East Africa Trip Update
Noted on October 14, 2008 by Christopher Bennett in
Greetings from Moshi, Tanzania, where I arrived on Sunday and am now celebrating the national holiday honoring the country's founder, Julius Nyerere. Last week I had a terrific visit with our friends at the East African Center for the Empowerment of Women and Children (EAC) north of Mombasa, Kenya. Having sent so many students there in the past few years, it was great to see the programs first-hand and get a feel for the village and the people. I feel very good about the security situation in that part of Kenya and look forward to seeing our students return to the EAC in January. 
The village of Takaungu, where EAC is based, is a quiet place, about 30 minutes off of the main road. The village centre is predominantly Swahili, and Muslim, so one wakes early in the morning to the sounds of the calls to prayer. Although it's a bit jarring at first, it quickly becomes somewhat calming. From the village centre, it's about a 20 minute walk to the beach - a secluded, deserted and beautiful stretch of the Indian Ocean.
The EAC programs are varied and complex, but centered around the primary school. Each year, the school adds another grade, as students progress through the school. As a result they have recently begun building new classroom blocks to accomodate the school's growth. There's also a health center and the women's sewing club. The complex is in use all day as, after the school day, students from the public schools in the area are invited to "after-school tuition" for extra help in their studies. All of these areas and more are areas where interns can be of great help.
After my visit to Takaungu, I made my way by bus to Moshi, Tanzania on Sunday. Although I have ridden busses in Africa before, this was definitely the most memorable trip. We packed into the dirty, old bus, five across and no shoulder room, at 6:30 Sunday morning and left promptly at 7:00. (This may be the only thing in Africa that departs as scheduled.)
The first two hours to Voi were along a well-paved highway where we would play chicken with the oncoming cars and busses as we tried to overtake the much slower shipping trucks. But then we turned off of the main road to Nairobi to head to Moshi. The road changed immediately to a dirt and gravel road with poor grading and large holes. Fortunately, there was little to no traffic on the road as we spent most of the time weaving back and forth across the road looking for the stretches with the fewest holes and ruts.
As we rose from the coast to nearly 2500 feet in elevation, it was amazing to see how the topography changed, with acacia trees and sharp bluff appearing as we climbed. I even caught glimpses of some baboons and some antelope. And of course goats and cows crowding the road every few miles.
About four hours in, we pulled to a stop and the bus was switched off - we had broken down. The driver and his three "helpers" got off and started poking around in the engine compartment. There was lots of tinkering, commenting, arguing about what should be done. Eventually someone emerged from under the bus with a 5-foot section of rusted, twisted and dented metal pipe. Maybe a piece of the exhaust system, I am not sure. They proceeded to tap this on the ground and hit it with a sledge hammer. The evidently didn't solve the problem as we left the piece of pipe by the side of the road and continued on with out it. I guess it couldn't have been too important as we made it the rest of the way without incident.
I am looking forward to some productive meetings here in Moshi and in the surrounding area and will post more on these soon.