rolling wave project

The wait is killing me

2010-02-13T10:35:00.002-05:00

I am usually a fairly patient individual. Things will happen when they happen and there is no reason to get worked up about it. Well my friends, my patience is wearing thin!

We recently submitted a proposal for a major project in Palestine that would connect some 30,000+ children to the internet and computer education. This is major as we have never done something of this size and magnitude before - but it's also a dream project. Setting up an education network of computers throughout Palestine (or the Palestinian controlled West Bank as the US recognizes it), connecting them all, designing a curriculum and then training the staff on how to educate and maintain the system. I have been so excited about this project from day one.

Well we submitted our proposal this past week and now we wait... and wait... and wait, until hopefully we find out if ours was accepted or denied. We are definitely the small fish in this pond, but we also have a unique approach that no one else can match. At this point, as much as I want this to go our way, what I really want is to know the outcome. Not knowing is driving me nuts.

Positive vibes everyone. Positive vibes.

Conflicting thoughts.

2010-01-31T23:30:00.000-05:00

What to do, what to do?

I must admit the pressure is starting to get to me. This whole strategy hasn't gone according to plan for some time now, and it's time to pick another tact - but which one?

Many of you have expressed interest (demanded) in my staying here in Charlotte. You have no idea how rewarding that is to hear/feel, and I am truly appreciative for it. I think it should be said that am not leaving Charlotte to get away from you (well, not most of you, anyways), I am leaving to do something that I feel in my heart. Something that I feel is bigger than me. plus my departure would not be permanent. I have decided to make Charlotte my home-base regardless of my travels (and I am going to travel - it's what I do).

So before me I have a number of courses I could pursue. The easiest of them is to scrap the whole idea of Africa, find a job and continue life here. Easy, but not rewarding. The other end of the spectrum is I find a way to Africa, go there and stay. What I am shooting for is a nice line between those two extremes. A line that allows me to facilitate the change in Africa that I feel I am called to do, but also allows me time with my friends and family. My son is moving about eight hours away from Charlotte in the next few weeks, so it would be nice to be here to spend time with him whenever possible. What I need is flexibility, freedom and change - not characteristics traditionally applied to employment in the U.S. of A. So it looks like I simply need to make something of my own since a model doesn't currently exist.

I don't honestly know what my future looks like right now. I don't know how I am going to get from point A to point B, but I do know I'll get there... eventually. I want to thank all of you for your constant support and encouragement (or discouragement from some of you). Eventually this fog will lift and my voyage will begin again.

Sweet!

2010-01-14T10:46:00.000-05:00

You people ROCK!
(what do you mean, "you people"?)

Take a quick gander over to the right. See that sweet thermometer (code courtesy of Desmond, you should read his blog)? Well, in the past week it has gone from 7% raised to 23% raised! That is simply awesome. I have nothing but love for all my friends and family who have helped me make it this far. Sure, their is still quite the hurdle before me, but with results like those of late how can I be anything but optimistic?

Thanks again to all of you!

New Feature!

2009-12-31T13:38:00.001-05:00

I have a new feature added to my blog that I hope everyone takes advantage of. If you look in the right bar you'll notice a "Call Me" button. If you click on it you'll be prompted to enter your name and phone number. When you connect you'll reach one of two conclusions (depending on how I have it set-up at that time). Your phone will ring and...

Conclusion 1: you'll be connected to my phone - cool, right?

Conclusion 2: you'll go into my voicemail. The cool thing is that I will get these voicemails via email, no matter where I am in the world. Even if I don't have the ability to listen to your actual voice, I will still get your message since Google Voice also includes a transcribed copy of your message. So, speak clearly!

Google Voice is pretty sweet. Feel free to give it a try!

Jingle Bells...

2009-12-17T14:17:00.002-05:00

Well it's nearly Christmas. Charlotte, as usual, is without snow. Fortunately this season isn't about the weather, but rather it's about the relationships in our lives. I am fortunate to find myself surrounded by such great people. Doors seem to always be open with loving friends on the other side welcoming me into their homes. As I get closer to (hopefully) departing on January 6th (hopefully Santa buys me a plane ticket!), I am reminded of just how much I am going to miss my new family here in Charlotte.

The last year has been pivotal in my life. So much has changed. The world has changed. My world has changed. All of it, I feel, has to do with the relationships I have been able to forge over the past 15+ months. The people in my life are more than just acquaintances, their family and the thought of not being around them does cause one to pause and reflect. My life has been literally flipped on it's head since my decision to move to Charlotte. With this new "upside down" perspective comes a new way to live. A life of mercy, justice and love replace ways of yore. A life focused on the betterment of ones neighbors and making a difference in the lives of those in need. As much as I may miss those closest to me, the very thought of living this new life comforts me beyond belief.

So to my friends, I will miss you, but I will be back (more than you'll care to see me, I might add).

To everyone, may you have the merriest of Christmases with the ones you love.

Last day in Africa

2009-07-25T15:00:00.077-04:00

Today is the day we depart this gorgeous country. It is a bittersweet departure too. I don't really want to leave, but on the other hand I really want to see my son. On that note I was determined to find him a gift before I left. You would think I would have done this by now, but we were seriously working everyday so we never had a chance to even do the touristy shopping stuff.

After breakfast we asked Ralph for some suggestions, he came back with an offer to take us somewhere himself - in a car no less - this was a treat! This was also an opportunity to give the most recent resident of Atiman House, Tomasz from Poland (but recently Mozambique), a bit of a sightseeing trip too. Since our goal was gifts Ralph took us to a place full of them... a place I now know as "muzungo village"... though it does have another fancier name.

From Dar es Salaam - round 2

The place we went would be just as "at home" in San Diego or Florida. It was a large fancy hotel next to some fancy condos with some fancy outdoor dining on the fancy water with fancy shopping... It also featured an outdoor market of sorts with vendors selling "knick-knacks" and other traditional tourist trap crap. The only problem was that every booth was literally selling the exact same thing. To decipher this mess I decided to pick the least annoying shop person - I basically went looking for the only person who would acknowledge me without saying a word.

I eventually found such a person, as luck would have it, and I proceeded to give her table a look. I quickly picked out what I wanted to get Vinnie. It was a necklace with a small carving on it in a shape similar to an arrows tip. I felt he would like it, he could wear it for years and not have to worry about "growing out of it" and I actually thought it looked cool. I asked how much "6,000 shillings" was her reply. I think I actually coughed out load at that? I said "try again, how about a little lower this time?" She came back with "4,000 shillings". I stalled. I looked at some different things, then went back to the necklace, but didn't say a word. She came back, again, with "two for 5,000 shillings". now we are getting somewhere. I said "I only need one, not two". She asked "how much will you pay for one?" I told her "2,000 shillings". She said, "okay, 2,000 shillings is good". I paid, pocketed the necklace and thus ended my shopping experience in Tanzania.

Gene, on the other hand, was having a flipping field day. He was actually lost for a good 20 minutes. I am sure he knew where he was, but the three of us hadn't a clue? We walked down to the pier, back to the boat yard, combed (or at least we thought we did, Gene is a big guy so you wouldn't think you would need to look very carefully to find him... and he is white... a big white guy in Africa...) the vendor booths, looked inside the "mall" area - he was nowhere to be found. Tomasz eventually spotted him and he came up, asked to borrow some scratch and then disappeared into oblivion like you would expect a man on a mission to do. He came back with arms full of cloths and trinkets and whatnot... for some reason I felt like I was missing something here? I never have been a very good "tourist".

We headed back to the car so we could get back in time for lunch. The conversation on the way back was a single topic (for me anyways): mandazi (donut). In Moshi I had this amazing mandazi with my lunch. It was lightly sweet, fluffy and just simply amazing. Ralph said he would try to help me find one today, but he felt the better time to get them was in the evenings when they are cooking them for the next day... unfortunately we didn't have that kind of time available to us.

After lunch Ralph and I set off to the streets in search of my infamous vision. I was a bit let down that we literally walked around the corner to find them - I was really expecting a bit more adventure and less convenience. Well I would come to find out, soon enough, that convenience comes at a cost. We bought five mandazi from the vendor, paid and headed back. When we got back I was pretty excited! I got out the juice I bought in Morogoro but had yet to open, kiwi-cranberry, some glasses and prepared for a treat. I gave Gene one and some juice, and waited for Ralph too. Well, Ralph wasn't showing so we dove in. All those memories of my first mandazi were anxiously dancing on the end of my tongue until I took that first bite. It was then that my memories were replaced with a rather dull thought. These things sucked. I mean they were okay, I guess? The thing was they had little to no flavor, they were heavy, dense and just not good. Ralph showed up and concurred. I think he felt bad about it, but even as crappy as it was - I still ate it. Gene, on the other hand, did not... nor did Ralph... I even had a second one...

After lunch and the mandazi adventure I decided to get my final packig done on my bag and then chill out with a little siesta time. Dinner was at 7p and Ralph had convinced us to wait until 7:15p before catching our taxi out to the airport for our 9:10p international departure. I know in the states international flights are suggested to arrive three hours prior to departure... I guess things were different in TZ? Oh well, Ralph has more experience than we do, so we agreed.

From Dar es Salaam - round 2

My nap was AWESOME!!! I was so comfortable because of those super neat-o oscillating ceiling fans!

Gene woke up around 6:30p and started getting ready. I climbed out of bed around 6:45p and was already ready, so I grabbed my pack and headed to the dinning hall. Gene was convinced that the smart thing to do was eat light before jumping on a long flight. I am not saying he is wrong, I am just saying I disagree. I dropped my gear and headed for the food line. I loved the food in TZ and I was going to miss it so much - how could I NOT eat? Seriously... how?

After dinner I headed downstairs to the taxi and waited. It was 7:12p and I figured Gene would be along shortly... I really should have learned by now... Well it wasn't to long, actually, when Gene showed up and we headed out.

The taxi ride was pretty uneventful. I saw a small Toyota pick-up truck with a stake bed full of about 30 Tanzanians getting a ride somewhere. Did you know that traffic accidents are the leading cause of death in Tanzania? I think I even saw a guy sitting on the roof of the cab with his feet on the engine cowl... just chilling out with his legs in front of the windshield. How can you NOT love this country?

Airport was... different. We really didn't have a clue where we were going but it eventually made sense. Tanzanians aren't big on signs or formalities so the check-in process for a flight is a drastic contrast to the gestapo like mentality of the U.S. TSA agents... more on that in a later post. We saw a guy looking at passports so we walked up to him. He looked at ours and then handed them back to us. I assumed this meant we could go... but I didn't know where. My "deer in the headlights" look that I had been working on lately resulted in the briefest of finger gestures towards a general direction... so I followed. This led us to a two man crew hanging out at some small rolling counter things with computers. best as I could tell, this was the actual passport screening... or so I thought. Basically these guys look at your credentials, stick a small sticker on them and then you get to try and figure out where to go next. I would say you get in line but it was more of a heard than an actual line. Well we got our tickets at this stop, but still had our bags. Then we had to go to a different section... only you don't really know that and, again, there aren't really any signs. So we found the next place to be another passport check... I am not kidding, but this is the part where they actually stamp it... and scan it... again...

The lady I walked up to did not want to be where she was that day. She didn't say a word to me, didn't even really look at me, and she had to type with one hand because apparently the other one was very busy propping her head up. She eventually got around to finishing and then kind of shoved my passport at me. At some point, and trust me, things are foggy, we gave up our bags... but I seriously can't remember when/where or to whom? Oh well.

I thought it was odd that our passports were checked four times, but not a single x-ray machine or metal detector was to be found? When we made it upstairs to the "gates" I found out why. Passengers go through that whole process just before entering the holding zone, which you enter just before boarding the plane. Even though there are plenty of seats you are not allowed to enter until they are ready for you. In the meantime you are encouraged to visit the numerous duty free shops. Yay... more shopping. I did find an unlocked iPhone for sell along with a slew of other cellphones. Fortunately I had my own "unlocked" iPhone with me, so I wasn't in the market for anything.

The flight was pretty good. First leg was a shorty to Nairobi to fill up our plane with more passengers (a lot of whom I recognized from the flight out from Zurich, oddly enough) and then the long seven hour haul to Zurich. Time for sleep.

Saving power... and resources.

2009-07-24T13:31:00.003-04:00

Friday morning was an early start - bleh. We had to leave the St. Frances de Sales Seminary in Morogoro around 7am with Fr. Sunny. We had to leave this early so the Father could get to the school district buildings in Dar es Salaam by 9am. He had to do registration paperwork for the students in his school, so time was very critical.

The drive went better than expected and we arrived in Kibaha ahead of schedule. We also arrived to breakfast waiting and, even better yet, it was an Indian breakfast at that! Awesome. Fr. Sunny even had time to chow down with us before making the final leg of his journey. Once we were done Sunny left us in the capable hands of Brother Steven, said some abbreviated goodbye's (with the intent of saying more formal farewells later that evening when he returned on his way back to Morogoro) and then everyone more or less dispersed.

Even though we were not staying the night, Brother Steven had gone ahead and had two rooms made up for us. I didn't think much of it at the time and took the opportunity to simply lock my gear up. We then jumped in the truck and headed to the school to see what magic we could perform. On the way over we passed a nearby school with little-itty-bitty kids at it and they all started saying the same word over and over again while smiling and waiving. I don't remember the word, but Steven told us they were essentially saying "hi Pastor" because we were driving Father Sheejan's truck. It was absolutely adorable.

The children attending this school were the youngest we had seen, yet. I think 6yo was at the high-end of the spectrum! The computers at this location were not for the kids to use, but rather to better organize the administrative side of things and to "kick it up a notch"! Unfortunately they were missing a fairly critical segment of the equation: electricity.

The power tranfsormer for this area of town was out... and had been... for two weeks. Yes, these people had been without power for two weeks and guess what - they were still alive! Amazing, isn't it? Sarcasm is a difficult thing to express in writing, but the moral of the story is this: even without power it was business as usual.

Unfortunately for us, however, without power we were not going to be able to do much to help out the computers they had. They were trying to install a network too, which I love because I can use my hands, so I hoped we could help with that. Unfortunately none of the ceiling run holes had been pre-drilled and they didn't have a 110 punch down tool to terminate the Cat 5e into the wall connectors so we were, yet again, foiled. Frustrating. Most frustrating was why the power was still out. Apparently when a transformer does go, the locals have an odd tradition - they drain the PCB riddled cooling oil out of the transformers to use... yes, I said 'use'. The three applications for this otherwise toxic lubricant are:

1) It is used as a 'lotion' of sorts to bleach the skin - yes, I just said that.
2) It is used as a hair tonic to straighten stubborn hair...
3) Last and definitely the least safe application... cooking oil additive. Yes, some less reputable street vendors (usually found at the train stations) will pour this oil in with their fry oil because it is heavier, has a higher burn point and thus allows them to use less of their actual cooking oil. Why train stations, you ask? Well if someone on a train buys their food and gets sick (or dies) it will happen down a few stops and the likelihood of the vendor ever being caught is pretty much nil. If, however, they get a local customer sick there is a high chance they won't be in business the next day... and thats if they are still breathing!

We called up Fr. Sheejan (who was also in Dar this morning) and asked what he wanted us to do? Before he finished saying "take rest..." I was already heading for the car. I was beat and it was going to be weird to NOT do something for once!

Those rooms ended up coming in handy after all. Minutes after my head hit the pillow I was out! I slept great. It was fairly cool today, but still way to warm with long pants (did I mention I can't stand wearing long pants?) and a shirt on. Stripped down to boxers, laying in bed and a perfect gentle cool breeze coming in through the windows were the exact ingredients needed for awesome slumber.

A gentle knock at the door woke me to inform me it was lunch time - "is this heaven?" I got up, got dressed and headed to the kitchen. Gene, Steven and I enjoyed a great meal together and had a chance to learn a little more about one another. After lunch we headed back to our rooms. I took a cold shower - which felt great, and hung out with as little clothing on as possible - just the way I like it! I wasn't really tired now but I appreciated the peace and quiet. I was able to get caught up on a lot of typing (mainly these blog posts and a plan I am working on), listen to some music and just gel - it was nice.

We were scheduled to depart for Dar around 6p that evening. The plan was to grab dinner in Dar with Father Ralph and some of the seminary students. I got my bag packed back up, got dressed and was ready to go. We loaded up the bags and ourselves and took off. The drive to Dar is roughly 30 minutes, but we were told that with traffic it could be 45 mins to an hour... that would have been nice.

About 10 minutes into our trip we hit a traffic jam. A "park-in-the-middle-of-the-road" traffic jam. It was a stand still, but oddly enough even though there weren't any homes or buildings anywhere the street was flooded with vendors and people walking in every direction. Odd. I couldn't tell you how long we were stopped because I am fairly sure time had stopped too, but I do know that our 45-60 minute drive ended up taking over two hours.

We did finally make it to the Atiman House (House of the White Fathers) in Dar es Salaam to find that we no longer had our rooms reserved for us. Someone, not naming any names here *cough* Paul */cough* had distributed some misinformation about Gene and my travel plans - despite what I feel to be a very clear email outlining our intentions... Anyhow Ralph got us squared away with sweet rooms (can you say private bath AND toilet!?). I had been looking forward to grabbing a farewell bite to eat with Ralph and the guys before leaving and, as luck would have it, Gene and I showed up right on time.

The whole gang was getting ready to depart for a local club/bar to grab some brews and listen to some music. The place was pretty packed. We grabbed a table, then we switched tables for one with a better view of the performances. The first gig was a dance troop doing some modified tribal dances. They were great (especially the ladies), but we arrived just as they were finishing. The next act was a total mind freak. It was straight out of Cirque de Soliel with these two crazy skinny boys in skin tight leotard thingies doing some wicked ballet/gymnastics/interpretive dance stuff. All I know is they each spent most of the show with their own feet on top of their own heads... or in front of their faces... or in random nooks and cranny's. Needless to say it made me feel a bit more out of shape than I usually feel!

That was the last stage act, next up was the Rasta band with their Rasta jams. They were pretty good, but best of all they filled the dance floor for most every song. Their is a unique pleasure to be had in watching Tanzanians doing the electric slide - pure beauty on multiple levels. I threatened to get up and "shake what my momma gave me" several times but of course I chickened out.

I did, however, notice a gorgeous Tanzanaian woman on the dance floor. I did speak to her. I was even completely shocked by what she told me. That, however, is not a story for this blog!

Half of our dance troupe called it a night and headed back 'home', while the other half kicked it up a notch. Actually, the reality is the white guys went home while the African's partied it up. Oh well, my sleep ROCKED!!!

Give a boy a fish...

2009-07-23T19:26:00.000-04:00

Tuesday through Thursday really run together in my brain noggin. Everyday was pretty much the same as before:

- Wake up.
- Eat awesome Indian food for breakfast.
- Fix computers.
- Tea time.
- Fix computers.
- Lunch time.
- Fix computers.
- Tea time.
- Fix computers.
- Dinner time.
- Gene fixes computers, Jon gets a case of A.D.D.
- Jon goes to sleep.
- Gene comes in and snores.
- Rinse and repeat.

From St. Frances de Sales - Morogoro

There was so much work to do and so little time and resources to do it with. I usually relish opportunities like these when working in the states. Face a difficult situation with a little ingenuity and clever skill to come out the victor. In Africa the situation has different variables at play, however, and the outcome is rarely victorious. For example it is difficult to resurrect something like a computer in a country where computers are not even common. Just to do a simple processor swap proved impossible because of the three computer shops we went to, not a single one carried thermal grease (one told us to use bicycle grease, the other actually knew what the stuff was but wanted us to buy his $35 cooling fan so we could get the small sample tube that is supplied with it). It truly was a mentally and emotionally draining endeavor. Someone took so much from all these children and we couldn't be there hero's. The frustration was mounting.

From St. Frances de Sales - Morogoro

10:30p on Wednesday night.

By lunch time on Thursday we had done all we could do. Out of 24 computers we were able to repair and resurrect 11 (one shy of my arbitrary goal of 12). We made a detailed list of components they need and Gene was going to see to getting that taken care of for them. After lunch we headed over to another Missionary home in town to take a look at there computers.

From St. Frances de Sales - Morogoro

They had a small lab with 6 computers inside for seminary students to use for typing there papers. Each one had the same problem: a crappy anti-virus program that would lock up the machine upon boot and made it impossible to delete. One of them was in far worse shape and needed to be "fixed" with a reinstall of Windows. After about 5 hours we were done and made it back in time for dinner (a critical event for me, especially when Indian food is at stake!).

This was our last day and evening in Morogoro, as we would be heading to Kibaha in the morning to see what we could do there before heading back to Dar es Salaam for the evening. I was sad to leave my new friends at St. Frances, but with each "goodbye" I came closer to the big "hello" I was looking forward to - VINCENZO!!!

Sherlock is on the case!

2009-07-20T03:09:00.007-04:00

The sleep last night was... eventful. Not much happened, but I am not used to being around people who snore - let alone in the same room. Sleep came to me eventually, and thankfully we “slept in” this morning - a nice change of pace. As Gene was getting ready I decided to peek my head outside and in doing so I found a monkey.

From St. Frances de Sales - Morogoro

Playing around in the hallway was a small baby monkey. The dog, Sweety, didn’t seem to mind this at all. I grabbed the camera took a few pictures and video. I found out that the Fathers have three pets: Sweety the dog, Chandu the cat and the monkey (whose name escapes me?). They were sold the monkey a few months prior and it is still very young. At this time I also found out breakfast was waiting for us. Gene and I headed to the dining hall and enjoyed some great Indian cuisine. I would tell you what we had, but I don’t know how to say it let alone spell it, so suffice it to say there is a new breakfast bread item that I will be adding to my culinary repertoire.

From St. Frances de Sales - Morogoro

After breakfast Father Sunny took us over to the computer lab so we could get to work. It was a nicely appointed room and someone had obviously put a lot of time and work into setting up a network, server, workstations and power conditioning. What we didn’t know and neither did Father Sunny was that of the 24 computers before us, only four worked... and barely. We quickly found out why they didn’t work - they were missing parts... a whole lot of parts.

Not a single machine was still equipped with the same specification of parts that they were received with. Each machine had the processor, speed, memory and hard disk drive size written on the case. Inside almost everything had changed - even the processors in a few examples. Celeron’s were swapped in where Pentium III’s once were. RAM had been changed from 256 MB to 32 MB. HDD’s went from 20-40 GB down to 1.7-2.1 GB. Almost everything of value had ben removed and sold... and this wasn’t the first time. Apparently the preceding computer teacher was caught stealing parts before he was fired. The computers were inventoried and a new teacher was hired. He had been working there for three months teaching computer class without working computers - not even the teachers server worked, all it had was a motherboard, CD drive and floppy!

From St. Frances de Sales - Morogoro

So or job titles changed at that moment as we went from eCorp Volunteers to Crime Scene Investigators. That first day consisted of doing nothing more than opening up each computer and taking stock of it’s parts. We made lists, took notes and tried to stage everything for quick repairs. Around 6p we had done all we could for that evening so we headed back, relaxed and waited for the next event.... dinner.

It was throughout this day, especially during meal and tea times that we really got to know our hosts. Father Sunny is the principal here at St. Francis de Sales. Father Johnson is like the head teacher and also very charismatic. There are two guys there (Brothers, in the religious sense, not related) studying for Seminary who also help out at the school. Jafet is Kenyan, and Aristetes (not sure about the spelling?), aka “The Doctor”, is from TZ. Across the street at the Provinicial House is Father Jose and Father Sebastian. Everyone was great, all the Father’s are Indian and all have a great sense of humor.

Which way do we go???

2009-07-19T03:06:00.003-04:00

This morning came way to fast, but I was perfectly fine to get up. Sobuk said he would meet us at the Hostel around 6:15a, so I got up at 6a, knocked on Gene’s door to wake him and headed for the showers. By 6:12a I was cleaned, dressed, packed and ready to go. As I emerged from my room to take a quick last trip to the restroom Sobuk was walking up - it was 6:15a on the dot... I am not sure if he was aware of this “event scheduling” that the rest of TZ was on???

We needed to be at the bus station by about 6:45a, and it was only about 3/4 of a mile down the road, so we had plenty of time. The bus would be coming into Moshi from Arusha and then departing at 7:05a. By 6:18a I had my gear in the trunk of the taxi and waited for Sobuk and Gene to emerge.

6:20a - no sign.
6:30a - no sign.
6:40a - no sign.
6:50a - Finally! I see Sobuk with one of Gene’s bags, but not Gene. Sobuk takes back off for the room. I am getting impatient becaue our gear is in the car and I can’t leave it unattended - not in TZ!
7:00a - still no sign of Gene.
7:03a - Gene and Sobuk arrive.
7:06a - Everyone is in the taxi and we are heading to the bus. I was a bit angry... Gene thought the bus didn’t depart until 7:30a. Gene was also the one who had our tickets in his pocket....

We arrived at the bus station and found our bus had not yet departed, but everyone was already on board and the luggage holds had been secured. It was about 7:10-ish... honestly I had stopped worrying about the time at this point and focussed more on getting our asses on that bus! By about 7:15a we had our luggage loaded and we were on the bus!

During the taxi ride over Sobuk presented me with a couple gifts: a Mt. Kili t-shirt and a bracelet from the Masai. The bracelet was a bit tough to get on, but I was finally able to. It will be a long while before I can ever fit into the t-shirt (size Medium), but maybe I will be fortunate enough to find a significant other who can wear it? Anyhow I felt kind of bad because I didn’t have anything to give him in return. On the bus he came up twice to say his farewells, exchange contact info and wish us well.

*Side note - for those of you who are interested in “conquering” Mt. Kilimanjaro and visiting the Serengeti with me next year, Sobuk is the man who will be leading us and making all of the arrangements.

As the bus tried to depart the bus to our immediate left tried to do the same. This resulted in their mirror being forced into one of our windows which almost resulted in the glass being shattered - I have never seen glass “bend” so much before. The little bit of irony is the fact that the window in question was actually the Emergency Exit! A few blown horns, some laughs and fancy maneuvering later and we were finally off on our voyage.

This bus, run by Hood, was slightly larger than the Kilimanjaro Express we took up from Dar es Salaam just under a week ago. This increase size was not a good thing for rider comfort though. Instead of two rows of two seats, we now had one row of two and another row of three - three very narrow seats. I am not narrow. Gene is definitely not narrow. For the first two hours, however, this was a blessing as no one was sitting in our third seat. Eventually our luck ran out and I was now in the middle... inhaling... constantly. The woman who sat next to me was very nice, though, and also very touchy feely - so that was good. The bad part was the heat - no open windows or A/C - and the time - we had about 7 more hours of this.

Awhile into our voyage the “conductor” (for lack of a better name), who looked like Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop, checked our tickets and I asked him if he could drop us off at one of the two stops the Father had told me. We were on the bus headed to Morogoro and after a few days in their we would go to Kibaha to finish our work at their other school. Apparently some info was lost in translation and we weren’t supposed to be on the bus to Morogoro because the two stops in question were, in fact, in Kibaha. Damn. No problem though. Eddie was very helpful though and said he would tell us when we get to the transfer stop and would even help us get the bus to Kibaha from their. I, on the other hand, had decided we were going to Morogoro after all.

After speaking with the Father we got everything worked out for us to go to Morogoro. When we arrived we grabbed our bags, grabbed a taxi and then handed him the telephone with the Father on the other end to give him directions. 5,000 TSH later we were at the St. Francis de Sales Boys School and Seminary. It was a gorgeous campus.

We were still somewhat unexpected but everyone adjusted rather quickly and not once did we feel unwelcome in anyway. We were first given some lunch, then shown our room (yes, room, singular - as in Gene and I were sharing...) and then we asked if we could get started working... okay, by we I mean Gene asked, I was happy doing nothing for once. Thankfully they weren’t really ready for us to “jump in”, so while Gene messed around with one of their computers, I laid down and rested for a little while.

The next event on deck was dinner. Next was bed. Tomorrow would be another day.

What Mountain?

2009-07-18T03:05:00.001-04:00

I did not want to get out of bed this morning! I was so happy and comfortable where I laid but, alas, there was work to be done. I went into the bathroom at the hostel and turned on the shower - that junk was hot and I was surprised! This was the cheapest place we have paid for yet (not counting the free lodging) and it had the hottest showers of any. I love this Hostel.

Gene and I had about a mile’s walk to work and it was nice. I was somewhat surprised to see the number of white people that I did. Sure, we weren’t talking huge numbers here, but it was still somewhat surprising. You could quickly tell the American tourists from their European brethren quite quickly. A brief ear full of their conversation would verify these assumptions quickly. This brings up another travelers tip: if you are an American traveling in a foreign country - shut up. By far the Americans seemed to be the loudest and most obnoxious species of the tourist. At one restaurant the entire ambience was completely trashed by the loud southern twang of a particular traveler at a neighboring table who was eating with her family. On the streets the Americans seem to be compelled to speak constantly and loudly. I am not saying that speaking is a bad thing, but the more attention you draw to yourself... well... that’s just it, the idea is to avoid attention. Anyhow, moving on...

From Moshi Institue of Technology/Uhuru Hostel

We only had a few hours at MIT this morning before we needed to hop in the car and travel to our other stops. The first thing we learned is that Fedora stopped downloading at the 40% mark the night prior more than likely due to the frequent internet outages - awesome. T.I.A. Fortunately one of Msumanje’s friends had a copy of Fedora that he brought in for us to install. Gene handled this while I did some troubleshooting and answered a few questions. We also took some pictures of the classroom in action.

A little later Msumanje, Gene and myself headed off to a really cool place - Mkombozi. The mission of Mkombozi is simply amazing. Started by an American woman named Kit (who we did not get a chance to meet) about 5-6 years ago, Mkombozi is dedicated to getting street kids off the streets, providing them a safe place to live and then - this is the super cool part - providing them with computer skills! These kids learn everything from the basics up to programming and building their own circuits. In fact one of the students had designed and built this massive inverter system that is hooked up to a battery array. When the power goes out, which is frequently, this monster can keep the entire place running for a few hours! The other side to Mkombozi is equally impressive - they sell computers. Donated computers from England are shipped in and transported to the warehouse in Moshi. From their the students and staff go through them and ensure they are in excellent working order (sound familiar?). They completely inventory every aspect of the machine and then sell them to schools and other NGO’s at a severely discounted price. In fact you can get an entire system for about $100. The proceeds from the sales goes directly for the care of the 70+ children living in the complex as well as the 1,000+ other children who receive funds from Mkombozi to pay for school. Beautiful.

From their we headed back to MIT to change vehicles and then promptly departed for Marangu which is situated at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro National Park. MIT has a small internet cafe and school in Marangu, too, and a majority of the computers they received from WCE were at this location. Marangu is about an hours drive from Moshi. On the way you see some of the most arid and drought stricken areas in Tanzania. Farm after farm was dead, yellow and rotting. It was a rather sobering reminder that when Mother Nature isn’t happy, the consequences are felt by many. I was half expecting our departure from the green, lush and fertile grounds of Moshi to lead us to a rather dusty village like the area we were driving through, but soon the tides changed.

From Marangu

Marangu is absolutely gorgeous. The vegetation here is impressive, rich and full of life. The weather was absolutely perfect too (even though our African counterparts made several comments that it was rather cold for them). We stopped into the school briefly to get unloaded and take a quick tour, but we soon jumped back into the car. It was lunch time, you see, and since TZ works on an event based scheduling system (rather than the time based system we are used to in the west) it was time to partake in that event.

We headed out to an impressive hotel just outside Marangu proper. This is not a hotel in the traditional sense, but more like a villa with a few guest cottages. Apparently this is a popular destination for backpackers to stop both before and after a trek up the hill in the backyard. I was a bit surprised to find it was owned by a pair of Brits, but was impressed at how well they have preserved the traditional Tanzanian charm.

From Marangu

We ere joined, for lunch, by Mr. Kimaro who, I would soon find out, is a rather jovial and interesting fellow. It is not uncommon for the President of Tanzania to stay at Mr. Kimaro’s home in Marangu. In fact it is not uncommon to see Mr. Kimaro accompanying the President at functions both in TZ and other countries. I guess you could say they are close... but he is close with most of the diplomats and politicians in TZ. I soon realized that Mr. Kimaro was a well connected fellow and one fellow who was dedicated to environmental preservation in TZ. It was through talks with him that I realized two additional great needs for TZ besides computers: better electricity options and medical equipment/supplies for their medical professionals. With my head swirling with ideas we finally ended our lunch and headed back to the school/cafe.

This was to be one of the easier jobs on the whole trip. All we really needed to do was give a couple quick examples of how to check their computers and zap the hard disk drives if they were hit with the X-ray too (which they were - every single one of them). After that they knew full and well how to handle the Windows install on their own. Before too long we were off again - back to Moshi or the next event - dinner.

From Marangu

At last nights dinner Mr. Lachuo had said he would take us somewhere with “much better meat” next time. Well it was now “next time” and off we went. I did feel slightly bad for Gene since we were going someplace that really only served meat and alcohol... but they also had roasted bananas, so he would be fine... It was the four of us again plus the eventual addition of Sobuk. Mr. Lachuo’s claims of better meat were right on the mark. Every scrumptious bite was like an orgasm in my mouth (yes, I am aware that sentence will likely come back to haunt me, but it’s the most accurate description I can think of). To drink I had Castle Milk Stout... quite a few of them... It was a great evening. My bed and I became very close that evening, but our cozy companionship was to be short lived as we had a 7am bus to catch in the morning!

The best glass of "milk" yet

2009-07-17T03:02:00.001-04:00

This morning we packed up our things and headed to school to say goodbye to everyone. It was actually very difficult to say goodbye. It was also very difficult to learn that had we stayed in the truck last night, with our new friends, we would have gone out and enjoyed many bottle of African brew - damn. We had some gifts to leave with the school (tech supplies, software, cables, pocket PC’s, etc...) so Mrs. Frimini, Mr. Paul, Gene and myself went to the office for a quick demo. Afterwards we were told that Mrs. Sambaya was on campus today and wanted a chance to say goodbye as well. Both Gene and I were really looking forward to seeing her again - seriously people, she is an amazing lady! On our way there Mr. Paul and Mr. Lema had me practice a phrase “Asante sana nashakura mungu akubariki” (Thank you very much and may God bless you).

Mrs. Sambaya’s home on the property was simple yet elegantly appointed. While their we met her niece, mother, father and two year old nephew - all of whom, I assume, live in the same home along with a few that were not present. After we talked for awhile I was able to recite my phrase with eager eyes looking on... I did pretty good, but the best thing was the look in Mrs. Sambaya’s eyes as I spoke. She was very touched by these clumsily uttered words and her appreciation was much appreciated by this muzungo. We all headed for the Rover to pack up and head to town - Mrs. Sambaya, Mr. Miraji, Mr. Lema, Gene, myself and one of the sisters from the school. As we departed Mrs. Sambaya and the sister prayed for our safety to town... I know it was innocent, but this really does set the stage for ground transportation in TZ - take off with a prayer!

We arrived at the Moshi Institue of Technology and Mrs. Sambaya insisted on meeting who ever it was we were to be with so that she was sure we were in good hands. I went and fetched Msumanje, they spoke and, somewhat hesitantly, Mrs. Sambaya and the crew departed. Seeing them leave was tough - seriously.

At MIT we first decided to get our housing taken care of. Msumanje had caled around town to get the rates for a few places. We decided to give them a look in case any of them were better deals than Umodjo. Sobuk was the man in charge of showing us around town. We walked from hostel to hostel to hotel only to get the same message everytime - no vacancy. It ended up being a good thing that we had stopped at Umodjo last night because, as we would find out shortly, they were fully booked too. Fortunately our communication attempts the prior evening proved successful and we were granted room and board. At some point during the afternoon we had dropped our bags off at the hostel as well as handed some laundry in to be washed at a rate of 500 TSH per piece. My 12 pieces should have come out to a respectable 6,000 TSH (about $5).

From Moshi Institue of Technology/Uhuru Hostel

Fortunately MIT is full of techy-geeks. While they also fell victim to Homeland Securities magical x-ray device, they happened to have an office full of capable people to fix this damage. We showed them a few things to check, gave them some software utilities to help them and they pretty much set out on their own. They were very interested in Linux, more specifically Fedora. The copy that Gene had wasn’t working correctly, so in the meantime he showed them Ubuntu on his laptop. A little later I installed it on a machine for them while Gene went off with another group to talk “shop” I guess?

From Moshi Institue of Technology/Uhuru Hostel

I had about 4 very interested bodies floating around me and asking a lot of questions about Ubuntu. I should make something known at this point - I have never used Ubuntu - fortunately it is an amazingly simple and stable OS so it was easy to take them for a guided tour. Ubuntu also, thankfully, has a few things in common with Mac OS X Leopard, so that paid off too! The questions started out basic “how do I open a MS Word document?” I showed them the built in OpenOffice.org app and they seemed impressed. I then had to give a brief lesson on what Open Source means and why I think it rocks. Next was “how do I change the background picture?” Another easy one. The next was “how do I draw?”... seriously? Damn. I don’t know? At first I opened up the OO draw program. one of the students drew an outline of Africa and wanted to now set it as the background. I showed them how to export it to a JPEG and we threw it up on the background and they seemed genuinely happy and excited - I, however, felt we could do better. Next I opened up GIMP with the original intention of modifying the existing image by removing the background and saving it as a PNG. Instead I closed all that down and made a canvas the same size as the display and had James redraw Africa. Afterwards I showed him how to add color and make some minor tweaks. Next came the PNG and adding to the background, tweaked the background color a bit and - BAM - they were really excited! I left them to play while I packed my stuff up. Before we left for the night I attempted to download the copy of Fedora I had access to (thanks, Pat). We started the download, left the download manager screen up and then took off.

From Moshi Institue of Technology/Uhuru Hostel

Msumanje and his friend Mr. Lachuo took Gene and I out to a place they called “mini Zanzibar”. All I knew was that we were at what appeared to be a nightclub with hip-hop blaring, a dance floor without dancers, a large screen showing mainly commercials and an odd amount of smoke. Upon further investigation I found the source of the smoke to be an indoor barbecue... yes, they were literally barbecuing inside without any ventilation what so ever. This wasn’t some piddly Char-grill either, no this was two 55 gallon drums halved and stitched together to make a very long bed for the coals. Atop this were two levels of racks - smoking and grilling. The smoke quite literally filled the entire place until it eventually made it’s way outside. OSHA would have field day here.

At the BBQ you pick the actual piece of meat you want, which is very similar to picking a bottle of wine, and then they prepare it how you like. Next to the table was a small vendor selling little cakes and what-not, so you know I was all over that! The meat was pretty good and was accompanied by some grilled bananas (not sweet, rather firm but very tasty - think plantains but smaller), hot sauce and salt. This was great with beer.

Let’s talk about African beer for a moment. Up to this point every beer I have seen in Africa has been a lager. This evening I decided to ask for something a bit darker. I told Mr. Luchoa that I was used to a beer that was nyeusi in color (black) and heavy. His eyes lit up as he said “we have that here!” My eyes lit up as well. When the waiter came back he asked him something in Swahili and then pointed to me. I asked “do you have any stouts or porters?”. He said “we have a milk stout”, I replied with “yes please”. Unfortunately by this time I already had over 2 liters of beer in many, so I asked Mr. Luchoa if they woul be cool with me getting this one “to-go”, he said “no problem”. I now have a bottle of African Milk Stout sitting in my backpack and hoping it makes it home unharmed! That evening we made it home safely and slept soundly!

This aint Jack in the Crack

2009-07-16T03:00:00.003-04:00

The morning came much to fast today. I was thoroughly enjoying my slumber beneath my mosquito net slice of heaven. I eventually convinced myself to get out of bed and turn on the water heater. Instead of an instant water heater mounted on the actual shower head itself, this ‘fancy’ place had a small tank heater in the room. Small tank heaters, however, take a while to heat up, so my shower was only warm for about 45 seconds and then quickly started tapering off - even after waiting nearly 20 minutes for it to heat up. Oh well, T.I.A. right?

From Moshi - Weruweru Girls Secondary School

We had decided to vacate the hotel, so I packed up my gear and headed out. Mr. Lema was at the hotel bright and early that morning. He was looking for us so he asked the front desk where we were. They asked him if he was looking for “the two tough white men?” He recounted this story with us with much laughter and animation. He really is a great man to meet first thing in the morning - much better for your system than coffee! During our ride to Weruweru, Mr. Lema gave us our daily Swahili lesson which, unfortunately, has already escaped me... I really do need to see this stuff in writing. Flash cards... I need flash cards.

From Moshi - Weruweru Girls Secondary School

The first thing we did when we got to school was get a tour of the guesthouse. It is very cool! Gene doesn’t seem to be to thrilled about the distance away from Moshi town, though, so we only agreed to a single evening. Further accommodations will be figured out tomorrow. We also found out that the guesthouse is at no cost to us - now that is what I am talking about (have you ever noticed how difficult it is to emphasize the “I” when typing?). We dropped our bags and walked to work.

From Moshi - Weruweru Girls Secondary School

The morning went rather smoothly and I was able to tear apart a few broken power supplies to make one working unit... only to find out that the motherboard in that particular computer was shot. Oh well, at least they now have a spare power supply. We have become rather fond of this school and the people who work here, so Gene and I are determined to make sure they are in great shape before we leave. We were originally planning to move to the Moshi Institute of Technology (MIT) at lunch time today, but the degree of work we were faced with yesterday has required us to modify our schedule slightly.

Overall the work went rather smoothly. and we finished up the evening (7pm) with an exact failure rate of 20% - 16 of 20 computers were up and running beautifully. When we headed over to the guesthouse we were pleasantly greeted by a set dinning room table complete with coffee, tea, biscuits and fresh oranges and bananas. Mr. Paul and Mr. Lema joined us for a cup. As we were finishing up I heard the backdoor open, a little rustling and then from the kitchen emerged a girl carrying pots of food. She reset the table with our dinner and then vanished. Unfortunately we were just heading to town to grab some cash so this meal would have to wait.

Jealous much?

The Land Rover holds a lot of people. In the back we had the tech crew, the middle row was occupied by Mr. paul, Mr. Miraji and myself, while Gene was up front and Mr. Lema drove - and we still had room for at least two more comfortably! Now that is a real SUV! In town we dropped the tech crew off and then went looking for a cafe that Gene’s friend had told him about - The Indo-Italian Cafe. Well, no one had ever heard of it, so instead we asked to be dropped off at the Umodjo Hostel to try and secure accommodations for the following evening.

This was yet another moment when even a loose grasp of the local language would come in very handy. Fortunately we were able to make reservations without issue. Best of all - 7,000 TSH per night!!! That rocks! That’s just under $6/night! I believe a “Bo-ya” is in order - BO-YA! From there Gene and I walked the mean streets of Moshi, at night, in search of something... I don’t know what it was we were looking for exactly, but Gene seemed to be on a mission of some variety. When I realized that Gene didn’t really have a plan I suggested a place I spotted during our drive. To the Muzungo Cafe we go!

Ok, in all honesty it wasn’t really a Muzungo place (White People), but I had seen a few “interesting” people their earlier and really just wanted to scope it out. What we didn’t know about Chez Deli, while en-route, was that they, too, were yet another Lutheran establishment. This meant that I would have yet another night without African ale - damn. Another thing I didn’t know is that we were looking for a meal?

I think I feel a Jimmy Buffett song coming on...

The food was... interesting. I think I could have drank the french fries through a straw? The hamburger (in paradise - shut it, Ryan) was... unique tasting (contrary to my FB comments I did not actually meet this cow prior to it ending up on my plate). All in all I was unimpressed - especially the ratio between quality of food and weight of the bill. Afterwards we caught a taxi back to Weruweru and dined on more food that was far superior to what we had just shelled out some serious coin for!

Gene - not amused... again...

They called him Yohana

2009-07-15T02:53:00.001-04:00

Our morning started early at 7:30a (yeah, I know my mornings in North Carolina are supposed to start at the same time but, not to be cliche, T.I.A. (This is Africa)). We packed our things, loaded up into the Ngarareno Girl’s Secondary School truck and headed out for the bus station. As we parked and prepared to exit the vehicle Bernard turned and told me “mind your pockets, many thieves are here”... great. Sure enough as we opened the door we were descended upon by about 15 people trying to do everything from sell us candies to give us a ride to Moshi themselves “no cost, very safe” - yeah, sure it is buddy. I couldn’t help but be on guard in Arusha. Sure, it is frequented by tourists as a jump off point for most of the nature preserves, but as such it is also a hot bed for low-level crime. It was sad, really, because it really was a gorgeous town.

Bernard found our bus for us and spoke with the driver to make sure our bags were accommodated. Unfortunately this was a bit of a challenge. You see, this bus was about a 30 passenger bus with a trunk the size of a convertible BMW Z3. Gene’s enormous bags were a challenge. They were able to cram (and I do mean CRAM) two of his “smaller” bags in the back with the other two bags, but his larger bag had to be carried in the passenger compartment. This also meant there was no place for either of our backpacks (mine being all my luggage). As a result we had to carry them in our laps. The only seats that were left were the jumper seats... let me explain:

In the buses you have many rows of seats, usually two on the drivers side (the right, they drive on the “wrong” side of the road - a dig at my UK/NZ brethren!), and a single seat on the passenger side. To fit more people in the buses are equipped with small fold down seats that bridge the gap between the two sides. They are sometimes rather floppy and rarely comfortable.

I fit in my seat without issue, but I can imagine Gene was less than thrilled to embark on an hour and a half ride a top a milk crate of a seating contraption. The unfortunate part was that I had a three foot tall bag on my lap... three foot tall and 30 pounds heavy! To put it mildly it made for some slight discomfort.

I was sitting between three women (just to clarify, that means one on one side and two on the other - nothing freaky). The one just to my write asked me something in Swahili. When my deer-in-the-headlights look was followed with an “In English please” she giggled softly and turned to her friend for a few moments. In a rather bashful tone but very impressive English she came back with “let me help you”. Now I have no idea what she meant by that, but that question had a slightly ominous tone to it. Did I need help? Was I in danger? Was she just being polite? My reply was a smile and half chuckle (a half-chuckle sounds a lot like “ha” rather than “ha-ha”). She smiled, giggled, and turned back to her friend again. I focused on holding my bag up and the pain in my legs, abs and back from sitting in such a comfortable “position”.

As we started out of town I noticed a few things that caught me as odd. Both happened to be at the same location, as luck would have it (ok, I have no idea why I chose that closing statement - what was so “lucky” about it?). Our bus stopped for fuel at a gas station called “Viva La Bam” - I am dead serious. Which came first: the gas station or the show? Parked out front was an older right hand drive Toyota (looked like an old Sentra) with an “REI Member” sticker on the back window. Both of these points made me wonder “Where am I?” Oh yes, now I remember - I am in Africa!

The bus ride was mostly uneventful except for the insane number of speed-bumps on the road - absolutely ridiculous. As we drove into Moshi I noticed, over my left hand shoulder, the Moshi Institute of Technology. This proved to be very helpful information because, as luck would have it, the bus station was just two blocks further down the road. We got off the bus, evaded the salesmen and headed up the road for MIT.

MIT is rather small. A few rooms in a small building that is shared with a stationary store, a coffee grinder and another shop that I don’t remember right off hand - beauty salon maybe? Inside we were able to wait for the director, Msumaje, as he came to collect us and give us a ride to our hostel for the night. Fitting two Americans, three suitcases, two backpacks and a rather large driver into a very small two door Toyota hatchback was, on it’s own, an adventure to be had. We did it, though, and except for some tire rubbing on the right side everything went well.

The hostel, on the other hand, was now a hotel. The rate of $30 (quoted in American dollars - never a good sign, if you ask me) had increased from our reservations the day before to $45. This was a fantastic surprise (please note I am using intense sarcasm in this sentence)! They were trying to push us into the rooms with air conditioning - I guess now would be a great time to talk about the weather, it’s absolutely gorgeous! The weather was about 68-72, cool and simply breathtakingly refreshing. Effervescent even? Anyhow an AC system was pointless. We were able to talk our way down to $40 - oh joy (sarcasm). I changed our reservations at this point from 5 days to just the one night.

The rooms were nice, but now it was time to head to the Weruweru Girl’s Secondary School for the day. Their Land Rover came and picked us up from the hotel with Msumanje riding shotgun. We dropped Msumanje off at, what appeared to be, some random street and continued on without him. The driver, Mr. Lema, was absolutely hilarious and great to hang out with. He told me that my name in Swahili is “Yohana” and now everyone knows me as such. The Land Rover was a complete wreck under the hood. Mr. Lema said “the carburetor is not so good”. The timing also appeared to be off and, judging by the old starter sitting on the front shelf, I gathered they have been having a few ignition problems too. The truck more or less stopped when going up a hill... I think they are having a problem with the vacuum advance or vacuum system in general?

To get to the school we had to go along many dirt roads. These dirt roads would have bent my VW Bus in half. The “pot holes” were, in fact, 1-2 foot deep groves cut through the earth. Rain and mother nature had shaped these roads, not any transit office.

Pulling into the gates of the Weruweru Girl’s Secondary School is like entering a dream - it was magical. The grounds were covered in the most beautiful vegetation. The myriad of buildings were so quaint and beautifully situated. The air was full of freshness and the sound of girls singing. This place was AMAZING!!! Everyone at the school was superbly inviting and receptive. We were met by Mrs. Frimini and Mr. Paul who, in turn, became our tour guides and hosts for the day. They showed us the computers and the room they are preparing to be their “computer lab”. The computer lab needs a little work, but they showed us the work order they were quoted and they are going at it full-bore. New paint, furniture, cleaning, electrical work, flooring, ceilings - everything. Now they just needed to raise enough money to pay for the work.

We were taken back to the room where the computers are currently held and Gene and I started in. Wow, we were definitely not prepared for what we found. The first computer we each turned on were missing operating systems. We didn’t have any Windows Discs and keys with us, but we were told that some local techs were coming in to work with us a little later that afternoon, so we set those machines aside and went on to the next ones. Same thins - no operating systems. Before these things are packaged up and shipped out by WCE they must meet some basic needs. They must be working without issue and have an operational OS installed. My theory, early on, was that the container these computers were shipped out on met Homeland Securities new toy - the cargo container x-ray arm. As we continued working my theory continued to gain credence. In about an hour we found out that every machine was zapped. A large dose of x-ray to a magnetic drive would quickly cause such a reality. This meant our one day visit to Weruweru had just been extended a bit - this made me happy - another day in paradise!

Not amused by my photography skills...

We stopped working around 6p that evening and were fortunate enough to actually meet the headmaster, Ana Devota Sambaya, just before we left. She was a very gracious woman and very kind. Her absence that day was due to the fact that she is also working in Moshi town at the school district offices and is in the process of transitioning out to her new position. She wanted to meet us, though, so she had her driver bring her back to Werweru for an introduction. It was very nice to meet her and she also decided to offer Gene and I a place to stay in their guesthouse - yes, you read that correctly - a room in paradise! We said we would be back tomorrow to take a look and thanked her very much for her generosity. The only downside is we leave her school tomorrow afternoon and start working in Moshi town, so the logistics of commuting will be a significant challenge.

Mr. Lema gave us a ride back to our hotel. Gene and I went to the hotel restaurant for dinner that evening where I was hit with another sad reality - no booze. The Uhuru Hostel is actually the Uhuru Hotel which is actually the Uhuru Lutheran Hotel - damn. Dinner was fairly tasty, though. I had a local dish of banana’s cooked with beef. There are a few types of bananas that I have noticed here in Tanzania, and these were the smaller, firm and non-sweet variety. They were similar to potatoes, actually. It was a small portion, though, so I ordered a pizza to go. In my room I ate pizza, watched the “Darjeeling Limited” on my iPhone and attempted to soak up as much of this $40 room as I could. Seriously, $40? I am looking forward to seeing the guesthouse at Weruweru tomorrow morning.

Yours truly,

Yohana

Let there be light... please?

2009-07-14T02:47:00.000-04:00

Last night I slept like a log. A comatose, lethargic, sloth-like, lazy log. It’s odd how my best nights of sleep are always in foreign environments. I can rarely get to sleep in my own place(s), but put me somewhere new and I can be out and extremely comfortable very quickly. I am sure there is a downside to this level of comfort, but for now I will simply embrace it.

This morning Gene and I had a chance to meet Sister Mary Shohba before she was whisked away to meetings for the day. She was very nice and has a great sense of humor - so you could say we got along great from the start. Afterwards we headed over to the canteen for some morning grub. This was an interesting endeavor that I enjoyed however Gene, being a vegan, had some issues. I was served a fried egg (apparently the egg yolk here is white... or translucent... or missing?) and we also had some tea. The tea was, well, like nothing I had ever seen before. Imagine the makers of Yoo-Hoo making a warm breakfast tea. It is apparently made with the cream in it and then you get two heaping spoonfuls of raw sugar - I loved it! Gene, on the other hand (let me know if you notice a theme here), wasn’t impressed. I noticed some donuts sitting in a cabinet not far from our table and asked if I could have one. They were cake style, but obviously handmade due to the lack of uniformity in shape - so they were perfect for me. It was taken back to the kitchen, heated up in the microwave and brought back to me. Here is the shocker - not the slightest bit sweet. It boggled the mine but tasted great once I convinced myself it wasn’t actually a doughnut.

Bernard showed up shortly after and escorted us over to the school and computer lab (which is on the same grounds as he hostel - rather convenient, don’t you think?). It is a pretty cool lab! They have 24 computers which are used by roughly 300 girls age 12-16 on a daily basis. Yes, 24 computers for 300 girls. That isn’t even the entire student body, which is 500 students, but rather the ones who are taking computer class. This means that for their 40 minute block of time, many students share a computer with 2-3 other fellow students. There are about 30 students, age 16, who are taking advanced courses and focusing on programing and other higher level courses. The sad part is that of those 24 computers only 14 currently work.

From Arusha - Ngarenaro Girls Secondary School

Our work was truly cut out for Gene and I, especially since we were leaving the next morning so only had the single day at the Ngarareno Girl’s Secondary School. We jumped in with both feet, unfortunately we needed more than feet... After a few hours it was obvious that we needed hardware. Nothing we needed was expensive, but everything we needed was nonexistent. At lunch time we decided to take a timeout and regroup.

From Arusha - Ngarenaro Girls Secondary School

For lunch we headed over to the Ethiopian restaurant known as The Ethiopian Restaurant - seriously, that is what the sign said. It was simple and to the point, though! The food was off-the-chain good, though! Gene was able to heat his ever-vegan-loving-heart out (I should mention this was the second place we were taken for lunch, the first one was vetoed immediately by Gene when the buffet didn’t meet his standards... so I put my plate down and we left).

After lunch we tracked down some parts at a local electronics shop to at least try to troubleshoot what we had. Gene was buying and even though Bernard was with us, I still think we got the muzungo (white person) price. Oh well. We took everything back and tried to troubleshoot only to determine that our worse fears were validated and the stuff was very broken. We continued to work though, into the night until I discovered my next travelers tip: when in Tanzania, always have a flashlight on you.

From Arusha - Ngarenaro Girls Secondary School

To say that the electrical system here is reliable is like saying Dane Cook’s stand up is funny... it isn’t. Apparently the power gets shut off on the residents every so often. Great. This came without warning, but I am sure that if I had the ability to look at the bigger picture I could see a much grander schema at work... unfortunately I don’t have that view and, instead, have to contend with trying to find my things in the dark. The power companies decision to do this makes about as much sense as Dane Cook yelling his jokes in an attempt to make them funny (polishing a turd?). Anyhow, at about 7:12p this evening we stopped working and we felt somewhat defeated. We are told the power will come on sometime after 10p this evening, but only time will tell. I, on the other hand, won’t know when it comes back on as I plan on being heavily unconscious in my luxurious slumber.

My apologies to Dane Cook and his fans. Seriously though...

Tanzanian Time

2009-07-13T07:11:00.000-04:00

Today was the day each team moved out to their job sites. Gene and I were first to depart at 7:30a this morning. Our voyage started with a taxi ride from the Mission House to the bus depot where the Kilimanjaro Express was waiting to take us to Arusha. The traffic this morning was pretty insane and finding out which bus we needed to get on would have been nearly impossible without our taxi drivers help. This particular taxi is called upon quite often by the residents of the Mission House so he, for lack of a better term, took us under his wing. The bus itself was not named the Kilimanjaro Express, nor was that name written on anything even remotely close to the bus. No, instead, you had to know which of the 500 people crawling around the bus depot was the right person to ask. The taxi driver, fortunately, found this man... on his third try.

Our gear was unloaded and the taxi drivers departed. It was at this point we were told we had to pay a baggage fee. You see, while I may have been traveling with a single backpack, my cohort, Gene, was traveling with an entire computer store stuffed into three suitcases and one particularly heavy backpack (holding 4 old and very heavy laptops). The overage fee of 20,000 TSH was hard to argue when you stood before these hulking bags, so I just paid it (which was extra tough when you figure our tickets were 25,000 TSH each) and then came the fun part of trying to stuff them into the cargo hold!

Bags finally secure we took our seats upon the bus and prepared for 8-9 hours of driving. The buss was very full. We all had assigned seats, something I wasn’t use to at this stage of Tanzanian transportation, and only had three open seats on the entire bus. These seats, however, did not stay open long because it seems that even this style of transportation is not as strict and rigid as their Western counterparts. We stopped three times and picked up three people to fill three empty seats - rather efficient, really. The stops all seem to have been prearranged, though.

Off we went and I must say that Eastern Tanzania has some very impressive landscape. The vegetation is rich and lush. On either side of the bus the landscape was dotted with earthen huts and cinder block homes. Farming was prevalent and bountiful. It was quite the sight to behold. I hope to take pictures during our return leg.

The buses all seem to follow the same customs. Allow me to explain. While traveling down the road we frequently pulled over and paused at makeshift dirt parking lots where we would quickly be descended upon by every street vendor in the area. It was actually quite neat, but did get bothersome after the tenth time. People on board the bus would merely slide the window ope and proceed to shop and barter. Everything from cold water to a bag of 20 oranges (which became very popular, very quick) to bags of roasted cashews could be had. Need some toothpaste? Look out the window. Candy, clothes, baby supplies - pretty much anything you need can be had without ever leaving the comfort (relative) of your seat. I thought the U.S. was convenience oriented!

We stopped for lunch once along the way which was nice. We were also served a soda of our choice (in a glass bottle and with a straw), little cookies that were called “Glucose Biscuits”, a bottle of water, little candies and even an “in-flight” movie: Spymate (a gripping tale about a secret agent chimpanzee). It was all very nice, actually. We were told the bus would have A/C, and it did, but it was never turned on - which kind of sucked, actually. The breeze from the windows was great but was often taken away with the constant stops and odd placement of massive speed-bumps along a highway...?

As we got closer to Moshi the stops became more frequent. With Mount Kilimanjaro off in the distance the bus would stop at seemingly unmarked locations and one or two people would disembark.

We eventually made it through Moshi and started off for Arusha when we hit a traffic jam - in the middle of nowhere. The jam up was because a large number of trucks needed to weigh in on a poorly placed scale - one that was not accessible without doing a u-turn, going straight into oncoming traffic (a common practice in Tanzania) and then backing up onto the scale. Then you had to cross back into your lane of travel without being hit in the front and back simultaneously - great fun, really!

We hit Arusha and the sun had already set. It was then that I realized our 8-9 hour journey was, in fact, 11 hours long. It was also at this time that I finally realized I wasn’t able to call Tanzanian phone numbers from my phone with any great ease - or at all, as the case would be - which meant we were without a ride. I should correct that, we had a ride, but the ride had no idea where to find us. As we lugged Gene’s bags across the street from the bus stop (and away from the vultures that are taxi drivers) we attempted to find Bernard, our contact in Arusha. My Global SIM wasn’t working so hot, my AT&T SIM wasn’t allowing me to connect to a tower (after specifically asking our account manager to ensure this functionality would be active BEFORE I depart for Africa, thanks One Source Communication, I have one “something” for you!) and Gene’s phone had a dead battery. I was able to take the SIM out of Gene’s phone, plant it in my phone and we were finally in business. Meanwhile we are being laughed at by many passersby who are amused by the “typical Americans” waiting on the curb with enormous amounts of luggage - if only they knew. We had countless people ask us questions like “do you need a taxi?” or “are you searching for accommodations for this evening” to “you should not be on this street right now, their are lots of thief's and bad people out right now”, you know, all the magic words you want to hear while stranded alongside the road in a new town where you don’t speak the language.

Eventually Bernard arrived in a taxi, we loaded up the gear and headed to the Hostel at the parish. We got our rooms and then Bernard took us out to a restaurant to grab some dinner. It was, unfortunately, a typical “white person” place that I didn’t feel comfortable in: a fancy hotel with a fancy restaurant with even fancier prices. There were a few Americans, Brits and Dutch dining their. The food was good but the portion size and the price definitely did not match one another. Either way, we got fed.

The room here is nice! Check out the awesome water heater for the shower! First hot shower since I have been here, and it was truly hot!

From Arusha - Parish Hostel

California Dreaming

2009-07-12T17:00:00.000-04:00

So some of you may loose a little faith in me, I know I have, but I did actual tourist things today - and had fun. I am ashamed... but only slightly.

Today we took a trip to a private beach. This entailed quite an interesting journey (I am finding this to be the norm in Tanzania). First we walked down the street about 3/4 a mile to the ferry dock which was... well... unique. When the boat pulled in to let it's current load off it looked as though the back of the boat must have been on fire. There wasn't any smoke, save for the dusty fumes from the boats diesel motor, but everyone was precariously perched and practically overflowing out the front of the vessel. When they finally docked it was pure chaos. Cars, trucks people, bikes, motorcycles, hand drawn carts - the lot - all poured off the buss at once and in front of one another. It was sheer madness, but within it I found sheer beauty. No one was hurt. Not to many people were angry. Everyone got off the boat in one piece. Sure there may have been far more efficient methods to do this, but that wouldn't be Tanzania - would it?

Boarding was a slightly more regulated affair however, with vehicles first, then bikes/carts, then people. We boarded safely and made our way up to the top deck to find a seat. Finding a seat, however, was fairly pointless. I was expecting this to be quite the ride (okay, it was only 100 schillings (something like $0.06), so maybe not an amazing ride) but after about 4 minutes, we were docking at the other side. The madness quickly ensued. Rather than walking up the ramp with the rest of the traffic we took an immediate right after touching land and proceeded along a "short cut" over some rocks, towards some beached boats, around a chain link fence and through a local market area. It was a unique trail, to say the least.

Next we needed a bus to the "resort" we were heading to. We were fortunate to find a bus *I should clarify, these buses have about 14 seats but, apparently, fit roughly 35 people inside of them* where we could all sit down ad not be sat upon at the same time. It was a fairly long ride with constant stops as the bus crew, driver and doorman, tried to pick up anyone they could to give a ride. When we did get to where we were going, well, we hadn't the slightest clue we were there. If Ralph from the mission house hadn't been traveling with us we would have been lost - completely. We traveled down a more or less unmarked dirt road with a few shops and restaurants on either side near the main street. After a few minutes we were on the most beautiful beach.

From Beach trip in Tanzania

This place was, admittedly, gorgeous. The sands were manicured, the water was absolutely AMAZING and the place was sparsely populated. There were supposedly four hotels, one next to the other, who controlled this portion of the beach. You paid an entrance fee of 3,000 schillings (like $2.50) to use the facility and that fee also goes towards a drink from the bar. We knew we were in the right place with the increased number of white people. This was the part I really didn't like, but I found some "brighter" sides to the scenario.

From Beach trip in Tanzania

I named her "Ariel"

We spent a lot of time in the water with the frisbee and had a great day overall. I enjoyed a nice Serengeti Lager at 10:30am (don't judge me!) with my entrance fee. Quickly, however, we became hungry and the food at these resorts simply didn't meet our impeccable standards, so we hit the showers and headed back to Dar. *I should note that the shower at the resort was the first "hot" one I have had since being here; it didn't have a hot tap, but because the sun was out the water was very warm.*

The reverse trip was much like the first, but I got to sit in the front of the "bus" this time. Boarding the ferry this time, however, was quite unique. We were on the "small" ferry this time. The loading ramps apparently don't raise or lower. They also tend to be somewhat submerged at the ramp which means you have to hop over a small pond as you attempt to board with the other 300 people. There wasn't a deck to stand, but rather you were intermixed with everything else that decided to ride across. The boat was still loading even as it puled away from the dock (I should note that the buses do the exact same thing - one foot on counts as in).

Once we touched down on the other side it was pure chaos to try and make it back up the street in one piece, again, and to avoid the bus drivers trying to talk us into their perspective shuttle crafts. We made it through the hurdles quickly, though, and focused. We were on a mission, you see, and nothing was going to sway us. We were headed for the Kempinski Hotel to enjoy some "high-end" sweet treats in what I was told would be a fancy place. Well, fancy it was - indeed. This place was beyond immaculate and I immediately felt WAY out of my element there. My brother, on the other hand, he would ave loved this place. In fact, he would probably just stay in this place and never leave...

The treats were absolutely sublime. Fresh squeezed orange juice and a mango mousse were a fantastic cap to the beach. Other treats at the table were passion fruit juice and steak sandwich (Daniel, our friend from the Musumo area on Lake Victoria who is staying at the House of the White Fathers to take a 5 week crash course on French), opera cake (which Ralph enjoyed and looked sinful from every angle, which is odd since he is a priest...), some chicken thing that Kathy had and some big bottles of water. It was great, but we had to finish up and head back as we were meeting Father Sheejan shortly so we could go out to dinner and talk.

Father Sheejan had just arrived as were walking up (he was still at the security checkpoint). We eventually got everyone cleaned up and headed out to the Red Onion for some grub. It was yummy and Indian and spicy and went great with big bottles of beer. We had a chance to speak with Father Sheejan and get a better idea of what it is we will be doing for him (and how we were supposed to get there). Gene and I will be at two of his girls schools towards the end of next week and he was the reason we were able to stay at the mission house for free - he really is a great guy!

We eventually headed back here to the house. My three compatriots sorted through computer gear and talked "shop" while I watched the newest iteration of the Incredible Hulk with Ralph and a few other guests of the mission home. Now it is time for bed as Gene ad I have an early bus to catch in the morning. It is a 9 hour ride out to Arusha! Oh, what fun!

**A little side info. Businesses throughout Dar Es Salaam employ private security guards to watch their property and maintain the security of their customers. It is a little odd, but you get used to it rather quickly - as well as the divers assortment of weapons they carry, from sticks with pointy bits to nickel-plated shotguns... very odd. The other thing that I found odd is that these same security enforcers can also be found doing there laundry in a bucket while "on guard". Multi-tasking at it's finest - very efficient, so it gets my thumbs up!

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my... look, a camel.

2009-07-11T10:33:00.001-04:00

Ah, Africa. I can already tell I like Tanzania and am now thinking about visiting other countries in the future. Getting here, however, is a voyaged yet to be desired.

I departed from Charlotte around 2:15p and landed in Washington D.C. (Dulles) around 3:30p. I need to make a mad dash (or so I thought) for baggage claim so I could grab my single backpack (that they won't let me check due to it's size - lame) and meet up with Bridget aka The transporter of my passport and visa. Everything there went rather smooth, actually. I grabbed my bag and hurried upstairs to check in for my 6p flight to Zurich. A long line (for both check-in and security) but it was eventually over and I was on to my next stage of waiting for the flight. I found out it, too, would be departing late so I grabbed a quick bite to eat before boarding the 9 hour flight to Switzerland. Note to future travelers: garlic fries and beer are probably not the best foods to consume just before a 9 hour flight. Consider that my own public service announcement.

The beer did, however, have the desired affect of allowing me to sleep a little - which helped. Fitting the girth of me into a seat comfortably, on the other hand, proved to be quite a challenge indeed. We touched down in Zurich at 6:15a and from there it was a slight journey to the other end of the airport to wait for my next flight departing at 8:30a. At that gate I also met up with Kathy, a fellow eCorp/WCE volunteer, and we had a few minutes to chat before boarding the flight.

The first leg touched down in Nairobi and caused almost the entire plane to burst into applause - which caused me to burst into questions... did they know something I don't? Do planes not always land so smoothly in Nairobi? Eventually I joined in for a few slaps of the hand and then waited for roughly an hour before we again took our seats and headed to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We landed in Dar close to 9p (if you do the math that's 11.5 hours of traveling on that leg alone, counting the one hour time difference), went through customs and immigration, as well as a health quiz and screening, grabbed our bags and then a taxi. The taxi ride taught me to never rent a car in Tanzania. I enjoyed the drive, but mainly because I was in the passenger seat. The rules of the road go like this, right away is given in the following order: Lorry > Pick-up/SUV > Car > Motorcycle > Scooter > Moped > Bicycle > Pedestrian. It basically works like this: if it is bigger than you and moving faster than you, you should probably get out of the way - quickly.

We arrived at the White Fathers Mission Home without issue, however. We met up with Ralph that evening, from Germany, and he showed us our rooms as well as a brief tour. He had the cooks leave the dinner food out so we could eat if we were hungry. I, of course, took him up on his food offer - and it was yummy. To drink they have three options: water (that they filter themselves), soda or beer. I opted for beer... as if there was any question. Serengeti Lager, to be exact. Ralph joined me and it was yummy.

Breakfast was at 7:30a this morning and was very light. We went for a brief sightseeing trip afterwards - well, actually Ralph was showing us where to catch the Kilimanjaro Express on Monday. We headed back to the Mission House to relax, check email (when possible, not exactly a reliable connection, and doesn't work with every website, either) and wait for lunch which was being served at 12:30p. Lunch was AMAZING!!! It was so freaking tasty. I was blown away. So simple, too. We had this white stuff that looked kind of like mashed potatoes, but it had the consistency of polenta before being cooked. It didn't have much of a flavor but I am told it is a staple of the Tanzanian diet. If you pour this red sauce on it, it's quite nice.

After lunch I laid down for a few minutes and then Kathy and I went to grab a bus to Mwenge. That was fun. We literally had people hanging off the side of the bus because it was so full. We eventually ended up at our destination, only we didn't really know it. All we really knew is that in Swahili some guy was telling us to get off the bus... I think...? We were in what appeared to be a huge open air market area. Dirt roads and vendors EVERYWHERE! we walked around and eventually found a taxi driver who spoke English. We were trying to find this place that featured about two dozen huts built in the different Bantu tribal styles found throughout Tanzania... it was across the street. We headed over there and checked out the huts - pretty cool, actually. The engineering was pretty sweet. We took the bus back afterwards - far less crowded this time. All we really knew is that we were looking for the "old posta" (old post office) and that the mission house was nearby, but we hadn't a clue what it looked like? I asked the driver who spoke very little English and he more or less said sit down, we'll be there soon. We got closer to landmarks I recognized when, all of a sudden, traffic more or less stopped as did the pedestrian traffic. I motioned to get off the bus and we did. When we disembarked we realized what all the commotion was - a camel and driver had walked into traffic and the camel wasn't ready to move yet. I didn't want to be a tourist and stop and stare, but when I realized that the locals didn't quite know what to make of it, I felt a bit more at ease.

No pictures yet. I have been advised not to take my camera out in Dar due to it's size and that it would be a "target item". For this reason I also decided to leave the iPhone in my pocket, as well.

Tick, Tock

2009-07-07T13:36:00.002-04:00

What was the name of that alligator in Peter Pan???

So time is quickly slipping by as I go through the endless checklist in my brain.

Do I have a Visa yet? Am I up to date on my vaccinations? Where do I find a mosquito net on short notice? Do I seriously need to wear long pants in Africa? What do you mean my backpack is to big for a carry-on? Are these Malaria pills going to make me go crazy and hallucinate more than usual?

One of the big questions yet to be addressed is: will I have enough cash for this journey? I am truly fortunate to have such a tight-knit community of friends who also happen to be so very generous. It's because of all these amazing folks that this trip is even possible. All of them have given so much so that the lives of others may be changed and transformed. It's people like this that truly make the world a better place.

The topic of money brings me to a final departing note: we are almost there!!! The fund raising had been going great and the most recent contributions have really helped out a lot. I am about $400 away from my immediate needs and this is money I will need on the ground in Tanzania. Some of this was not budgeted for as we had so many last minute changes regarding volunteers and job sites. Also you may (or may not) be surprised to hear that ATM's are not easily found in Tanzania so most of this currency needs to be cash. The same goes for finding any place that happens to accept plastic - few and far between. Most of the places that do accept credit cards are the places I will probably be avoiding like the plague (read: tourist spots, hotels, etc...).

So, if anyone is interested in making a contribution please contact me first so I can determine which direction the funds should travel!

Oh, one last thing... I will be traveling with my phone (which has recently become "unlocked") and will be using an international prepaid SIM card (if it arrives in time, that is) that will have both a US and UK number attached to it. The upside to this card is incoming calls and text messages are free (to me, anyways) and I pay a pretty low fixed rate for outgoing calls (no crazy international roaming rates). I will put the number on my Facebook page for anyone who wants to contact me while away, anyone who doesn't have access to my Facebook page can contact me directly.

Thanks again, everyone!!!

Crunch time!

2009-07-02T13:40:00.000-04:00

Wow, way to wait until the last minute!!!

Last night I had a conference call with the rest of the volunteers headed to Tanzania as well as a few other key people and I learned a few things. The first thing I learned is that our crew has shrunk from 14 volunteers to four... yeah, fairly substantial deflation. Our workload, on the other hand, has only decreased by a single job site, soooo... yeah. Anyhow, instead of just heading to the Moshi Institute of Technology, I will now be at five different job sites. I actually think this is pretty cool on one hand, but it will decrease the one-on-one time with locals that I was initially hoping for. On the flip side I will get to see, meet and hopefully help more people in more places. All in all I am really excited and actually appreciate and enjoy the state of constant change and flux found in the nonprofit realm.

Something else I learned on the thirty-minute turned 2.5 hours conference call is that I simply don't have everything I need. After I finish paying for my vaccines and medications tomorrow for the trip (bring on the Yellow Fever and Typhoid!) I will pretty much be completely broke. Those of you who know me personally know that when I say I am broke that doesn't mean I am down to my last $xx.xx, now, it means I am down to zero... or less... I have been really fortunate that the fund raising has been going so well in such a short period of time, but I am a long ways off from hitting my goal. The other thing that I am short on is the right stuff to pack. So, if anyone out there has any of the following that I can borrow/have, I would appreciate it:

- Lightweight cotton pants (long legs, yeah, I know), preferably light in color too
- Water purification tablets
- Treated mosquito net
- Spare/old/unused flash drive (USB thumb drives) to be given to the computer users in Tanzania
- Power Bars, Cliff Bars, those little gel things runner drink, etc...
- Ball point pens to be given to locals while there
- Duct tape
- A simple compass (to shoot an azimuth for finding satellite dishes)
- Parachute cord or any other small diameter, yet strong, rope (maybe 20'-50')
- Software - specifically Windows XP (with keys, SP2 or SP3) and Ubuntu

If you are local and don't care about being able to have your donations written off on your taxes, then I will also accept donations to help buy the items I am missing. Thanks again everyone for your support!!!

Stay tuned for more!

More updates and changes!

2009-06-24T12:10:00.000-04:00

Well I am overwhelmed by the generosity of my friends and family! The fund raising has really started to pick up lately and this trip is starting to feel more like reality and less like concept! Because of this I have also made some new changes to the donate link to the right. If you click it now it will go to my page on Active.com. Right now WCE currently has a grant that agreed to match donations up to $10,000. What this means is that any contribution you make towards my trip to Tanzania will actually go twice as far! Neat stuff, right? Time is ticking, though, so speed is of the essence.

**Cue annoying infomercial guy**

"So what are you waiting for? Don't delay, pick up those phones and start dialing... err, Click the Button, CLICK THE BUTTON, CLICK THE BUTTON!!! Opperators are standing by..."

It's official (sort of)

2009-06-09T16:51:00.003-04:00

I was recently asked to lead a team doing training and infrastructure installation at the Moshi Institute of Technology (MIT) and I quickly accepted. I am really excited about this new development as it has escalated beyond a mere hardware installation and transformed into a much more interactive opportunity. One of our main roles at MIT is to "train the trainers" and I may even be fortunate enough to actually attend (or possibly teach) at one of the evening classes to the actual students!!!

While in Tanzania myself and one other team member will be staying with a family and commuting into campus each day via the bus. This arrangement is great for me and I hope to gain a much better perspective of our efforts through the eyes of the beneficiaries. I am really getting excited about all of this!!!

My dad found me a great used digital camera that I hope to take with me (yes, I am still rocking film cameras, so digital will be a much needed "upgrade" for this trip). My hope is to blog from Tanzania, but I have a feeling my initial efforts will be text based due to bandwidth constraints. If that reality is true then I will definitely upload photos upon my return. I also hope to purchase a Flip Mino video recorder to take some "action shots" and document our efforts.

Even if I don't take a single camera, I will definitely do my best to relate my experiences as best as possible. No matter what, I promise to share the joy and grace that comes along with a project of this nature. Thank you everyone for being so supportive!!!

Made some changes...

2009-06-09T10:50:00.000-04:00

So the PayPal link to the right no longer links to PayPal (shhhh, don't tell them). The link now connects straight to World Computer Exchange's page on Network For Good. Here you will be able to make a donation on my behalf (just enter "John Holland for Tanzania" in the "Designation" field). Thank you everyone for your support and compassionate hearts.

Introduction

2009-05-23T16:38:00.001-04:00

Most of you who happen upon this blog already know me, but for those of you who don't I figured I would give a rather brief introduction.

My name is John (but my friends call me "Jon"... works better in spoken conversation). I am a recent transplant to Charlotte, NC by way of an island just north of Seattle, WA. Part of my decision to move East to North Carolina was a goal of personal transformation and the hope to put myself to work in the business of helping others. While my 9-to-5 job may not be a direct representation of "helping those who can't help themselves" I am fortunate to be given opportunities to do so either on my own or part of the community I love: Watershed.

Last week I went to Boston for the weekend and as luck would have it I was able to volunteer with a nonprofit there that was prepping computers to be shipped to Africa. This group is known as the World Computer Exchange and I was immediately impressed with the ingenuity behind such a project. One of the major aspects that I found appealing about this outfits goals wasn't so much the idea of bringing a computer infrastructure to developing nations but rather the long term commitment involved such as creating a proper computer disposal plan. It's one thing to drop aide into a place that needs it, it's a whole other ball of wax to consider the variables at play and try to tackle them as well.

After the days work was done and we had completed a pallet of 20 computer systems for shipment I was invited to join the Boston chapter during their trip to Tanzania this July. I think, for a moment, the overcast clouds of the skies above allowed a bolt of sunshine to blast through the skies and illuminate this man before me for just a moment. Tim Anderson, the "leader" of this group of misfits, is a man who always seems to carry a smile and share a warm heart. I jumped at the offer, but with contingencies as I had to make sure a few minor points would be taken care of:

1) My son is coming out to stay with me for part of the summer, but didn't know when?
2) Not sure if I can get the time off from work?
3) Will I be able tor raise enough money in time?

Well, on Wednesday this past week I found out that my son, the great Vincenzo, will be coming to stay with me the last week of July through the last week of August. His mother has been very gracious in making accommodations for my schedule as well as my son's. On Thursday I worked out everything with work and they are extremely excited by this opportunity for me as well as my son coming to visit! So now I am down to number 3 on the list: raise capital!

While in Tanzania I will be working on one of four different work sites, each with their own objectives. Three of the work sites are setting up computer systems to be used by school children. The fourth site is an orphanage and the computers we install will be used to educate these children and allow them to get into secondary school. Many of us take for granted the versatility and convenience that comes with owning a computer. We can Google almost anything from our cell phones, now. Well imagine the opportunities that await these children. No, don't just imagine it, become a part of it.

The trip is estimated to cost about $3,200. If I can raise enough for my plane ticket and the $400 WCE fee via contributions (roughly $2,300), then I will be able to cover the remaining $900 myself. While there I plan to not only help install computers and train others on their use, but I will also do my best to document the entire experience, as well. Through words, pictures and possibly even video I hope to show you the positive impact that we can make in this world. So if you want to watch what happens, then stay tuned, but if you want to invest in this change then please follow my donation link to the right.

For those interested in sending their donation to a non-profit for tax reasons, please contact me for more information: john.h@rollingwaveproject.com

Thank you very much.

Not for you?

2009-05-15T15:47:00.001-04:00

If donating directly to me through PayPal isn't for you, then I do have another option available. I have a page through The Giving Network if you would prefer to make your donation through that venue.

Alternatively, any donations made directly toe World Computer Exchange will go a long way towards bettering the lives of countless children in developing nations. All I ask is you mention my name in their somewhere! Thanks again, and at a minimum I hope you decide to follow my adventures through my blog postings.

Thanks again!

Thank You!!!

2009-05-15T15:43:00.002-04:00

I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your assistance. I realize how difficult it is for many of us to make charitable contributions considering the season and economic climate. I promise to make the most of my time abroad and dedicate my efforts to bettering the lives of others.

Thanks again and I hope you continue to read my blog as it is updated. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed.