My full fellowship team met in the hotel lobby in the morning. Gökhan had arrived after a quick trip to Turkey over the weekend for a wedding and managed a smile even given his early morning arrival into Dar Es Salaam and having only had a few hours of sleep.

Alex joined us and we tumbled into the truck for the drive to the NGO headquarters.  Dar looked decidedly less modern up close. It looked like many cities in the developing world—half finished buildings and finished buildings missing final elements  Sidewalks that appeared and disappeared.  Street hawkers selling random items The traffic was busy but moving. Someone made a remark about the luck of missing the morning rush—and there ensued a discussion on the different meanings between “knocking on wood” and “biting your tongue” and what was appropriate for this situation. I am still not sure who thought what was most correct; however, the traffic suddenly stopped and we were stuck in gridlock. After a bit of a detour on side roads and bumping along on dirt roads in a residential area, we arrived  at the headquarters, which was a converted house in a residential neighborhood close to the expat area.

We were given a tour of the building and met the NGO team.  Polite introductions were made and we assembled into the main conference room (AKA the board room) to discuss the project with the leadership team.

Further introductions were made and the country head of the NGO took charge. We provided a lengthy introduction to the project and welcomed us. He was also careful to cover how we were to be introduced to the officials we were to meet and the protocol involved.

Charts were drawn of the different ward, district and regional roles in the different functional areas encompassing health and government functions. Lines connected different titles like a game of connect the dots.  At the end it looked like a big bowl of alphabet soup with spaghetti added in for good measure.

He turned to us and asked us who our leader was. We all looked at each other and then answered we were a team. He asked again who our leader was. Again, we looked at each other knowing that we were a team that didn’t have a leader. We each had different skills and different titles back home, but here we were a team of equals.

He asked again with a bit of impatience. Who was our leader? It was clear that we needed a leader.  It was a first hint that things here are very hierarchical and that in the web of bureaucracy that it was important to have clearly defined roles.

He looked again at us when we didn’t answer, he announced that Helen was our leader. It might have been her red hair that made the difference.