Sept 1. 2014. Morogoro

On the way to Morogoro: street market

The sun rose, and the new morning lightened. A mild sunburst was greeting me. Today, WVT staff from Singida and Dodoma Central Zone departed for Morogoro to attend the national retreat held in Sokoine University of Agriculture. Before I left the lodge, I had to pack all my stuff up again and empty my room. Surely, I was pissed off at packing so many times. (How much the word pissed off is bad?) Moving to another location always has a problem with packing and un-packing. When I took Kenya Airways to come to Tanzania, they charged $160 for overweight luggage without any explanation. I realized later that more than 20kg was considered as overweight and have to pay $80, but one of my luggages was only 21kg. +1kg = $80… Well, it was already happened, so let’s forget about it. I mechanically put anything in the luggage and packed up all of them within 30 minutes. It did not have to be pretty well done pack because I would unpack anyway a few hours later. I could not bring these 2 big luggages to Morogoro, so I asked a favor to lodge manager, Dada Dora, to leave one of them somewhere in the lodge. Thankfully, she put my stuff in the empty office, and I said, “See you on Friday!”

We arrived!
At the student hostel in Sokoine University of Agriculture

The bus was fully crammed with 50 WV staff, and it took us Morogoro safely around 1pm. When we got here, some staff from Arusha, Dar es Salaam and any other region has already arrived and waited for lunch. I checked a list of names and realized that a total of 598 people would come! It was the big group that I have ever seen since I came to Africa. It would be a hectic 5-day of memorizing all of their faces and names. It might be impossible to remember all of them, but at least I can try to the best. I waited for an hour until our lunch was ready, and the awaited lunchtime has been started. To feed this group of 598 people, another group of workforce prepared busily to get lunch ready, and we enjoyed wali+pilao+ugali full combination. I had a strong unsatisfied feeling when I finished the first dish, so I had another one at the different line. Ha… I could never control the amount of food… By all means, I also finished my second dish, and I suddenly became tired. I wished I could the staff meeting, but I came back to the room to continue LiST analysis. There were spiders and cockroaches here and there in the room, and I killed them while I was fighting with this computer program.

I met people from Dar es Salaam and said hello. I met them when I first arrived in Tanzania and spent two days there. I did feel bad because I did not even recognize or did not remember their names, but I did still remember many Dar es Salaam people. Some people came to me and say “Mambo!” I said, “Poa!” but I was not sure whether I met them here or I already saw them somewhere long time ago. Some people ask me “Do you remember where you met me?” Oh…oh… I said, “Yes, we met in Tanzania!” lol. He disappointedly told me that we met right over there before. ‘Did we really…?’ It grew dark and I ate again for dinner; a little bit this time. It is truly a beautiful and peaceful Morogoro night. It was the first day and I did not want to work any longer. With the old K-pop streaming out of the headphone, I am enjoying this night. From tomorrow, I would have to start working and studying with full of strength. Have a good night, Morogoro!