Slow and steady wins the race....

Hello and thanks for checking out my blog.....

I have been busy traveling over the New Year and have made some helpful connections as always. But first, before the travel I was able to spend some quality time with 2 of the children of Imuma Center for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children right after Christmas.
We took Salumu and Joyce on a little holiday back to Kigamboni for a break from the orphanage and some peaceful time on the beach. Neither of the children had ever been away from Bagamoyo so the experience of traveling through the city and then coming to the beach was a wonderful one for them... I hope to be able to do the same with others some day.

So the travel to Arusha and Moshi, 8 - 9 hours from 'Home' was interesting as well as provided some cool weather for this North American girl. I actually had to wear a sweatshirt one evening. I did feel a little guilt about staying in a European hotel with warm showers and paying $7 or $8 dollars for a dinner. But the warm shower did feel good!!!! I was struck there by the presence for so many street children in Arusha. Young boys on the street begging, stealing, dirty and desperate...

Bushman (Durban) tells me that they sniff gas to get high... then I asked where the street girls are... though he was not sure...the only thing for sure is that you can find them in the park at night, prey to men looking for a prostitute... though I don't have any idea what is being done or can be done about this situation, it weighs heavy on my mind. I also observed other acts of desperation in the city of Arusha... The local mode of transportation here in Tanzania is either a 'dala dala', a taxi, or a motorcycle taxi. The dala dala is a small bus (like a 15 passenger van) that holds around 20- 25 people and they come by non-stop at different stands and will stop on a dime for someone walking along the side of the road. I have observed many times that the workers on the dala dala will come out onto the side of the road when they see woman looking for which dala dala to hop on, and these men will actually grab the woman and her child and pull them toward their vehicle. They are so desperate for the customer that the competition is fierce. Also, while on a dala dala. or on a traditional bus, the locals will come along the side of the windows at every stop, holding up their goods, water, fruit, nuts, gum, as well as cheap goods from China, hair clips, cell phone holders, etc., and will compete at your window…. (6 people crowded by your window, begging for you to buy from them) in hopes that you will purchase a 50 cent item from them... This is the case here in Africa... desperate to make a living any way possible...

My travels brought me to a village 1.5 hours outside of Arusha, Mtombu, close to Manyala National Park, where many tourists stop on their way to Safari. A friend of Durban's has some land for sale there and was curious as to whether this might be a good site for a volunteer house/ tourist guesthouse in terms of helping to fund the NGO in the future. The land was purchased from Masai and is right in the middle of Masai land. Though this piece of property was quite desolate, the area does have potential for some type of income producing project for the NGO. Here, I observed Masai men herding hundreds of cows, and young Masai boys 'in training' I suppose, herding hundreds of goat. And then even the youngest of boys, 2 and 3 years old, walking around with a stick in their hand mimicking the older boys and men, preparing themselves for the future life of herding animals. This day turned out to be quite the adventure. As we left the city of Arusha we saw people running from all directions toward the street and people on the bus standing to see what was happening. As we drove by the site of great interest, I saw for the first time in my life a man, laying a pool of blood... thought to be dead, hit by a vehicle while riding his bicycle. An emotional moment for me... traveling in this foreign country away from the comforts of home dealing with the intensity of this situation. It took a bit, with the support of my friend Durban, for me to gather up myself and move on. Then on the way home we were on the dala dala and it ran out of gas in the middle of the Masai desert. After waiting for one of the workers to hop on another dala dala passing, go to gather gas at the nearest town and return on a vehicle heading back in our direction, our tank was replenished and we were on our way...or so we thought. till a man behind us was yelling some Swahili words and the dala dala pulled over again... we had a punctured tire. Thank God these people are resourceful!!!! ... 6 men on the dala dala lifted the vehicle, they removed the tire and replaced it with a spare in a short time and we were on our way again... An exhausting day I will not forget!!!

So this travel brought me to 2 NGOs in the Arusha and Moshi area. The first was a Christian based organization that was established 100 years ago. Though their purpose is quite different then what my goals are, the American directors of this site were most helpful and hospitable. They had really good advice for me, invited us to lunch and spent the afternoon chatting and sharing ideas. They are going to connect me with 2 different organizations that I believe could be helpful to me in my work. One is an organization that digs well by hand but the process is quite intriguing, and the other is a program that installs pumps in wells powered by a merry go round... you know the type you find in an American playground. They place the merry go round close to the well, the children run, push and play, and the pump pulls water from the well!!!! I want to install one of these here some day!!!!

The next place we visited was an orphanage run by the Lutheran Church. The interesting concept of this home is that they have a training center for young women to learn how to teach young children... very similar to the one I directed at Champlain College 12 years ago. These young women train, study and then care for the children of this center. I love this idea... sticking this one under my hat!

Lastly, we visited a Vocational Center called KIDT... www.kidt.co.tz. Take a moment to check out what they do there... I was most interested in the briquette factory, the earthenware factory, and the bio gas plants. I believe that these concepts can be implemented in a village to create jobs and income to the men and women of the village. We were escorted through the plants by an elderly man who spoke amazingly good English and was extremely informative, encouraging and inspiring. I hope to return to visit him again some day when I am ready to implement one of these projects in a village!

Though the research I have done so far has been interesting and will prove to be helpful some day... the process is slow. But slow and steady wins the race!!!

Cheers and love to all my family and friends! Thanks for your support!