All You Need to Know

Welcome everybody to my blog, or “Karibu” as we say here in Tanzania. I’ve moved things around a bit once again mostly just to signal that a change has occurred and so I’m officially moving my blog and my mind out of that transitional phase and into this new, and possibly final, phase. I’ve now officially entered the internship phase, you could say and I’ve been in Arusha for almost two weeks already at the time of writing this. (It is probable that any blog posted will be typed up at a different time and then published once I take my computer somewhere to get internet.) I’m doing this inaugural post to just serve as a reference of background information for what I’m doing now and also to contextualize all of the following posts, so here is the primer for the rest of my time here in Tanzania…

As I mentioned, I am doing an internship now instead of continuing on at the University of Dar es Salaam for the academic year as I had planned. There’s a wealth of older blog posts to explain that decision and tell that whole story, so now’s not the place but if you didn’t already know, you can just look back at all of those old stories. I am really excited to have this opportunity to continue my time here in Tanzania though while also doing something else that is productive and educational. My internship is through IE3 which operates under the Oregon University System and actually has an interesting history as well as hundreds of really cool international internships throughout the world. Feel free to check out their website if you’re interested in learning more about them (http://ie3global.ous.edu). I am also fortunate enough to be getting 12 University of Oregon credits for this (so long as I complete the required assignments that are part of getting internship credit) which allows me to keep my fulltime student status, though just barely, but it’s better than losing health insurance and all of that other stuff. I’m pretty sure that’s true at least, but I may come home to find another reality.

This internship is also through a Washington D.C.-based NGO called Visions in Action which places volunteers in various locations in Liberia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and probably a few other places as well for durations of 6 or 12 months usually (http://www.visionsinaction.org/). They have set something special up with IE3 though I think so my time is for 12 weeks which is short for a VIA volunteer, but still longer than the usual 10-week program that many internships follow. So I am living in the VIA volunteer house (which I’ll explain briefly), had an orientation done through VIA and also have some additional responsibilities to them but since I have completed the orientation, they are mostly here for support and to provide the housing. There are a lot of things I could say about Visions and there’s already been quite a lot that has gone on in the past two weeks due to my partnership with them and the in-house volunteer coordinator person they have here actually resigned somewhat due to some drama revolving around my orientation, but that’s a long story for another time I guess. However, that is going to make the rest of my time here somewhat interesting, but I don’t want it to distract from what I’m really here to do. I actually got to meet the founder and Executive Director for VIA last week as he scheduled a trip to all of the different sites in Africa and there are once again a lot of things I could say about Visions, though I just don’t know where to start. In a lot of ways, it’s really good but there are also a lot of reasons for me to question the organization. At least they provide the housing though and that’s not going to change.

I’m living in a house just on the outskirts of town in a fairly decent neighborhood though we do have a noisy bar as a neighbor (still better than the church back at UDSM though as of this point.) I love the house and it has a nice little front lawn complete with an avocado tree (these things are falling and probably will kill one of us) and has a nice secure fence and gate. The inside of the house is spacious with a wide-open living room and high ceilings. I have my own room and own bed which I actually fit in well though there is no desk in there and the mosquito net has about 15 makeshift duct tape patches. We have our own kitchen as well complete with a refrigerator and some gas stove tops. It is hard to get used to cooking for myself again, especially as the foods available here are much different than what I cook at home and I seem to hardly be in the house very often. Still, all in all it is an incredibly nice, comfortable set up that I am so glad to be in and there’s even hot water!

It’s hard to explain who I live with because I am now the only person actually still associated with Visions in Action that lives in the house since the other person who was here to be a link between me and VIA has quit. There are two other tenants that I am pretty sure will be here throughout my stay here – Åsa, a Swede and the former VIA coordinator person who has been here for probably a year-and-a-half or more but has since found other work or another volunteer position and Jacquelyn, a former Visions volunteer who actually just finished volunteering with the same organization I am with now in January but is now starting a new pre-primary school elsewhere in town. Jacquelyn’s brother has also been visiting for a long time now and still will be around for about a month I think and there are two other people who were living on some of the other beds around the house but moved out, at least for a few days, while the Executive Director was in town so it didn’t look like we were housing a bunch of randoms… like we kind of are. Other than that, there is Stephanie who just quit so I don’t know how much longer she’ll be around but I really can’t tell you for sure just what the situation will be like in a week. Like I said though, I really like it and I am very satisfied with the way things have been going so far.

I guess I should talk about the actual internship I’m doing here, shouldn’t I? Well I think I’ve kind of talked about it before when I was just finding out about it but I’ve learned quite a bit more about it since I actually got here and got started. I’m writing this on Monday, March 22nd after having what I’ll consider my first real day there though even that’s not entirely accurate as I was in there three times last week. Still today was the day where we did all of our planning and stuff so I can actually tell you what the plan is and what I’m going to be expected to do for the duration of my time here. Before I get into that though, I should talk a little bit about the organization.

Elimu Community Light was started over 10 years ago in response to high crime rates in the Daraja Mbili neighborhood, an area south of the main Arusha town and where I now work. “Elimu” means education in Swahili and it is meant to serve as a metaphorical guiding light for the community that it serves. Unfortunately, the primary acronym used for the organization is ECOLI which I have gotten over since I’ve actually started saying/writing it 50 times daily and you will probably have to do the same if you are going to continue reading this blog as I anticipate it will come up a lot. ECOLI was founded by Juhudi Mbwambo, my boss/mentor there who I have been working closely with and will probably be working with throughout my time there. His solution to the perceived degeneration of his community was to start a pre-primary school that does early childhood development as this is a fundamental period in life and if handled properly, can pay great dividends as a person progresses. The Elimu Community Light Children’s Unit (ECOLICU) started not long later and is the main program run under ECOLI, though they are somewhat like separate entities. You can check out the website here: http://www.ecolicu-tz.org/ which will explain a lot though the English used is obviously Tanzanian. As of now, there are currently three ECOLICU schools that fill a community need for these kids to be in school and as far as I know do not charge anything for their tuition. These kids often may just wander the streets or do God knows what during the day if they weren’t there but this gives them a place to go where they can fulfill their hunger to learn.

ECOLI, unfortunately like most other NGOs and nonprofits, faces major limitations in funding. The goals and potential projects/programs remain frozen due to budget insufficiencies and Juhudi, a man who I have described as inspirational, driven, and one of the hardest working people I will ever meet, has actually been volunteering his time for the last five years. The only income that the organization really has comes from its teacher training program, in which a total of four separate classes meet two times each week to get training in early childhood care and development (ECCD or ECD without the “care”) and this is not even enough to afford rent or the ability to pay ECOLICU’s teachers in a timely or regular way. ECOLI embraces a spirit of volunteerism and has such a powerful and necessary role in the community that others are able to see the need for an organization like it so somehow it has been around for more than 10 years now. Still, the goals and other projects of ECOLI are still grounded and their plans cannot take flight unless some new forms of funding come about. That’s where I come in.

My primary role with ECOLI will be to work on planning and development of the organization which actually aligns perfectly with my minor I’m aiming for in nonprofit administration at U of O. This is a daunting task that I’ll admit I have my fears about, but Juhudi’s dedication has really inspired me and this is a really good time in my life where I feel motivated and ready to try my absolute hardest on this. Also, as much as I miss home and can’t wait to go back, I feel like I have such a short time left here and there’s a lot of work for me to do if I want to accomplish my goals so I don’t really have time to worry about whether or not it’s within my potential to accomplish these things, I’ve just gotta do my best. As of right now, I know that there is a lot I don’t know about this topic and what I have learned does not apply in this foreign context as much as it does back in Eugene where those fundraising strategies are more feasible. I’ve got to do a lot of research and learn a lot of things in a short amount of time because I want to make an impact here or at least plant some seeds that will grow even after I’m gone.

I think I’m kind of losing my point here of just providing an introduction to this new chapter in my life as an intern here in Arusha as the rest of my blogs will be more for specific stories and such but there’s just so much to say here that hasn’t yet been said. I am very busy here with this new life set up I have which I am really happy about and will make time pass really fast, though it does mean that I may not be able to post blogs that often as I am also limited in my ability to access internet, more so than when I was back in Dar. I just want to say welcome, once again, and I hope I am able to get on here from time to time to share some experiences and keep you all up to date on my life as well as just what life is like in the city that lies halfway between Cape Town and Cairo (and was also ranked by Lonely Planet as the 8th worst city in the world… Detroit was #1). This looks like it’s much more the experience I had in mind when I chose to go abroad and things are already going even better than I had hoped (and I had high hopes) so it’ll be interesting to see where this all ends up. I hope you enjoy reading any ensuing posts and feel free as always to say hi to me in one form or another or even ask any questions.

What else can I say? Wish me luck!

Scott Berry
March 22, 2010