yesterday, however, I did draw comfort from the fact that other European MAF staff seem perfectly at ease. Our Irish neighbour kindly offered to accompany me to town, lending me her husband's bike and child-seat. So Esther and I joined JulieAnne and her daughter, also Esther Elizabeth (!!), and we had a great time being shown the sights and facilities of Dodoma- the post office, the local Asian foodstore, the chemist's, the smaller market stalls and, most importanatly of all, the ice-cream "parlour" where we stopped for an ice-cream, despite the powercut, and treated our Esthers to a cool vanilla/strawberry ice-cream- a comfortingly familiar taste, in the midst of our new cross-cutural experience!
Off to town on our bikes, with the Two Esthers in tow!
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