I left my Manhattan home at 2:30pm Thursday, May 19, and 24 hours later was checking into a hotel in Arusha, Tanzania (9:30pm Tanzania time).

This morning I am meeting with Albin, Powering Potential’s Country Director and Rogers, our vendor in Tanzania who is helping with the computer installation. We will work out the final details of the installation plan. The computers have already arrived and the monitors are arriving tonight.

Our long evolving plans are finally coming to fruition….I wonder what wonders await us.

JRO – Kilimanjaro airport in Arusha, Tanzania.

Am waiting to check in at the airport and then off I go….home on Dec. 20.

I feel like I’ve been here for 10 months not 10 days 🙂

I had several meetings with Tanzanian government officials and they are paving the way forward for us. Also Hamisi, the head of Ensol which is the solar company we use, came to Banjika to see the solar system. We worked out a design that will serve the school’s needs and be very efficient.

Also met with these people to discuss our future projects:

• Mason – our solar-aid.org consultant
• Mtituh – a tech guy from Dar who has been very helpful
• Mercy, Noel, Tina, Wantay, and Dr. Taylor – representatives from NGOs (non-government organizations) working in Tanzania. I’m learning from their experiences.
• Sirili, Emanuel and Happy – former Banjika students who I am considering as future Technology Tent trainers.

Justine, the headmaster, and I worked out a design for the computer lab….where to place all the new computers that are coming. And Rogers, our tech guy here, was at Banjika yesterday and today to fix a few problems.

I had a chance to observe Meshack teaching The Technology Tent. I’m amazed at how much the students have learned. I took some videos of the class and will get them up online to share.

The counter clerk just arrived….I better go and check in.

Stay tuned…

This is the certificate which the U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania presented to me and Justin Joseph, the headmaster at Banjika, at the Embassy’s Check Presentation Ceremony yesterday.

It says:

“U.S. Embassy Dar es Salaam 
U.S. Ambassador’s
Self Help Grant Award
The United States Embassy has awarded
Tsh 8,600,000 to Powering Potential
to upgrade the solar power system at Banjika Secondary
School. Congratulations and thank you for helping to bring electronic information technology to rural schools.“

It is also signed by Ambassador Alfonso E. Lenhardt.

Justine and I had an official photo taken with the Ambassador and there was a group photo of the grantees. We will get those photos in March.

l to r: Albin, Janice, Justin

The Embassy forbids guests from bringing cameras on the grounds so we had this photos taken after we got back to the hotel. A very exciting day and an historic one for Powering Potential!

The excitement is starting early.

I’ve been invited to a party tonight. A friend’s mother is a Tanzanian politician who was recently appointed Deputy Minister for one of the Ministries. The family is celebrating her new status with the government and also her birthday. This party will be a taste of Tanzanian high society. I need to get home early though because:

Tomorrow at 9am the Check Presentation Ceremony with the Ambassador begins at the U.S. Embassy. I got a call on Friday from a Tanzanian journalist who wants to interview me 🙂 He told me, “This ceremony is a BIG deal.”

The Karatu District Education Officer called. We are meeting next Friday to work out details for future projects. He is very eager to continue supporting our work. He assured me that the computer teacher for Banjika will begin work in January at the start of the new school year. He is honored that the U.S. Embassy is giving money for a project at a school in his district and he is covering the costs for the headmaster to attend the ceremony.

I also spoke with Mr. Kalinga from the Ministry of Education and had a long meeting with Albin, Powering Potential’s representative in Tanzania.

Stay tuned….

I’m back

home

in Manhattan….

paved roads
flush toilets
reliable electricity
hot showers with heavy water pressure
English as a native language
people who “go with time” rushing around….

I miss Tanzania  🙂

In Swahili there is: mji (town), kijiji (village), and porini (bush).

The Monduli school was definitely in the porini. I’m now in Dar es Salaam – mji mkubwa (big town). I arrived yesterday – back from the bush – and am leaving for the airport in 1/2 hour to return to New York.

I had two meetings in Dar today, one with our new-found solar expert and one at the US Embassy again.

It’s been a most fruitful time here in Tanzania and I’m returning home eager to raise money and add 15 computers at Banjika. In my meeting with the Karatu District Education Officer he agreed to assign a computer teacher to the school, which is a huge step forward, and if they get more computers they can apply to the Ministry of Education to offer Computer Studies as part of their curriculum. We would like to give the headmaster his own computer, put one computer in the teachers’ staff room, and have 20 computers for the students.

I spoke to Sirili today, a Banjika Form Four student, and he was SO excited because he had been using the Internet at school yesterday. We also found some fantastic educational material which includes the Khan Academy learning videos – Bill Gates uses them to teach his children – the material is stored locally on the server at the school so it will be easy for them to access.

Time to leave for the airport…..I’ll be home the afternoon of Oct. 6. Thank you all for your interest in the story of Powering Potential  🙂

Working at the Noonkodin School

Two and a half hours!

That’s all the time it took to install four computers at the Noonkodin School for Maasai students in the Monduli district on Saturday, Oct. 2.

I had a great team of Tanzanian professionals working with me and as per my request they all arrived at the E’Manyatta Lodge in Monduli town at 9am sharp.

Do you know how rare that is in Tanzania?…where people don’t “go with time.” I was so happily surprised. So at 9am we started the trek up the mountain,across the plains, into the valley, along winding roads, well not roads really, more like trails and 45 minutes later arrived at a school in the middle of nowhere. Hilary, our hardware expert, remarked “You like to work in rural areas!”

Troubleshooting the computers

After we arrived, the headmaster asked me to address the boarding students who were assembled to greet us and then we went to work. The solar fundi (skilled person) wired up the computers.

Albin and the computer fundis unpacked the equipment, assembled the computers, installed the software, connected the wireless router and printer, made a few changes to the settings and we were done. We also tested a solution to give them affordable Internet access and it worked. So when they are ready they can get up online.

The headmaster, teachers and students are SO excited to have computers, especially shiny new modern ones!Tomorrow, Monday, Albin begins a one-week training course for the teachers. This has been made possible by the contributions of the generous Patrons of Powering Potential!

Stay tuned…

Fundi is a Swahili word for “skilled person.” I’ve worked with the bike fundi, the solar fundi, and Surya likes to joke that he is the computer fundi.

This is Ramadhandi in action,
the satellite fundi.

I wish you all could see the excitement that the Intaneti is generating at the school and in the community!

Satellite, Solar, National Flag

A rare sight at a secondary school in Tanzania.

Justine Joseph
Headmaster (right)

Meshack Myinga
Assistant Headmaster (left)

Making their first Skype call.

They are talking to Anand Sethupathy in New York city, the Powering Potential advisor and donor whose idea it was to bring Internet access to the students at Banjika and whose money paid for the equipment and monthly service.

Surya (right) and Mr. Minja,
our Go To Guy in Karatu for all hardware needs.

Mr. Minja met Surya and his wife in Oct. 2008 while they were spending their honeymoon teaching at Banjika.

They had a very happy reunion in front of Mr. Minja’s store.

Thursday Sept. 16

8:30-9:30
Drive to airport

11:15-12:30
Flight from Dar to Arusha

1:00-1:30
Meeting with volunteer coordinator of Noonkodin school

1:30-2:30
Meeting with two Tanzanian network engineers who are available to help with the computer installation at the Noonkodin Secondary School in Monduli. One of them teaches Linux administration at a college here and the other was his student. Powering Potential’s computers are Linux-based.

2:30-3:30
Lunch with Susan Rickert, the woman who was the driving force behind the building of the Banjika school

3:30-5:30
Hot, dusty, bumpy drive to Karatu with Susan (and her guide)

5:30-6:30
Shower and dress for dinner

7:00-9:00
Dinner with Susan at Ngorongoro Farmhouse

9:00-9:15
Asked to speak about Powering Potential to a table of 20 people

9:30-10:30
Phone calls and text messages regarding customs clearance of the computers and to arrange the installation for Oct. 2

11:00
Collapse into bed

Friday, Sept. 17

Banjika Graduation Ceremony – all day

The Administrative Officer from the District Commissioner’s office and the District Education Officer were there – important local government people and both invited me to their offices to discuss the work of Powering Potential and how they might support us.

I have videos of the event (including my speech) … am eager to share them with you online..might have to wait until I get home though…the Internet is slower here.

The solar technicians were working at the school all day expanding the solar energy system to accommodate the satellite Internet dish which takes an additional 80 watts.

Surya Ganguly arrives into Arusha tonight, he is one of Powering Potential’s technical gurus. He’s coming to help with the installation of the satellite Internet dish which is happening tomorrow and Sunday, and to set up the computers for safe, efficient access to the Internet.

If you’ve been wondering about the computers intended for the Noonkodin school in Monduli… they were finally cleared from customs on Thursday Sept. 16 (we were expecting them to be cleared on Aug. 27). Albin, our person here in Tanzania (I need to find a title for him 🙂 any suggestions? will bring the computers by bus from Dar to Arusha on Oct. 1 and we will begin the installation the next day. Albin is in college in Dar until Sept. 30 and I had to leave Dar on Thursday to be at Banjika by Friday and the computers weren’t cleared yet… thus the wait.

Without a car of one’s own, there are three vehicular options for getting around Dar es Salaam – Taxi, Bajaj, and Dalla Dalla.

I want to give you a flavor of each.

Taxi

Bajaj (my favorite)

Dalla Dalla

Dalla Dalla Posta station in the city center

The ride by taxi from my hotel into the city center takes about 15 minutes with no traffic. The cost? Taxi: $6.60, Bajaj: $3.30, Dalla Dalla: 16 cents

Frugality is a hallmark of Powering Potential so now that I’ve learned the system, I take the Dalla Dalla unless I’m dressed up for a business meeting, under time constraints, or running out of patience 🙂