July 2011 Blog Posts (24)

And here it was.  At times I had counted the days left.  Even calculated percentages.  EVEN cried to my parents that I wanted to come home.  And now, it seems like none of that had happened.  It seems like my time in Dar was far, far too short.

I needed a way to thank the staff for everything that they had done for me.  So naturally, I turned to food.  Because Shoprite had been closed by the time that I arrived home, I stopped off early in the morning at Fairy Delights in Shopper’s…

So after a request from parents and friends, I decided to start taking more pictures.  I always felt awkward doing so.  It was difficult and awkward to ask permission to take a photo.  But on the flip side, if you didn’t ask to take a photo, it looked like you were oogling at the way people lived: like in was a museum exhibit instead of an actual way of life.  And some people actually demanded money to be featured in tourist photos.  However, I thought that if there was an acceptable reason…

So today, I was invited to visit the Kibaha branch. Since the start of my internship, I have been asking to visit other branches, specifically in rural areas.  One of the best parts of working on the ground is that you get to meet the very people who you are trying to help.  I loved working in business strategy at HQ, but I had only met clients through events such as Saba Saba or the IT training course.  Both of these interactions have been incredibly memorable and rewarding, so I sought the…

Ah my last weekend in Dar.  Again came the question…what to do with my time? Dar is not exactly a tourist hot spot.  It is usually a place for businessmen to come to close deals or travelers to rest for an evening or two beyond catching a flight to somewhere else in East or Southern Africa.  So I had already checked off all the tourist “must-sees.” 

My body woke up at 6 am (I am looking forward to getting out of this mid-life professional sleep cycle soon).  So I decided to go to one…

We received news yesterday that Steven Funk has offered MFI Connect his booth at the 2011 Global Microcredit Summit.  I was touched by his generosity and wanted to learn more about his organization, Race 4 Change.  This organization seeks to raise “change for change” by having Steven Funk and Jean-Louis participate in the East African Safari Route. Here is a link the short Race4Change documentary: http://vimeo.com/26240723.

As I was watching…

By Tuesday morning, my eye only had a faint pink color.  I still didn’t put in my contacts in my left eye, as it stung terribly, but I was totally functional and no longer needed my sunglasses to face the sunlight.

As soon as I walked into the offices, the staff bombarded me with “Where were you yesterday?”s.    Many thought that I just hadn’t come home from Zanzibar.  Everyone assumed that I hadn’t told anyone that I wasn’t coming in for the day.  I laughed at this thought,…

When I got back from the airport, the power was out, and I was exhausted. So I went to bed. That is, until I was woken up from a call from Moshi, the building’s houseboy. He was calling because he hadn’t seen me awhile and was wondering how I was doing. I guess it’s good that someone is keeping tabs on me, but I was still a little annoyed that a) someone WAS keeping tabs on me and b) he chose to express his concern at that time. The next morning, I expressed that he was to call my cell phone…

So I started the day with an email from Washington Women’s Weekly.  During a DPE professional meeting, one of the sisters, Elena, had mentioned this cool website called Washington Women’s Weekly, which establishes mentor/mentee relationships between promising DC (obviously female) professionals.  So, like every opportunity I can find, I applied and forgot about it until the email popped up in my inbox this morning, saying that I had been accepted into the program, and they had found my…

On Tuesday morning, I heard my name as I boarded the dalla dalla to Kawe.  I was initially confused and had to snake my neck around to find who had called out to me.  It was Alice, Caroline’s temporary replacement!  She’s no Caroline (mostly because of her limited English) but I like her a lot!  She even paid for a leg of my ride, which I of course reciprocated. 

Work has been relatively slow lately.  Despite MULTIPLE emails and telephone calls, no one is giving me the…

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) July 7, 2011 - In order to offer more than financial resources to its beneficiaries and contribute to the accountability and professionalization of its associates, to the promotion of social investment, as well as to the development of replicable social projects, the Banorte Foundation, “Save the Children” Mexico, and the ADO Foundation promote and fund this program, with a vision toward the future. 

“Social Impact: Assessment of Social Projects” was opened…

Sunday was just a day to relax and catch up on some much needed work!  I headed to the coffee shop in Mlimani and worked on job applications there until I was informed that it was “company policy” that you can’t use laptops on tables on weekends.  I gave the guy a skeptical look (he’d also told me there was no sugar, when it was on the table across from me) but begrudgingly relocated.  I needed to do some grocery shopping and ran into my neighbors Carla and Santi at Shoprite!  I love it that…

I woke up extremely early on Saturday morning…like 5 am early.  After a quick video chat with fellow Global Microcredit Summit Youth Delegation Leader, I showered and got ready for the day.  I hadn’t totally decided what I was going to do yet.  I wanted to visit Caroline sometime in the next few weeks but knew she wouldn’t be up this early.  So I decided to explore the part of the city that I hadn’t yet seen…POSTA!

It was apparently named Posta because the town is centered around the…

I want to start this blog by sharing a hilarious, and extremely accurate, email that Edwin forwarded to me:

A man dies & goes to hell. There he finds that there is a different hell for each country and decides he'll pick the least painful to spend his eternity.  He goes to the German hell & asks, "What do they do here?"   He is told "first they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and…

It’s Saba Saba Day!!! Which literally translates to Seven Seven day (get it… July 7^th??).  I had heard that the Trade Grounds would be swarming with people.  But when I arrived at 8 am, it was the same as I had seen on other days.  After a quick cup of tea and chipati for breakfast, I headed to the NEEC tent, where I stayed, helping our clients push their products, until about noon.  When I went out for lunch, I was literally swept into a swarm of people.  So THIS was Saba Saba! …

So much of today was again devoted to finding ways to leverage the Internet to raise money for SELFINA.  I am trying to find ways to crowd source funding.  Again, any ideas are much appreciated!

The first organization that I thought of was Global Giving (www.globalgiving.org).  This reputable website is a great way for international non-profits to leverage the online community.  I was first introduced to the organization when Manmeet Mehta,…