Times in Tanzania: Dodoma city

While I"ve visited Dodoma several times before I had never spent more than a night. However, this last week I found myself marooned there as I had a meeting on Friday delayed until the following Monday. It didn't make sense to make the four hour drive back to Iringa so I decided to spend the weekend.

What I didn't know is that Dodoma was holding a large political rally over the weekend and everywhere was booked. I should have gotten a clue when on Thursday evening I asked the hotel if they had occupancy and they told me yes, but they wouldn't have for the rest of the weekend because someone booked the entire place. I found that to be a little strange but shrugged it off. It was only on Friday after I decided to stay that I realized the magnitude of the problem.

I drove around Dodoma for 2 1/2 hours checking every single accommodation option possible. Dodoma, and Tanzania in general, isn't quite up to the AirBnB or standard internet search/booking standards so much of the work still must be done on foot. I checked guesthouses and hotels ranging from $5 a night to $100 a night, with internet presence and on foot. What I found was that seriously, everywhere was booked. I even drove about 20km outside of the city but the clusters of guesthouses I found were booked. I was about to give up and go back to Iringa when a place inside the city had a room. It wasn't much but I was relieved to have gotten a place and settled in.

I spent Saturday and Sunday mainly strolling around, still wearing my mask for C-19 precautions but only spotting a few others doing the same throughout the weekend. Since I was staying downtown it was easy to walk around and check out all the wholesale shops and frantic business. I also had to get some clothes since I had come with literally no suitcase or extra clothes. I found myself one day in Market Saba Saba, a quite lively place with a mix of different types of sales. I initially tried to buy a t-shirt at a "bale auction" whereby sellers rip open bales of freshly imported second hand clothes and frantically auction them off in front of an enthusiastic crowd. I spoke with some buyers, most of whom were weeding through the bales to get good deals to sell at their larger stalls. Some people were like myself, just looking for a cheap shirt. After 15 or so minutes I did not see anything I liked (it appeared the bales were coming from a female dominated household) so I moved on and bought some underwear and a shirt from a more formal stall.

The rest of my time was quite uneventful and unlike Dar es Salaam and Arusha, Dodoma lacks cosmopolitan restaurants and hang outs though the numerous local spots are quite nice to chill at. They are just slight variations of each other, mainly outdoor bars with grilled meat and cold beer available. I'm sure there are some nice spots that I'm just not hip or privy to.

One the thing I enjoy about Tanzania is that people are quite friendly. Since I was in a "no hurry to get anywhere" mood I engaged in conversations with all kinds of people. I'm always so curious about the life story and business models of the various businesses and hustles of Tanzania but Tanzanian culture is not one that invites direct questioning. So in order to get answers one must establish some familiarity and then construct an indirect way of teasing out these questions. I spoke with fruit vendors, wholesalers of massive plastic drums, clothes sellers, and a variety of others. My other highlight was probably having the Tanzanian football league finish on Saturday night. The streets were rowdy and shouts and screams were heard when players scored. I saw a man run down the street with his shirt off like a maniac. I took a short video (below) of a procession that occurred after the game.

The hustler making customized mud flaps for motorcycles. These are very popular in Tanzania with either a god-fearing or cheeky phrase tacked on the back of a bike.