Christmas with the President

By lute wa lutengano

Friday morning on the 26 December 2008 saw me rise from bed in a spacious room of the nature-friendly Serena Lodge perched on the rim of the amazing Ngorongoro Crater. After a quick cold shower – I love cold showers – I rushed to the restaurant for something to put into my generous tummy. But it was the fresh water melon juice which caught my attention. For reasons of the previous night’s indulgence my body was frenetically craving for this juice.

As I was filling my glass with the juice I received a soft tap on my shoulder. Turning I saw the head waiter who told me that the President was inviting me  to his breakfast table. Well what would I say? An invitation from the President, in this case the President of the United Republic of Tanzania H.E. Jakaya Kikwete, is an order, unless my Para-military National Service rules are no more.

I went and sat a few chairs from the President. “Mr. Lute I hear you come from Ilembula and I am told your mother commented something following my visit there earlier this year. What did she say?” Surely my mother had said something following the President’s visit but who had relayed the same to the Head of State?

I faithfully told the President what my mother, Rhoda, had said. She had been overjoyed by the visit and commented that much as Ilembula was a prominent village in Njombe district, having been established in the late 1890s by German missionaries and having a prominent Lutheran Church Hospital and Nursing School, no President had ever sat foot there until the coming of President Kikwete. Now that he had made it she had concluded that she was ready to peacefully die. The President was amused.

After relaying this incident to my mother the other day, she has now changed and decided she is not ready to die. She said she would try to stay alive until Kikwete concludes his presidency in year 2015. Mind you my mama is 77 years old.

The previous evening, on Wednesday 25 December, when the President arrived at the Ngorongoro Lodge, the hundreds of tourists and staff of the Conservation Authority and the Lodge were naturally thrilled that he would be spending the Christmas Night with them.

Before his arrival they were loudly wondering whether he would be able to meet them and shake their hands. True to his simplicity Kikwete did just that. After greeting the officials who had lined up to welcome him he approached the many tourists and shook their hands, greeting them “Jambo! I hope you are enjoying your visit.”  They were, to say the least, amazed.

Judy, a Canadian tour operator who had with her some 40 Canadian tourists and who had missed the arrival ceremony was wondering loudly whether she and her group would enjoy the same privilege their counterparts had of greeting the President. Proudly revelling in the great moment I assured her that the President would surely be happy to do so.

With butterflies dancing in my stomach and nervously wondering whether the President will make my day, or rather evening, Kikwete came down. I casually introduced him to the Canadian Operator. Or was I thrilled? The President not only stopped to talk to her but went ahead to say hallo to her group. Those who wanted to take pictures with him were at liberty to do so. He freely mingled and chatted with them.

As if on queue the Lodge Manager, the cool and amiable, Wilfred Shirima announced there and then that the Lodge was offering two happy hours of free drinks to all residents. The local acrobatics group and the Sounds of Serengeti from Arusha caped the evening with dancing galore.

My head grew bigger and bigger as the tourists hailed our President for what they severally called him as a ‘simple’, ‘intelligent’, ‘eloquent’, ‘handsome’ and for the youth a ‘cool dude’. Some Lodge staff simply called him ‘our Obama!’

That evening my pride for being a Tanzanian and under the Presidency of Kikwete climbed to an even higher notch. No wonder I slept with a smile on my face.

I wish you a Happy New Year! lutengano@hotmail.com.