Customer Service

Tanzania has recently changed how its driving licenses work and everyone has to get new ones. It's a rather obnoxiously long process and I could complain about how ridiculous it is (and expensive!) for a very long blog post, but I thought I'd share the positive side of the experience instead.

In order to get an eye exam for my new license (you have to prove that you can see before they let you drive, which is reasonable enough), I had to go to the local government hospital. I'd never been there before and was really confused about where I was supposed to go when I got there. I expected there to be a large building with a front door and just inside it an office with a big sign that said something like "Reception". But instead, I entered the hospital gates and saw about fifteen small and medium-size buildings and no signs anywhere. Long story short, I wandered around for a while and asked some people where to go and ended up at a woman's office. She directed me to where the eye clinic was. However, upon getting there I found out that I had to go to the registration desk and then to the cashier and only then could I go to the eye clinic for my exam. Well, I ended up back at that kind woman's office. She took one look at my lost self and left her office, took my by the hand and led me to the registration desk several buildings away and then pointed out where the cashier's office was in a different building and made sure I knew how much I was supposed to pay at each place and what papers I was supposed to pick up at each.

As part of a different stage in the process I had to go to the police station. I ended up going five times, although technically one could do everything in only one trip. I didn't have the correct papers at first, so a kind police officer told me exactly what I needed. The second time their power was out and he came out and found me in line and explained the problem and told me to just leave and try again the next day. The next day I came back and he saw my truck pull into the parking lot and went out to meet me. Instead of going into the back office and waiting, he took me straight up to the office where they actually do the work of the licenses. As a side note, that office is carpeted and so we had to take off our shoes before entering. Due to some complications of me being the first non-Tanzanian he'd done this process with, I had to go to a different government office and then come back. But he called ahead and told them I was coming and what the problem was so when I got there, they were ready for me and I didn't have to wait. Then I came back and he quickly finished his part of the job and explained all of my remaining steps to me so I would know which other places I had to go to in which order in order to get my license.

So the whole process has been a bit of an ordeal, but I've been blessed along the way with some nice people who realize that it's an ordeal and are happy to help. Neither of them asked for anything in return; they were just kind to a confused foreigner who was trying to follow their country's laws.