The Foreign Service Journal, July/August 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2018 55 heavy blast. Everyone was in shock. I checked the 250-pound door I used to come in and could not believe the way it was smashed. The first thing I did was walk back to my office and make a phone call to my family at Mbezi Salasala [outside of town] and ask them two questions: Are you all safe? Did you hear a boom? The answer to both was yes. Then I told them it may have hap- pened near to my office, I wasn’t sure yet, but keep your ears on. It took me a fewminutes to secure things and find a way to go. By that time a few people had gathered on the mezzanine floor to find a way out as the Marine announced an evacuation, telling us to meet at the back because the front entrance was on fire. We decided to walk up the stairs and through the west wing door the ambassador and deputy chief of mission use to get to the office. We gathered in the backyard. But the backyard to me was not the safest place to gather. Could the building collapse? Why don’t we get out of the campus completely? We saw a ladder, which was hooked up on the barrier wall from the inside. I grabbed it and put it over the wall while some- one brought another one, which we put outside the wall facing the French embassy offices. We used those two ladders to exit to Old Bagamoyo Road, and that is where most of the victims and injured ones were taken to the hospital. Muhimbili Hospital received those with critical injuries. The fire was still heavy at the front because there were many cars parked there. The tires exploded and that made people worry even more. This had never happened to our countries, Tanzania and Kenya! I had no idea someone like the coward and killer Osama bin Laden could land tragic twin bombs in African countries simultaneously. The attack was very powerful and shook the city of Dar es Salaam and its districts. Groups of people gathered at every place in the city and district, with radio and television airing news of the bomb blast at the American embassy. By the time we were struggling to get out of the campus area, I was not feeling anything besides shock. Within half an hour I was sweating and feeling a kind of headache. I was transported with others to Mikocheni Hospital where I received treatment, and they discharged me at 8 p.m. My friend lives near the hospi- tal, and I was able to call him to give me a ride home to Mbezi Africana. No one knew my location since I had called home one minute after the explosion. That made my family contact friends, and they were focusing on Muhimbili Hospital while waiting to hear the names of those admitted or dead. God is so great! I was home by 9:30 p.m. to find family and friends had already gathered, fearing my death had happened. They were in tears with happiness celebrating my appearance. “Are you the real one and surviving?” one of my sisters-in-law asked. “Oh! Thanks to the Lord! We have been grieving since we heard about the blasts, and we could not reach you. Welcome home again!” We had a long night that day. The next day those who were not in the hospital met, and the plan was to arrange for a temporary office in the home of Public Affairs Officer Dudley Sims. Many thanks and prayers go to Mr. Sims and his family for allowing the office to relocate to their home. A big team was sent fromWashington to set up the office for business. It was great at Mr. Sims’ home because the house and the yard were big enough to accommodate most of the offices. Our mailroom office was at the back, where there was also the servant quarter. I remember that we had a lot of staff arriving to volunteer and also to work with the government of Tanzania on security issues. New equipment to run the office and so many other things were arriving every day. You can imagine how much of the pouch and mail we received and delivered. Although the mail- room was small, we worked very closely with everyone, and the business was highly successful. No complaints. Thank God. Many officials from the Department of State were visiting. We were thankful to President Bill Clinton for paying attention to the tragedy, allowing the State Department to send various teams that also helped find a new home for Embassy Dar es Salaam. They secured a temporary place at Kinondoni area, where we moved and stayed for a long time until the new land was approved on new Old Bagamoyo Road in the Msasani area. And then, another terror attack, this one in New York City. I was among the staff who were able to attend one of the trials for Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, which had a hearing in a New York court in 2001. We spent our week in New York visiting the World Trade Center. We left, and about three weeks later, 9/11 happened, claiming the lives of thousands of innocent people. May God rest all in peace! Amen. That was again painful to me. America, keep and bring Tanzanians and Kenyans together on this 20th anniversary. —Tibruss Minja