Lots to Report

Hey all,

After a rather slow couple of days, we finally have some news to report! We started volunteering at an NGO called Qoheleth, which works to improve rural village life and prevent youth from becoming street children. They work in several areas including stabilized soil block construction, basic technologies, and health education. The office where we are working is a five minute walk from our house and currently consists of two people, the head of the organization, Ezikiel Muhubiri and his assistant. Mr. Muhubiri is an extremely friendly guy who seems very excited to have us on board. Though we still have a lot to learn about the organization and what our exact roles will be, we hope to assist him in his work on stabilized soil construction, to help develop a website, and to write-up some promotional information about Qoheleth.

We made our final decision to work at Qoheleth during the day on Thursday, and afterwards we were invited out to dinner for our housemates friend's birthday. We met three other voluteers who work with them at Amaini, a home and school for street children. Despite the restaurant's atrocious service, we had a great time meeting some new people whom we hope to see more of in the future.

Buiding on our momentum of the previous day, we decided to go to Amaini on Friday. At their facilities, they are currently housing approximately 90 children, almost all boys, ranging in age from 9 to 16. These kids all have different stories, but have somehow or another found their way to the home. The building itself is very impressive, resembling a small college dorm. The first floor consists of offices, classrooms, and a dining area, while the children all sleep upstairs. The backyard looks like any good sized elementary school playground with a soccer field, basketball court, and some equipment. We spent a couple of hours playing frisbee with some of the kids, who came and went as they got bored. Most of the boys however, were preoccupied with doing different acrobatics. They have been getting instruction in gymnastics and have some rather impressive moves from doing cartwheels, to flipping each other, to controsioning. We are hoping to find more time to go back as we get into the routine of our new schedule.

Saturday, we went on an adventure with one of our housemates to the village of Marangu. Marangu is about one hour away from Moshi by daladala (small bus) and sits at the foot of Kilimanjaro at an elevation of 5000 ft. We met up with a Tanzanian guide which we arranged through one of the local hotels, and he took on a hike to a beatiful waterfall. On the course of our hike he showed us locally grown coffee, and bananas, as well as wild rasberries, and mint. The land was extremely fertile and green due to the cooler and moister mountainside climate. We experienced the moisture firsthand as we were caught in the season's first real rainfall. (It was the first rain we have experienced in a month and it was glorious!) Our hike into the mountain valley down steep steps half the size of Zahra culminated in us taking a dip in the cold pool at the base of the waterfall.

To top off the day, we met up with another of our housemates and her boyfriend, the one we had met in Dar, to go out for a nice evening of drinks and Chinese food in Shantytown (the name is a bit of a misnomer, as it refers to the upscale part of town).

So as you can see we've started to ratchet things up a bit here, and are now preparing to settle in to our routine. Hope all is well wherever you are!

-Z&M