Team From Concentrate!

Team From Concentrate, a group of Stanford engineering students and grads, has linked up with CPAR Tz in Karatu on a mission to work with rural communities to develop affordable and reliable off-grid electricity. They arrived with an assortment of solar structures and immediately set to work in CPAR's office sawing, sautering and gluing to get their prototypes ready for the communities. On Monday they set off for Maghesho. Read about their experience at FromConcentrate


Amanda, Bryan, Lesley and Greg en route to Maghesho in CPAR's pickup!

Is it football or is it soccer!?!

Saturday was our visitor's final day at Awet. Canada challenged Tanzania to a 'soccer' game and Tanzania accepted the challenge to play 'football'. 'Football' is taken very seriously in this part of the world. Among CPAR Tz staff alone, 'Manchester United", "Liverpool", "Chelsey" and "Arsenal" are ardently supported. In fact, when our visitor 'Chelsey' introduced herself to Awet's 600 school kids, they all nodded knowingly.

The game itself was interesting. In the absence of jerseys, there was initial bewilderment over who was playing for which team. The Canadian/North American team (joined by CPAR Tz's 4 American volunteers) recruited several Tanzanians, and the Tanzanian team recruited several North Americans. While the players were sorting out their confusion, the Tanzanian team moved in and scored two quick goals. The North Americans then pulled it together and the game ended with a 3 all tie.

The Tanzanians have now challenged the North Americans to the next game to take place somewhere in North America...

Visit to CPAR project sites

On Friday we set off on bumpy dusty trails to visit rainwater harvesting at Ayalaliyo and Mahhahha Primary Schools. Now that they have access to water, Ayalaliyo school has started a banana plantation. Nderingo explained to our guests the practice of conservation agriculture. The Dolichos lablab bean, a cover crop, has been planted throughout the banana plantation in order to suppress weeds, protect the soil from sun and rain, retain moisture, and as a nitrogen fixer to enrich the soil.

In the meantime, the kindergarten kids were playing some game that had them singing sweetly with their teacher before tearing back and forth across the field at full speed!!

After rainwater harvesting, we travelled on through the dust to Regina Aloyce's house in Bassodawish. Regina has a lot of stuff going on. She showed us her vegetable garden, her papaya trees, and her chickens, goats and pigs. Our visitors had the chance to enter her traditional Iraqw house and also the modern house made of burnt bricks and iron roofing sheets that she and her husband are building.

A Day at Awet

On Thursday, we spent an amazing and yes productive day at Awet Secondary School thanks to the superior organizational skills of Head Master Mr. Malle. We were 'warmly' welcomed, signed the guestbook and met the teachers. Then we moved outside to meet 600 school kids. They sang "Wonderful Day, Wonderful Time" to put us at ease and then belted out their school song and the very popular "Tanzania song" (Tanzania nakupenda) which describes how much Tanzanians love their country. Kambi ya Simba community members rounded up the program with rousing drumming and dancing. Then the heavy lifting began. The Algonquin group lined up to shift three large piles of big heavy concrete blocks from the ground to the hostel building. Then they helped to apply mortar and lay the blocks. The walls started to go up!! In the meantime, the schoolgirls watched from the steps of the adjacent girls' hostel. Pretty soon interaction stepped up between the guests and the girls to the point where all of a sudden, believe it or not, a little group was doing the Macarena...

Algonquin visit to UMATU Centre

Our wageni (guests) from Canada arrived on Wednesday and their first stop was UMATU Centre where UMATU women welcomed them with their usual flair. After a tour of the offices, kitchen/bakery and training/activity centre, some serious shopping took place. Our guests pretty much bought up UMATU's current supply of khanga bags and beaded jewelry. It was a very good day for UMATU's income-generating aspirations.

After the shopping spree, to everybody's great surprise UMATU produced a beautiful, uniquely decorated birthday cake they had whipped up for Sue Ellen. After Sue Ellen blew out the candles, we all shared the delicious carrot cake. UMATU women are really honing their baking skills. Next week -- banana loaf.

Awet Secondary School Girls' Hostel

The dusty road to Awet

School Secretary Samweli prepares for the students' return

The new girls' hostel at Awet (adjacent to the existing girls' hostel)

CPAR Tanzania is all set for a visit this week by climbers, students, faculty and community members of Algonquin College in Ottawa. This community of people has raised funds in Canada to construct a girls' hostel (dormitory) at Awet Secondary School, a remote rural school located in Kambi ya Simba (Camp of Lions)here in Karatu District.

The group is presently climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and will be arriving in Karatu on Wednesday. If they can still walk after their Kili ordeal, they will hike to UMATU Centre Wednesday afternoon to see the product of last year's adventure when another group of Canadians, under the creative leadership of journalist Valerie Pringle and adventurer Ben Webster, raised funds, climbed Kili and helped to construct UMATU's beautiful yet functional centre. Ben is also leading this year's tour.

In the meantime, we're getting ready for the group to participate in construction activities at Awet. By last Thursday, the foundation was close to completion, as you can see in the photo. By this Thursday, our visitors will be helping to raise the walls.

Boarding facilities for girls are crucial for girls to successfully complete their secondary education. Secondary schools are few and far between, so most girls live quite a distance from the nearest school. And, if a girl does live at home while going to school, homework and sleep take a backseat to household chores -- fetching water, looking for firewood, taking care of small siblings, cooking, cleaning, etc. -- so her chances of doing well in her studies are greatly compromised. The new hostel at Awet Secondary School is going to have a very positive impact on girls' attendance and performance.