I thought it was time to once again uptake my pursuit in
blog writing. It has been a long time since I have last written an update. Very
briefly, I spent 2 years living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from October 2013
until October 2015. During that time I worked with both Plan International and
VSO International as the Manager of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning.
What started out as a volunteer position turned into a full time
job. While I am very grateful for my experience working for international
development agencies, I missed learning and working directly with communities. Nonetheless, I learned a lot about operating on a large scale, networking, fundraising and maintaining. Below are some pictures of my time in Tanzania.
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| Bundling greens with women in Morogoro |
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| Cafe in Zanzibar with friends from VSO |
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| My partner that I met in Tanzania (Andrew) |
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| A night out with friends |
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| A Tanzanian wedding, congratulations Nelson! |
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| Working hard by the beach |
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| Political rally right outside my house |
I am now back in Canada, once again planning for my return
to East Africa, though this time I hope to follow the dream that was born back
in 2012, to start up my own non-profit organization in clean energy technology,
specifically charcoal briquette making. I wanted to post my journey online so
people could follow along with me, and keep me accountable to actually turn
this plan into reality.
The first step, while in Canada, is to figure out whether there is a need for this business. Though I have always thought there was through literature and my experience living in East Africa, I need to go and talk to the people as well as interview other companies doing similar work to get a better idea of the barriers and challenges. A partnership may be better than forging it alone.
I visited some smaller scale projects while I was in Kenya. Here
are some local farmers in Nakuru, pyrolyzing the organic waste themselves,
where they make and use their own substitute for charcoal.
My inspiration to return is really founded in the people I
met while I lived in Nairobi in 2011/12, many of whom I am still in touch with
today. This, intertwined with the people was the lively culture. Tho there
is mass poverty, sickness and death all around you,
there was also amazing hope there and such an energy, that I really cannot
describe with words. Nairobi is a hub for technology, social enterprises, new
ideas and innovation. I am very excited to start thinking about returning there.
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| My small family, back in Canada |
