Communities on a Human Scale

I have to give some credit to my old roommate Mr. Jesse Hugo, Masters in Urban Planning, for being the first person to explain many of these ideas to me. If you want him to plan your urban area just send him an email.

There is something much more satisfying about the scale communities in Tanzania are built to. Because most people don’t own cars everything is built to a “human scale”. In other words, everything you might need on a given day is within walking distance – friends, food, medicine, beer, school, privacy, church, etc. People can – and do – quite easily live their whole lives without using motorized transportation.

Houses are close enough together that neighbors are in shouting distance, but have enough space that everyone can have a small farm and some animals. Streets are wide enough for single lane traffic but are primarily used for foot traffic. There is no “zoning” dictating land use. You are free to use land as you wish. Thus, if a market opportunity comes up people can pursue it from their front lawn or their living room. Many people will set up small vegetable stands on the side of the road or will turn an extra room of their house into a bar or a small shop. Other than meat, fruits, and vegetables most supplies are still shipped in from outside, but the community is much more self-contained than what we find in America.

Look outside your window right now. Any people out there? If you live in a typical American neighborhood there probably aren’t many people who aren’t inside cars or plugged into MP3 players. If you feel like talking to someone or being social what will you do? You probably have a relatively small group of friends you feel comfortable calling and asking to hang out and even then something probably needs to be scheduled – you don’t want to interfere with their lives. When was the last time someone just stopped by and rang your doorbell? Perhaps this is why so many Americans suffer from feelings of depression, loneliness, and isolation. Perhaps this also contributes to a general disregard for the notion of “community” once we leave colleges and other places built on a human scale.

Maybe the best way to explain this is to imagine a Wednesday evening where you’ve gotten off work early and are home at 5pm. What to do? It’s too early for dinner and you’re not sure which of your friends will also be off work already. You could just go to a bar but the likelihood of happening to see someone you know is small and you don’t want to sit and drink alone. Maybe you can go for a walk. That’s nice but if you’re feeling social you probably won’t run into anyone. Television is always tempting.

In Mkyashi you could just walk down the street. You would see plenty of people doing this and that whom you could stop and talk to briefly. Eventually you would walk by some of the usual meeting spots and you would easily be able to see who was hanging out there and was also done with work for the day. You certainly wouldn’t feel isolated.

I could go on giving examples like this. How well do you know your neighbor’s children? What would the effect be on the community if we all knew and cared about our neighbor’s kids more?

I certainly don’t want to be one of those people who travels around the world and talks about how much better everywhere else is than USA. I love the USA and miss it every day. I’m excited to get back home! But there are definitely some pieces of life that just make more sense in other countries. Our preoccupation with large homes, large lawns, large shopping centers, and large cars separates us from our shared humanity and isolates us.

While I wax poetic about the virtues of human scale, many Tanzanians are working hard to achieve the higher status homes and isolation of the United States. New communities are being built based on and American model of development. Jesse explained to me the same thing is happening in Brazil. Many people around the world see America as a dream to achieve and they work towards an “American luxury lifestyle” regardless of whether those status symbols will actually improve their happiness. I like to imagine what a wealthy community in the United States would look like if it was built on a human scale. I think I’d like it. It might look similar to East Nashville or Park Avenue in Winter Park minus the snobbery.

The Rainy Season is Here!

The rainy season is finally here! We may not like rain so much in the United States, but in Tanzania they say “Mvua ni Chakula” – Rain is Food. Rain is also cool nights, no more dust, and no more walking to get water – now it falls off the roof in buckets.

Everyone is hard at work now planting their crops and preparing everything for cultivation. If it’s a good rainy season then in a few months everyone should have good crops to sell and consume. Hopefully it will be a good season for everyone and we will be celebrating the harvest in a few months, Mungu akipenda – if God wishes.

A Rambling and Possibly Inaccurate Analysis of Dar es Salaam

Kipepeo Beach off the coast of Dar. A quiet escape from the city.

Tanzania is a fascinating place to travel. The landscape changes quickly from dramatic mountains to flat desert to fertile rolling farmlands to savannahs spotted with kopjis and finally to beautiful beaches. With over 150 tribes speaking 120 distinct languages, the people change even faster. Watching the world go by out the window of a bus is a treat, and you never know what will be greeting you at a new destination.

In truth, Dar es Salaam was not a new destination for me. I had been there before and I had hated it. My first time in Dar was with Alli. We had arrived en route to Zanzibar and had to stay overnight because we missed the ferry out to the island. Our experience started when we got off our bus at dusk and were converged upon by taxi drivers hoping to get one more good fare before the end of the day. The drivers were aggressive. The pushed and grabbed and shouted. We ended up “choosing” to go with the taxi driver who snatched our bags and ran to his car with them. We said we wanted to go to the ferry terminal and he proceeded to drive us to the wrong ferry terminal and sped away.

By the time we arrived at the right ferry terminal the last ferry’s had left (we watched it leave from the wrong terminal) so we had to purchase a ticket for the next morning. The ferry terminal itself was another nightmare. There were only three ferries running from Dar to Zanzibar, but there were dozens of “offices” along the terminal. “Agents” hustled and grabbed to bring you into their office and collect a commission. We were followed by five or six men representing different offices who would not leave us alone no matter how many times we told them we didn’t need help and wanted them to leave.

Eventually we settled on the most respectable looking ticket office – they even gave us milk, cereal, and juice – and then set off to find an ATM. Alli stayed in the ticket office with our bags and once again I led a trail of men to the ATM. The ATM is not a place you want a trail of people following you, so I took some unexpected turns and tried to use traffic to my advantage to lose my followers. Somehow it worked and I got the money and made it back safely to the ticket office. We purchased our tickets and were all set for the next day. The agent helped us get a cab to take us to our hotel and negotiated a reasonable fare for us. Unfortunately, once we arrived our cab driver insisted we had agreed on a higher fare and need to pay him more. He followed us all the way into the hotel until the hotel security guard had to escort him out.

Needless to say, since then I never had much of a yearning to return to Dar. Then, I got invited to Dar for TPM. Of course I wanted to accept the meeting, and I figured I might as well give the city another try. I’m glad I did.

Dar es Salaam is a unique coastal city that takes Tanzanian, Indian, and Western culture and grinds them together until it all feels natural. Office towers of shiny glass rise above traffic jams and hustling people with motorbikes weaving in and out of everywhere. You can find shops with window displays selling iPhones, Nikes, and flat-screen TVs and sitting in front of them will be women selling homemade chapattis and tea out of buckets. Flashy hotels for diplomats and businesspeople are side by side with churches, mosques, temples, and used good dealers. One of my favorite parts of the city is the ubiquity of used book dealers. I bought a pair of books by John Steinbeck – “Of Mice and Men” and “The Short Reign of Pippin IV” – for a couple dollars.

After spending a few enjoyable hours in Dar I started telling people about my previous experiences. Nobody was surprised to hear about them. It turns out that the bus stand and the ferry terminal are known for being some of the most hellish places in the city. Even locals told me they would go out of their way to avoid these places.

The relationship between Tanzanian, Indian, and Western cultures is fascinating. On the surface it can seem like a beautiful coexistence and mix of cultures; an up and coming postmodern city. However, closer inspection necessitates a more critical account. First, a very unofficial and unverified history.

Tanzania is possibly the “birthplace of man.” We’ll never know for sure but, in any case, humans have been living here for millennia. So for thousands of years various tribes spread out across Tanzania including what is now Dar and lived as subsistent farmers, fishermen, cattle herders, and nomads. There is very little evidence of the great civilizations of the Nile ever reaching as far south as Tanzania, so the first “outsiders” would have started reaching the coast of Tanzania starting around 1000 AD. Explorers came to Tanzania from Persia, India, and the kingdoms of modern day China to trade – exploit – in spices, ivory, minerals, and people. A massive Arab trading empire was set up that stretched up the coast of much of East Africa.

This went on until around the 17^th or 18^th century when European colonists arrived with very much the same intentions. The area that is now mainland Tanzania become “Tanganyika” under German colonization and then “British East Africa” under British rule until Tanzania’s independence in the second half of the 20^th century. During British rule colonists undertook a variety of major infrastructure projects to make exploitation easier. The British found the Africans difficult to work with so they brought in Indians – they had a lot of experience controlling Indians at this point – to act as middle men between themselves and the laborers. So there would have been a few British colonists living very comfortably and giving orders to Indians who were “above” Africans on account of their slightly lighter skin color who would then pass on and enforce orders to the Africans.

When the British left and Tanzanian gained independence, much of the wealth and power stayed in the hands of Indians. Years of brutal labor and British class distinctions had built up significant distrust and tension between Indian Africans and Black Africans. That tension remains today and is made worse because Indians continue to live more prosperously than most local people.

This colonial era distribution of power remains today behind a thin veil. Most of the big businesses putting up skyscrapers and fancy hotels in Dar and extracting millions of dollars in gold, tanzanite, and diamonds are owned by Western firms. The middle class in Dar is mostly Indians. They own most of the formal restaurants and shops and import most of the new and used goods which they sell to Black Africans to distribute at lower margins and volumes. Take the example of used books.

Those books were originally printed by major publishing houses in Europe and USA. Eventually they found their way into Tanzania where Indians buy them in bulk and then sell them to Black Tanzanians to peddle on street corners.

Most of the Black Tanzanians I talk to will say very negative things about the Indians. They are greedy, they are cruel bosses, they care only about money. Most of the Indians I talk to will say very negative things about Black Tanzanians. They are lazy, they can’t be trusted, they are dangerous. It’s a delicate situation. Black Tanzanians often explained to me that Indians don’t like to mix with them and will send their kids to separate schools out of fear. One Indian shop owner I talked to explained to me that many Indian Tanzanians struggle with their identity. Tanzania is not “home” to them because they are not accepted, have no representation in government, and feel a cultural divide. India is not home to them because they were not born there, don’t have citizenship, and often don’t speak the language. Hovering above all of this are Western businessmen, diplomats, and tourists – often blissfully naïve of the entire system. I’m sure everyone has words to say about them (me)!

As Dar continues to grow it will have a number of problems – from traffic jams to race relations – that it will have to deal with. But I believe the future is bright for the city. It has beautiful beaches, industrious people, and a central location on the coast of East Africa. I am happy I got to return and explore this city one more time!

3/12 Update

It’s been a while since our last blog update. Blame it on the rolling power and network outages as well as a very busy schedule as of late. In any case, a lot has happened so I’ll try to give a brief run-down of recent progress.

First, on Thursday I returned from a trip to Dar es Salaam. It was a whirlwind trip. I left Mkyashi early Tuesday morning and arrived in Dar some thirteen hours later. The Dutch Embassy had invited a member of TPM to come and share about our work. The meeting was at 9:30am on Wednesday so I went to the meeting first thing in the morning, spent a few hours afterwards taking advantage of internet access in Dar, and then spent the afternoon and evening exploring what turned out to be one of the most unique cities I’ve ever been to. More on the city in another post, for now I’ll focus on the meeting.

It turns out that the Netherlands is pulling its funding from Tanzania. Budget cuts and other austerity measures have forced it to narrow its focus in Africa significantly. It will maintain a small team at the embassy focused on economic policy and foreign affairs but will no longer provide foreign aid. But all was not lost.

As it turns out one of the embassy’s Policy Officers, Theresia, is actually from Mkyashi. Mkyashi is a tiny village. Even a few miles away people won’t know what you’re talking about if you say Mkyashi. As such, she was very surprised to see a project focused on economic development in Mkyashi come across her desk. We talked for a couple of hours and she shared with me that she knows a number of people who have family roots in Mkyashi but have moved away to pursue opportunity. Theresia believes there is an enormous opportunity to engage the knowledge and expertise of these people who have gone on to become doctors, business people, and development experts.

This was an exciting connection and one that could truly get to the ideal of “Tuko Pamoja” – “We Are Together.” Theresia and I plan on keeping in touch and starting a serious dialogue about how we might be able to get people who have left Mkyashi to come back and assist with projects related to their areas of expertise.

Second, the FAITH Garden program is set to go for this tomorrow (Wednesday).  We have secured a plot of land in the village for a training garden and a small shop from which to sell garden supplies. Today I went down to Kahe alone to meet with Deo, who runs the garden program in Kahe. It was exciting to see the program and to begin thinking how we can adapt Mkyashi. Mary and Lyimo are excited to come down tomorrow and begin learning. Our first step will be  making high quality compost. Should be fun, right?!

The future home of our garden shop! Hoping to post some good before and after pictures.

The future garden site! Again, it will be more impressive in the before and after pictures.

Third, our entrepreneur program continues to make progress. On Thursday Emmanual finally purchased his pigs! We had spent a long time building a business plan and learning about best practices for raising pigs and he was so excited to finally be getting started. This marks the second entrepreneur in just over a month we have helped to start a business. We will continue to monitor the success of Mama Regan’s chapatti business and Emmanual’s pig project as well as working with a number of other entrepreneurs to work towards their goals. Emmanual is hoping to expand to chickens next.

Emmanual’s pigs! He got give in total. Two females and one male. Don’t worry, these little guys are for breeding, not bacon.

We have also been exploring other ways to help expand the local economy. VICOBAs (Village Community Banks) may end up being a key partner in this mission. For those who have kept up with this blog, you will be familiar with VICOBAs. We have been trying to find the best way to partner with these locally initiated projects for a while now.

We’re still discussing options but one idea that has come up is for TPM to help VICOBAs implement profit generating projects as a group. These projects would be looked after by members of the VICOBAs (each VICOBA has about 30 members) and profits from the projects would be deposited into the bank to help increase capital and enable group members to take out larger loans. By the end of the month we hope to have determined exactly how TPM can help these projects get started.

It’s hard to believe it’s only been a month and a half since we got started on the ground! Much has happened and even more has been planned. The next month or so should be very exciting as plans start to be implemented and projects take shape.

Waiting in Africa

 

It is impossible to read a book about Africa or listen to any first-hand account without hearing something about waiting and delays. Fallen “Three Cups of Tea” hero Greg Mortenson blames a life-long habit of tardiness on his Tanzanian upbringing. Some people are disgusted by the delays they have to deal with in Africa – what an insult to be kept waiting! Others view the “pole pole” pace as charming side effect of “underdevelopment” – a cultural oddity they can observe on vacation but would never allow into their professional lives. Paul Theroux, in “Dark Star Safari” – his account of a pan-African journey from Cairo to Cape Town – offers one of my favorite monologues of the African pace:

It sometimes seems as though Africa is a place you go to wait. Many Africans I met said the same thing, but uncomplainingly, for most lived their lives with a fatalistic patience. Outsiders see Africa as a continent delayed – economies in suspension, societies up in the air, politics and human rights put on hold, communities throttled or stopped. “Not yet,” voices of authority have cautioned Africans throughout the years of colonization and independence. But African was not the same as American time. One generation in the West was two generations in Africa, where teenagers were parents and thirty-year-olds had one foot in the grave. As African time passed, I surmised that the pace of Western countries was insane, that the speed of modern technology accomplished nothing, and that because Africa was going its own way at its own pace for its own reasons, it was a refuge and a resting place, the last territory to light out for. I surmised this, yet I did not always feel it; I am impatient by nature.

I have only been to Tanzania, so I can only speak of waiting in delays for one country. The first thing to realize about this change of pace is that as an outsider I will never really understand it. I can only see it through the lens I have grown up in – that of an American. That lens is thick with assumptions. Speed, efficiency, quick turnaround, and punctuality are all words we hold in high-esteem. 3G, 4G, 5G? Next-Day Shipping. Punctuality is the politeness of princes. In America we assume faster is better, and the way our culture is built, faster does fit in better. But Tanzania has a different culture that requires a different speed. What it has taken me three trips now to discover is that I cannot simply compare American speed to Tanzanian speed. I have to take Tanzanian speed on its own terms because it exists within a complex cultural structure that I will never understand.

High-speed doesn’t fit in with the other values of Tanzanian culture. Interestingly, while there are many words related to “hurrying” in Swahili, none of them have Bantu roots. Swahili is a language made up of words from Bantu and Arabic languages. The Bantu words reflect Tanzanians African roots and the Arabic words reflect the influence of Persian traders on East Africa centuries ago. All of the words meaning hurry – haraka, lazima, shidda, juhudi – are based in Arabic. There is a saying in Tanzania, Haraka haraka haina baraka – literally translated to, fast fast there is no blessing.

So, there is a cultural reason for waiting that visitors to Tanzania must not try to judge on their own terms. All we can do is take it for what it is and learn to adapt ourselves. Either that or stay on American time and go crazy.

Cultural explanations are important to understand and may help explain some of the more technical reasons for waiting.

I find myself waiting many times because of technological failures. The power goes out, the internet is down, the ATM isn’t working, and the cellphone signal has three bars but there is a “network failure.” Sometimes – many times – I have to wait for government officials. Maybe, they’re waiting for me to pay a “facilitation fee” before allowing me to move on. Last week I was in a line of 15 people with just one official working at the window. In the window next to her another official was sitting in his booth with his window closed finishing his lunch and looking at us. Other times there are delays because, what’s the rush? It can be maddening at first until you learn to plan for it, deal with it, and enjoy it.

I always have a book to read and a pad of paper to write and take notes. In Tanzania you are never far from a beer or a soda. So, when delays hits – enjoy it. On my last two delays I found a rooftop bar in Marangu I had never known about and met a potential future business partner. I’m looking forward to my next delay.

Progress Update

It’s been an exciting week! We welcomed Mary, her new baby, and Mosses back to the TPM team. Mary has returned for good from Mtwara in the southern coastal region of Tanzania and Mosses is just back for a couple of weeks before returning for his last trimester of college. It’s great to be back and we are already making more progress because of their presence.

On Monday I offered Mary the job of being in charge of the vegetable gardening programming we are hoping to begin in the coming weeks. She accepted enthusiastically and immediately hired Babu Lyimo as her assistant. This will be a team that does great things! Mary is hardworking and energetic and she brings an entrepreneurial energy to everything she does. She also has a huge heart and is excited to be given the opportunity to help some of the poorer families in her community.

Lyimo brings experience, professionalism, and language skills to the team. He was a team leader for a contracting company for many years before losing his leg and he knows about project management and village politics. It will be exciting to see what this team can accomplish!

Mosses and I have some meetings lined up with various local organizations that we are hoping to support. Mosses started a youth group a couple of years ago that seeks to create local employment opportunities, so we will definitely be meeting with them. We are also hoping to continue meeting with Mama Betty.

Just yesterday I finally worked through the last step in the loan process with Bosco before actually applying. He now has his business plan, his bank account, and his Tax ID #. This was a very valuable learning experience. Once we know the process we can help more entrepreneurs – and we do have many more in the pipelines – to secure financing for their projects, big and small. I believe that it is very important to get people working in the formal financial sector. The government of Tanzania has recently passed legislation making it much easier for small farmers and other business people to access capital for their projects via low interest loans. Getting into the formal financial sector provides much quicker pathways to growth and prosperity. Local microfinance can help people get started in business and learn the basics, but most local organizations aren’t able to provide funding for more than around $100 per loan. Bigger loans mean bigger businesses and more jobs. Additionally, working in the formal financial sector means entrepreneurs build credit and relationships at banks that they wouldn’t build with small microfinance institutions. Our goal is to create a solid microfinance organization that produces entrepreneurs capable of taking out banks loans within a few years.

So it’s been a busy week and no doubt next week will bring more challenges, opportunities, and progress. Thanks for the support!

Out and About in Mkyashi

Some things never change, like Scola’s ability to chug soda.

A typical Sunday in Mkyashi – bibis hanging out after church drinking Mbege, the local banana beer.

Asante (left) and his sister Haika after Asante received his First Communion last week along with about 100 other kids in Mkyashi.

Just a little Saturday afternoon fun.

It’s nice to live in a place where even a casual walk to a friends house can be beautiful.

Mary’s baby! So happy to finally meet her.

Getting a bath.

Progress with perks.

Did we mention about the waterfalls? Here is the bottom two thirds of Ndoro falls. It’s about 80 feet tall.

I really can’t explain other than to say that I love Haika’s onesy.

Babu Lyimo’s new baby cow, just two days old.

Ethical Dilemmas

The primary goal of everything TPM does is to “Cultivate Prosperity.” “Cultivate” implies that the process is a slow one and one that must be cared for and looked after over time. There are no quick solutions to poverty and personal growth. To “prosper” is to flourish, thrive, grow, and succeed. It’s not about money or material wealth; it’s about having your basic needs met and being able to become what you want to be in life. So we are on a long, slow path to self-fulfillment and personal growth. Our major projects during the 2013 program are aimed at helping people achieve this long-term security and personal success. Short-term band aids and hand-outs feel good for the giver, but they inhibit long-term solutions and the personal growth of recipients. Further, they cheapen the impact of any long-term solutions being cultivated in the community – why should anyone work hard to cultivate prosperity alongside us if others are being given things? – and create a culture of dependency where people have no imperative to get creative.

So that is a brief background of some of my philosophies gained from multiple trips to Mkyashi and much studying of charitable aid and economic development.

On Wednesday evening after a long day of meetings with local officials and entrepreneurs I came back home to call Bank of America and try to sort out an issue with my debit card. Obviously, I was put on hold for a very long time – worst bank ever. I was sitting in a chair with my Blackberry open on speakerphone and my debit card out in front of me when Honorata (name changed) came into the room and sat down beside me. I have known Honorata since the first time I came to Tanzania three years ago. She is a tiny, strong woman who has somehow managed to produce nine children and she is always very sweet. She sits next to me with a cup of tea and waits for me to finish on the phone. As she sits there, I wonder why she has come. Maybe she just wants to visit, but maybe she has a business idea she wants to talk to me about! Maybe after years of being dependent upon handouts she is finally ready to take control and become independent. She is fidgety and seems uncomfortable as I finish up my phone conversation.

I hang up my fancy telephone (in Africa Blackberrys are still considered fancy), put away my debit card to an American bank account and begin the usual extended pleasantries that are customary in Tanzania. At this point I’m still smiling stupidly and hoping that she has come to discuss some idea. Almost immediately she says the words “shida” – problem – and I know I’m in for the ask. She explains to me that she needs money for two of her kids’ school fees.

I’ve told myself since before I left that I am not going to give away money in this manner. I’m not going to buy soda and cookies for kids, I’m not going to buy beers for people at the local bar, and I’m not going to give away money for school fees or flour. I believe that if I set a precedent from the start and prove that the other projects we are working on can be successful, people will stop seeing me as a source of free money and start seeing me as a potential partner who is willing to help them become self-sufficient however I can. Additionally, I am working with money from donors, and they did not donate to TPM so that I could just give money away. It was donated because people believed in programs that could create lasting change.

It all sounded logical and easy when I thought it through in America, but now here I am with a fancy cell phone and a debit card telling a mother with nine kids and no job that I simply can’t give her money. Even when I say no she continues to look at me expectantly. Clearly, this is not her first rodeo and she has obviously seen the material signs of wealth in front of me. I explained to her that in the next few weeks we will begin the implementation of a gardening program and that I would love to make her family one of the first to get training and supplies to begin their vegetable garden. She looks at me indifferently and is no doubt disappointed not to be leaving with cash in hand, but she thanks me and we schedule a time for me to come to her home to plan the garden. I know I have let her down and that the next few weeks will be difficult for her. I know I could have eased that short-term difficulty by giving her a bit of money. But I firmly believe that I have to stick to this principle if TPM is going to create the kind of change we want to see.

I do not believe that giving money to Honorata would have truly made a difference in her life. I would have had to do the same thing next month and the month after and I’m not planning to spend my whole life here, so eventually she would be in this same position. Better to stop now and find a solution. Still she is a hard-working and genuine woman and it was heart-breaking to say no to her. But we have to take that energy and turn it into even more passion and commit ourselves to helping people in Mkyashi begin cultivating their own prosperity. Honorata will be a great woman to start with.

For readings on this subject I recommend: Dead Aid by Dambiso Moyo (an African woman explaining the damage aid has done to her continent), Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton, and The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz.

Fresh Food, Served Daily

One of my favorite parts about staying in Tanzania is the food. Everything is as fresh as can be – often times picked off the tree right in front of you before being served. In less romantic occasions, slaughtered just hours before it is served to you. But it’s all delicious and it’s all finger food! Sometimes I do cheat and use spoons and forks, but everything is intended to be eaten with your RIGHT hand. Your left hand is for performing other duties.

Here is a sampling of some of my favorite dishes served so far.

Beans and Chapati – A classic in probably 50% of the countries in the world. Beans and chapatti is cheap for the traveler on a budget, filling, and delicious.

Kiti Moto – Pork that is deep-fried and then grilled, served with roasted bananas and vegetables. Delicious and fattening. Goes well with beer.

Chipsi Mayai – Chipsi mayai translates to chips and eggs. This Tanzanian favorite is fried potatoes cooked omelette style into eggs along with some vegetables and then topped with warm tomatoes and other vegetables. Again: cheap, filling, and delicious!

Samaki and Ugali – The picture makes this look like a mess, but it is one of my favorite dishes! Fish stew made with fresh tilapia from Lake Victoria and local fruits and vegetables served over warm ugali with vegetables on the side. Ugali is a Tanzanian staple. It’s essentially just flour and water boiled into the consistency of mashed potatoes. It has zero nutritional value but for most Tanzanians it is their main – or only – meal of the day.

Chapati and Eggs – This one is more of a Tanzanian version of a Western breakfast favorite. Chapati strips cooked into eggs and topped with veggies. Along with a cup of Tanzanian spiced tea and some fresh fruit it’s a great way to start the day.

And best of all but not pictured here are the fresh fruits straight from the trees in Mkyashi. Mangoes so sweet they taste like ice cream.

 

 

 

 

Valentine’s Day Progress Update

Simon meeting with one of the landowners on the proposed TPM building site.

We are continuing to make progress towards the goals of our 2013 program. To be effective in Tanzania, one has to be able to make the adjustment from American speed to Tanzanian speed. That can be frustrating at first. It feels unproductive and slow. However, it is the only way to build solid programs and institutions that can be successful long-term.

Just this morning I was telling Babu Lyimo about making this adjustment and he advised me to be like a chameleon. He explained to me that the chameleon moves very slowly. It can’t outrun predators and it takes a while for it to change colors. It should be easy prey. However, the chameleon can reach branches that no other animal can reach. It moves slowly because it tests each branch and twig as it moves further and further out. Thus, it always knows the branch will be able to support it. Other animals move quickly and cannot travel with this same confidence. So, we must move forward slowly and build upon foundations of trust.

While the day to day can feel frustratingly slow, I am quite pleased to look back and report on our progress to date. We have received continued interest and support for the vegetable gardening program we are aiming to begin in March. Local leadership has shown resounding support for the project and many people have asked how/if they can be put on a list to receive training and supplies to start their own gardens. The next step will be for me to go down to Kah’e and get trained on the program for a week. I will visit again the next with a small team from Mkyashi. After that we will be ready to implement a garden shop and three gardens here in the village. We hope to do one garden per month for the rest of the year and then evaluate the program’s success and potential for the future.

I have also met with a number of local entrepreneurs working on an array of small businesses they hope to begin or grow. With most I am still working on business planning and financial management, but a few are beginning to seek credit from banks. I am working with Bosco – village chairman and entrepreneur – to learn more about the lending process for small businesses in Tanzania. Recent legislation has made it much easier for people to get small business loans in Tanzania. However, the changes have not been well-publicized. If we can learn more about these changes – and if they play out as they are supposed to – we will be able to help a number of local entrepreneurs receive credit.

Along this same line, we have made an exciting connection with Mama Betty. Mama Betty is a former bank employee who has worked for the past year to start a series of Village Community Banks (ViCoBa) in Mkyashi in surrounding villages. ViCoBas function as community help groups as well as banks. A group of 20-30 local people (mostly women) get together and agree to each deposit 2000 Tsh (about $1.25) per week into the bank as well as 500 Tsh into the self-help fund. During once-per-week meetings group members discuss any difficulties they are having and can receive money from the self-help fund to take care of these difficulties. Then members make pitches asking to receive loans. Loans are given out Grameen Bank-style to groups of five people who are all accountable for ensuring other group members pay. It’s basic microfinance and it helps people build credit and business acumen so eventually they will have the assets and the knowledge to take loans from banks.

In the past year Mama Betty has started six banks serving 130 members and holding around $30,000 in deposits. She has done it all without a salary and without any donations. We are currently working with her to develop a sustainability plan for the project that would allow her to continue to grow current banks and start new ones. We hope to create a plan that would allow her to take a salary from her work with the banks within two years. During those two years we would give her a small salary to compensate for the time and energy she spends working on the banks.

It could truly be a powerful partnership and would fit perfectly into our goal of supporting local initiatives and local visionaries. Still, there is much work to do before anything formal can be agreed upon. Perhaps we will find it is best to let the banks be and stay out of their way!

We have also visited the proposed property for the eco-lodge and confirmed our agreement with the landowners. It was great to stand their again and take in the incredible view, dreaming of what could one day be!