Last week Jordan, Holly and I boarded a bus and took the long and adventurous trip to Dar es Salaam where we had a number of meetings with stakeholders, like-minded groups and potential partners. Although we had all been in Dar before, there was certainly a feeling of city-shock upon arriving in Tanzania’s largest metropolis but it quickly subsided as we got immersed in our work and the good vibe of the big city.
One of our meetings was with Tech Bridge World (a Carnegie Melon NGO) that innovates and implements technology solutions to meet sustainable development needs around the world (www.techbridgeworld.org). It was a pretty enlightening meeting as we exchanged stories and ideas about our respective projects ultimately to find areas and ideas where we could work together. I think it would be an understatement to say that we were humbled with the enthusiasm of the TBW staff for our project and look forward to the opportunity of implementing their technology solutions in the future or even have some of their volunteers join us.
One of the other exciting things that happened in Dar was that Jordan and I got to hang out with at the “Books for Bricks” charity even
t – a used book sale raising money for the building of an orphanage. Although we were there to support the event, we quickly found ourselves benefitting from the conversation we were having with the plethora of other volunteers there from an eclectic mix of NGOs. It was pretty cool to be in a conversation with everyone representing different organizations but ultimately all sharing the same goal. We made some great contacts and were happy to be part of this sub-community here in Tanzania. But perhaps most important, Jordan and I were really treated by the show put on by the children from whom the orphanage was for.
Following Dar, we took a car to Morogoro which is where Alliance One’s Tanzania Headquarters is situated. In addition to being treated exceptionally well by our friends at AO, we were allowed time to meet with different members of the AO team to aid our “Gathering Inputs” stage in the project and give us a better understanding of the industry. The headquarters is both the corporate facility for AO and the plant where the tobacco gets processed before being shipped to the company’s customers. All in all, it was a pretty informative trip but we were happy to get back to Tabora, especially after a 25 hour bus ride home!
As we say: TIA (This is Africa),
Adil.
