Hi ho, hi ho...

Hello again from Tengeru!

Alex and I have now been introduced to our project, and are both very excited to have begun work.

The charity that we're working with is called Educare, which was founded by Mr Shija as a way to change his community for the better. Despite being hampered by too few resources, he has a number of projects on the go, from the women's empowerment stuff that Alex and I are working on to microlending and sponsoring orphans. He has almost too many ideas—we have to focus on one project at a time!

Our first undertaking will be with a cooperative who call themselves the Mama Machumbas (Mama is a generic term of respect for women, and Machumba is the name of their subvillage). They're a great group of women, so friendly and patient with us. They all have families (though there are a few widows in the group) and other responsibilities. The Mama Machumba project is a way for them to gain some much-needed income beyond the bit that they earn from selling surplus milk or produce. An estimated 65-75% of people in Amburani Moivaro village, of which Machumba is a part, subsist on less than $1 US a day.

Last summer, they worked with a volunteer who helped them get training in how to weave banana fibres into bracelets, mats, baskets, and that sort of thing. Taking it up where Erika left off, we plan to help them find distributors (here and perhaps abroad) and diversify the business.

Banana-fibre handicrafts are quite common at the markets here, but they're all imported from Kenya, where they're mass-produced supercheaply and at a pretty low quality. Additionally, the money just goes to rich Kenyan businessmen, rather than to the community. Unfortunately, they're falsely marketed to tourists as "authentically Tanzanian."

Alex and I have looked at what the Mama Machumbas are able to create, and I'm really impressed. It's definitely better than the stuff I saw for sale a few days ago at the market in Arusha, and we can work with that. Our first step will be to try to open up deals with a few of the local safari and climbing tour companies: they would buy a bunch of bracelets/coaster sets and give them out at the end of their tours as a thank-you gift. They would look generous (though of course the cost of the gift would be included in the tour price!) and also show themselves to be a supportive member of the community, rather than exploitative. They would explain as they gave their clients the item that it was an authentic piece, handcrafted by a local women's cooperative.

It would create a great market for the women, and excellent PR for the tour groups. There's one company in particular that already gives back to the community a lot, we're going to start with them because we know
they'll be at least receptive to the idea. We also informally pitched the idea to one of Lema's friends, who owns a large tour company, while he was over for lunch yesterday.

Since it's essentially cost-free for the companies themselves, with huge PR benefits for them, we're very optimistic that we will be able to convince at least a couple of tour companies to at least give us a chance. Of course, before we go to them we have to work out all the details of what we can promise and what we'll charge, in addition to creating a smooth and convincing pitch, but we hope to start meeting with tour companies by midweek next week. Wish us luck.

Outside of our project work, Alex and I are still enjoying ourselves immensely. I feel very comfortable at our home, and enjoy walking around our village and meeting Lema's friends and family, who often stop by. We're also planning where and when we'll go on safari—we hope to do it before the long rains come in earnest. My Swahili is improving pole pole (slowly slowly) as well.

Badai mrafiki,
Robin