U.S. Embassy REA MoEVT Aga Khan

I've spent five days in Dar es Salaam and have had meetings at the U.S. Embassy, the Tanzanian Rural Energy Agency, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and I dropped off a proposal for a grant at the Aga Khan Foundation. Whew...

The meeting at the Embassy went great! More on that later....

Hamisi, the head of the Tanzania solar company we use, recommended me to Mr. Msofe the No 2 person at the Tanzanian Rural Energy Agency which is a division of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals. Mr. Msofe gave me an application for a grant which I submitted to him today. He said it was all in order and he is going to consider it.

I also met today with my friends Mr. Kalinga and Mr. Ponera at the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. Each time we meet they are more and more enthusiastic about what we are doing. They are eager to come to Banjika to see the computer lab and they want me to meet the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry. Mr. Ponera is the head of the IT department at the Ministry and Mr. Kalinga is in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation. (The press we are getting in the Tanzanian Daily News is definitely helping our cause.)

Also wrote a letter and prepared a proposal for the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports.

I got a referral to the Executive Director of the Aga Khan Foundation in Dar es Salaam. He is on vacation now, so I dropped off a letter and our Action Plan for him to consider when he returns.

Well I'm off to the airport...will be home Friday afternoon.

Baadaye (Later)

Out of Toothpaste

I am out of toothpaste...I guess that means it is time to come home :)

and I am coming home.

My flight leaves at 10:55pm tonight. I'll be home Friday afternoon.

Kimya

I have been kimya (quiet) as the Tanzanians say.

Usually when I am in Tanzania I enjoy robust health and sufficient energy and stamina. This time I am having a different experience.

I'm feeling much better now. Also, I've had a hard time getting online from my room at the lodge.

We have finished the first week of training and it has gone very well. We have a Tanzanian computer teacher with a degree in Computer Science and he is teaching the students well. They are appreciating his teaching and they think he is handsome :)

The journalist was here for the past three days and conducted several interviews and took photos for The Monitor article and a story for The Daily News in Tanzania.

I'll try and write more later.

Driving Adventure

Have you ever driven a car in a country where they drive on the left side of the road? It is not just that they drive on the left side of the road, you shift gears with the left hand, the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, and the turn signal lever is on the right side of the steering wheel. To make a left turn you push up on the right-hand side lever. Until I got used to thinking upside down and backwards, whenever I wanted to make a left turn, the windshield wipers would come on.

In Tanzania one drives on dusty, rocky, dirt roads while occasionally dodging donkeys, goats, cows, bicyclists, and children. The countryside is SO beautiful. I love these drives into the country.

Yesterday, Happy and I drove one hour from town to visit two secondary schools. We are looking at other schools and meeting headmasters to determine the sites of our installations in 2012. Of course every school is eager to have computers. We are warmly welcomed wherever we go.