Columbia University – Tanzania 2007
This photo was from one of our last site visits in Dodoma. The woman pictured is a new mother who benefits from Africare’s mosquito net vouchers. We interviewed her, as well as other community members, and following the interview, she invited us inside of her home, where this shot was taken. – Bryan
So the team has been back in the states now for a week. We had a very nice last few days with our hosts in Dar Es Salaam, and a relatively uneventful trip back to the states (including a whole lot of ramped up security, post-Glasgow). Now we’re all over the place – Seattle, New York, DC, Boston, Israel…I’m in Austin, TX right now at S.O.W. headquarters, logging and editing our short documentary for the Clinton Global Initiative, and then cutting together some pieces for Africare. We’ll be rolling this blog over for next year’s team, so keep in the queue if you’re interested in staying up to date on the Columbia group. And as soon as the documentary is in some viewable shape, I’ll work on finding an upload platform and posting up on here somehow. Thanks everyone for reading along during our trip and especially for all of the comments. - Bryan
After the jump: photos from the last two working days in Moshi. – Bryan
The team arrived safely in Dar last night and had a good reunion with some of the Africare staff here. Updates and photos for the last two days will roll in sometime tomorrow. -Bryan
Today we filmed in the Hai District, still in the Moshi region. The drive was lengthy but beautiful; after receiving conflicting directions, we took the scenic route overlooking lush ravines of rainforrestry and even some babbling brooks. As usual, we were greeted by many hospitable villagers who waved to us as we drove past. Luckily our driver and guide Jemal was able to get us back on track, and eventually we reached our destination: the Hai District Water Supply Project center. We then met with our contact, Mr. Marandu, a water engineer who consults the project. Mr. Marandu was a joy to interview; he was extremely articulate and eloquent in English, and provided many excellent sound bytes for our documentary.
Sarah H has been pretty sick for a few days, and perhaps inevitably (as she is my perpetual roommate) as soon as she started feeling better i began to feel ill. It has been difficult fully engaging with our experiences through the haze of illness and medication, but yesterday’s events managed to somewhat break through the haze.
Put together this slipshod panorama of the Moshi rooftops late last afternoon (full view: click here). I hope to have some more street shots of Moshi, Dodoma, and Dar up on here soon, as well as some more panoramas when the clouds clear up on the Kili side of the city.
We spent this morning with the Park Warden up at Marangu Gate and the afternoon at a forest preserve outside of Moshi. Photos and a summary will be up soon. – Bryan
Inside the daladala bus to Marangu
Today was a day of literal ups and downs as we spent our second full day in Moshi continuing to orient ourselves to the city and its surrounding areas. With our filming scheduled to start this coming Sunday, our day began open to an endless amount of possible activities and adventures. After a morning spent mostly at the Coffee Shop, our new favorite local café that serves some of the best coffee in all of East Africa, Will, Bryan and I couldn’t resist the urge to get closer to Mount Kilimanjaro.
Looming over the buildings and busy streets of Moshi, the mountain seems to exude a magnetic force that drew the three of us into its field today as we ventured up its dusty roads and into its thick landscape of forest and rock…
Took at walk around Moshi at sunset with some of the team. Had some trouble getting a good shot of the mountain because of the way the sun/haze washed everything out. But the countryside and the backroads and the city itself made for a really nice couple of hours. Some photos after the jump. - Bryan
