...Why must he always chase the cat?” I don’t know George, why is that? Is it the dog in you?
We found a music video show on East Africa TV that is wonderful! They play a combination of current African music videos and older US favorites like George Clinton, Billy Joel and The Gap Band. I have been humming George Clinton all day long. I think I ( Read more... )

The economy in Tanzania is…well, harsh. In the cities, there is some money to be made, but it is definitely little. In Mwika, the per capital income is practically nonexistent. We have definitely landed in a rural, agricultural place where folks are more likely to be able to barter than trade in cash. Credit is old fashioned-you sign your name to ( Read more... )

Apparently we have been about getting things done this week.
The beginning of the week was all about preparing papers and an agenda for two events that happened at the end of this week-a community library founders meeting with priests from all over Mwika parish and a meeting with the women who were the pilot phase participants in a microfinance ( Read more... )

 
Today is the last day of our Kiswahili intensive. I never knew I could feel so much pride at completing a Level 2 paragraph (about 2nd grade)! We definitely have more Kiswahili than we came here with, but we are also clear that there is so much more to learn as well. It is hard knowing that we are slowing down in our ability to learn languages-as ( Read more... )

A few days ago we engaged in an activity that, seemingly, all non-Africans must become accustomed to when they are here-the bus ride. Little more than a van with additional rails overhead, busing the local community to and fro is big business. Most people do not have cars and travel by foot. So you can imagine that when you have business 10 ( Read more... )

 
This week we began intensive Kiswahili lessons with Mwalimu U. We have seen that people here have a strong sense of pride in their language and are most pleased when they see us trying to speak correct Kiswahili. I have high hopes that between our personal intensive study and work with our Mwalimu we will stumble less than we might otherwise.
As a ( Read more... )

 
Nurui’s Story
We met a really sweet man today by the name of Nurui. He was born, grew up and started a family a short distance from where we are here at the farmhouse. After he and his wife, Anisha, had their 2nd child, he went searching for work to support his wife and growing family. Like many men in this area, the best work Nurui could find took ( Read more... )

In the first seven days, we began to get to know the village and assess how to maximize the skills we brought. Through fevered conversation over each meal, we began to map out, in more detail how MWIDEFU functions and how we can contribute. Since our first priority has to be listening to and understanding the community we make two decisions:
·       ( Read more... )

We set out from at the end of February with promises to keep folks posted on our work with MWIDEFU. It has taken me a little over a month but I hope that these updates are worth the wait. Sorry for posting several dates at one time….
The first leg of our trip consisted of a drive from Seattle, WA to Atlanta, GA. Along the way we said goodbye to the ( Read more... )

apologies to all those who we missed on our ford explorer us tour from seattle to atlanta (feb. 29th thru march 13th ( Read more... )