The day I cracked the system

Its a weekday and I'm in Arusha. Wanted to see the UN Criminal Court again plus get some allowance from my handler here. The bus drove in past a nice view of Kili over plains showing evidence of the recent rains with new green shoots. I read the Tanzanian sections of Paul Theroux's travelogue 'Dark Star Safari' as we tootled along. His tales of apathy, small mindedness, things falling apart, dilapidation, people preying on white people annoyed me with its authenticity. Put me in a bad mood. Some aspects of working /living here I will not miss at all. But, the negativity is only part of the picture but not the whole picture. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

Anyway, so in a grumpy mood I taxied to the UN Criminal Court hoping to see a slice of Rwanda war crimes drama. I got to the main gate where a white UN worker was having a drama with the Tanzanian Guards because she had lost her pass. I waited to hand my passport over as visitors are supposed to do and receive a pass badge. I think she thought I was a worker there because she said to me 'you, just go on though'...Um, ok. So I passed through the gate without a pass or metal detect of my person and headed to the Court. Wondered if I would get stopped at all. I had been here before so knew the courtrooms were on the 2nd floor so I jumped in an elevator and headed up there.

No one on the 2nd floor. I wandered along and saw the door to the Courtroom open. What the hey. Wandered into the empty UN courtroom with a goofy grin to see the big blue UN flag on the wall. Wandered into the hall again,laughing in inside my head at how ridiculous this all was. Im wandering aimlessly in me shorts through the complex that is housing one of the biggest war crimes trials since Nuremberg. Opening doors till finally I found a young American legal eagle who told me that trials were postponed until the New Year. Bummer.

He escorted me to a stairwell and left me there. I wandered out the complex and shot back out through a door of the main security check without challenge. Man, will I ever get to actually watch a decent length of these trials.

Manfred 1 UN 0

Now to get my allowance and get back to the Mosh...

Epilogue
Manfred never received his allowance. His handler was delayed dealing with 2 other kiwi volunteers who had recently been attacked by people grazing cattle illegally on their land. Manfred did enjoy an amazing Margarita pizza and beers, before meeting a nice porter named Evance 'raining a lot up there at the moment' and seeing the Prime Minister race through Arusha in a heavily guarded cavalcade.

Hope to see the documentary based on the experience of being a volunteer called 'The Expendables' in the new Moshi movie theatre soon.