Working with Tanzanians..

After being in Dar for 5 weeks, you can say its been a little nutty.

I am not sure that I would have ever assumed how tough it would be to work with folks whom are uneducated or have a motivation of zero. Upon return to Africa I have decided to head up and manage a project to build up and refurbish a current community centre in Kigamboni. I arrived back, and the kids were so ecstatic to see me. They created an entire 1 hour show of acrobatics, drama, singing, and dancing. It was incredible. It truly moved me, and gave me the reassurance of the reason in which I returned. Shortly thereafter, I planned for a meeting with all the head staff of the centre to get the basics covered. The meeting included the head staff of the centre, as well as 3 Mzungu (White people) volunteers whom offered to help with my project. We discussed getting water at the centre for sewage and gardening, as well as the possibility of electricity, and my vision of what I would like to see done. The meeting was a success and everyone was excited and motivated. Or so I thought. The meeting conclusion was that we our Number 1 priority was to finish the Constitution to get NGO status for the centre. After we receive this status we then could open up a bank account to have transparent funds, to start fundraising. Research began for the Constitution to soon realize that you can’t find any type of template online.. (well you can but who knows which one to use), so I asked to get some meetings arranged with centres like theirs, so I could chat with the Head person to get a copy of their constitution to mirror for our centre. Two weeks later, we met with the former first lady’s NGO and I got a soft copy of their constitution on my zip drive. Btw, the more people you know in Africa the better off you will be!

Then Fast Forward 2 weeks, and we are STILL at the exact same spot we were. Although, I knew that it was going to be a large project I undertook, and I knew that I was going to be working with Tanzanians, my motivation is slowly decreasing, and my want to help is slowly fading. I wonder if I am really cut out to help out Africans… I think I still want to work on development, but I may need to focus somewhere were the people are more motivated, because try working on a HUGE project without anyone around you wanting to do it.. It definitely makes the work tougher.