20 hours on a bus is fun!

So, if you've kept up with my blogging you know that I've been studying a region of Tanzania called the Usangu plains, and right now I am supposed to be in the middle of a week long visit to the area to talk to the main land owners and goverment leaders involved in the evictions of pastoralists that have been happening since May last year. But, I was also not supposed to have internet connection for the entire week, yet here I am, sitting at my computer, blogging away.... so, with your powers of deduction, you assume one of two things:

1) I found a secret hidden internet cafe in the middle of nowhere, Tanzania; or
2) I am NOT in Usangu right now...but how could that be?

Well, number 2 is correct, congrats Sherlock! This past Sunday, I boarded a bus, bound for a 10 hour ride to Mbeya town, in Mbarali District, Tanzania. 10 hours passed rather uneventfully, and we arrived to discover that the following day we would have to travel for another few hours to get to the area that we were trying to go to. So on Monday, after meeting with a local official, we drove for those few hours to find the district commissioner of the Usangu area. Instead of finding her, we found another gentleman, the District Executive Director, who proceeded to tell us that we hadn't planned enough for the trip, that we were coming at a bad time, and that the District Commissioner would most likely not want to meet with us. On top of that, he told us that LEAT is widely viewed as a political position rather than as a non-profit organization, due to its association with our branch manager, Tundu Lissu, who I guess has a past in politics in Tanzania. (Understand, this was all spoken in Swahili, so I only have brief notes from a follow-up meeting and am not sure exactly what happened). Thoroughly discouraged, we spent a night in a guest house in the area, and met with the district commissioner the next day- now this woman was one BIG Mama. She also was not a big supporter of our plans, and basically told us to go home and come back later. Now, when the DC tells you to go home, you can't just ignore her, even if her reasons for doing so are based in exerting her political power rather than in any good explaination... she could have us arrested, though not held on any real charges... basically, that was the end of the Usangu trip. So yesterday, I got to get back on a bus and come 10 hours back to Dar Es Salaam, where I now sit typing on my computer back in the LEAT office.

Now, this is all well and good, I really enjoy spending money to ride for 20 hours on a bus within a 3 day period of time... really! However, I have learned a lot about the politics of the organization that I am involved in, as well as about the political corruption and power in the country. Indeed, the only question that I am left with is how I am supposed to turn this failed field study into a portion of my 20 page paper, which was really dependant on completing the interviews this week with the main stakeholders in Usangu. I am most likely going to end up writing a joint report on the history of Usangu and land law in Tanzania, and also serve as an exterior consultant to LEAT, giving them my opinions on how they could make the organization work more productively and fix the flawed reputation that they currently have across Tanzania. I have found that you must include a certain amount of flexibility in all plans in Africa, as nothing ever works out exactly how you would like....