Against all odds,....We made it to Lindi

“Don’t you dare go through that road guys, you won’t make it, unless you want to spend some days in the jungle” we were warned, “if you want it to be written-off then drive through that road”. A colleague told us to move on, that we will make it, “it’s not that bad guys, its passable, you try and you’ll see” he convinced us. It’s what we got two weeks before as we were making final preparations for our trip. We nearly reschedule the plan, but we decided to rely on the colleague’s words, we hit the road at eight o’clock on the cool Sunday morning, and here we are.

It is said that “He who wills the end wills the means”, these friends and colleagues of ours who live and work in Lindi, have the point in warning us, they must have been through that road several times, I’m sure, they must have had a very good or bad experience on it, they know what they were saying. Some of us, in the Flame Tree Media Trust team this was the first time and first experience, we never knew what to expect or who to believe to, it was really intimidating and yet interesting journey, we are not that Thomaso, no, but we have mission to accomplish, Effective Rural Photojournalism Coaching in Lindi Region, that’s all.

Everything looked great as we started the voyage, we voluntarily stopped at several police checkpoints that were almost after every ten kilometers from Mbagala up to before Mkapa Bridge, but not after, to chat with them and inquire more about the situation of the road stretching long ahead. They all assured us that we would make it, “for the weather is in our favour”. They pointed out, and it was after closing the Mkapa Bridge that the show began.

It’s only a 60 kilometers piece out of 457 km that is worse and mostly frustrating, from the bridge to Somanga, we found some cars stuck in the mud at some area, passengers stranded at some point, and we nearly stuck at Bendera Moja (actually it’s a sack flag). Under normal circumstances, this journey could have taken some six to seven hours but it surprisingly took us about ten hours.

They say that it is always darkest before dawn, the most problematic area of all is exactly one kilometer before you reach the tarmac road at Somanga, it is known as Manzese, is there any connection to the one in Dar? We don’t know, but all’s well that ends well, thanks God we made it despite the challenges confronted.

It is the FTMT-TMF tight schedule before us that made us take that adventure, for the coaching of Effective Rural Photojournalism for six regions in this fiscal year needs to go on no matter what, and Lindi is the first on the list. We seek to address the gap of rural reporting by coaching photographers to practice photojournalism, which is lacking in the country. In fact, those obstacles are the opportunities for us who belongs behind the camera.