Kilimanjaro National Park

A few weeks ago, I took the opportunity to travel to the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. A group of us hiked around the base exploring some waterfalls and entertaining ourselves with the locals. Many of the sites to see at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro can be seen without paying anything because it is technically not in the park. But many locals use this to their advantage and claim that one should have a guide when exploring the base of the mountain. Despite our repeated insistence that we didn't want a guide, a couple of guys followed us in our exploration anyway. 

Apparently this is a famous waterfall. If you look at the top of it there is a statue of a woman standing there. I don't know what that means, but I think its important.

Since we had the pleasure of having a guide tag along on our exploration, I suggested that he jump into the river that I am looking at. He actually did it... TWICE. It was actually so good that I ended up paying him (I told myself previously that I would not pay for a guide). I think that's what he wanted anyway. In fact, I KNOW that's what he wanted.

This was our little group that went up with me. If you want to hike Kili, this is where you start!

Its my dream to hike Kilimanjaro. I am not able to go this time, but one day I will be back at this place!

Pigpen Project

Over the past few weeks we have been working on building a pigpen for an orphanage. The purpose of building the pigpen is to provide the orphanage a way to earn money for itself so that it can have the money it needs to run properly. In Tanzania, properly raised pigs from birth can be sold for over 1000% profit. Thus, you can see why we would want to build a pigpen and start a pig raising business for the orphanage. The following are some photos of the progress of the project. The photo to the right is a shot of the site before we began.

Excavating the site and laying the foundation went quick ;) Actually, this was the most difficult part of the project. You know the short-handled shovels that we sometimes use at home? That was about all we had for the digging! I got a little tired bending down to dig out and level the foundation. You can see how much we dug out by looking at that back wall of soil.

Progress actually went pretty quick. As soon as we laid our cement slab, the following day we began building up our brick walls.

By the following week, we had our walls up and we started putting up the frame for the roof.

We oiled the wood part of the structure with used motor oil to protect the wood from rotting. (Yes, that is a fire hazard). I didn't know you could use used motor oil for that purpose.

And then we added the roof. Looks pretty good, huh?

So far, so good.

Here is Mount Kilimanjaro from the plane on our way to Moshi.

 This is the VICOBA group. VICOBA stands for Village Cooperative Bank. We are planning to conduct some business training workshops for the members of the cooperative.

 This is Mamma Kitto and the sign to her hostel where she houses a number of students who are in her vocational school. She is a fantastic lady! We are in the process of developing a project to help her school. We are thinking about holding some workshops to teach computer skills and English.

 This is the marketplace in Kikatiti. I was in the area that day doing an assessment of the community. There may be a project in the works in helping to provide access to clean water in the area.

 This is a picture of the mountain where the Tanzanite is mined. I just thought you might want to know where that is.

 Here is the group that went together to do a needs assessment of Kikatiti.

I'm here!

So I've arrived in Tanzania. It feels great to be back in Africa again. A lot of the same memories come back from when I was living in Kenya.
This past week we have spend a lot of time doing a needs assessment of the area. We have made a few contacts with some orphanages and and schools, and have made some plans on what kind of projects we want to do while in country. Our main focus is to do projects that will be sustainable and not encourage dependency. We want projects to continue long after we are gone. Some of the ideas we have had are helping a few schools and orphanages be self-sustaining through starting some sort of business. Running a pig or chicken farm will help those we are working with may raise the funds they need to support their schools or orphanages.We are still in the planning phases of exactly what we want to do, but the projects will be developed soon! I'm excited to get started and help teach the people business skills so that potential businesses that may be created will be successful.
I don't have any pictures posted yet, but they are coming. Stay tuned for those!!!

The blog has been started!

Hey everyone, welcome to my Tanzanian development blog. Here is where I'll post my doings for the development projects I'll be working on while in Tanzania from May 4 to August 24. There should be some pretty cool stuff happening so stay posted...