April in the World

I’ve been in Tanzania for four months now, volunteering at The Sega Girls’ School, and it’s been really interesting to observe Polly Dolan, the school founder and director, up close. Because I am naturally analytical, I’ve enjoyed trying to identify what about her is key to her success so far. I used to teach Social Entrepreneurship, among other courses, at the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business at Mills College in Oakland. I always invited several guest speakers to come talk with my students… Read More »Portrait of a Social Entrepreneur

Ok, so it’s always touchy saying anything negative about a place where one is not a native. Therefore, I am balancing the negative with the positive. I’m also using someone else’s list. My friend Alice, a Peace Corps volunteer here at Sega, recently wrote such an excellent, funny (at least to me living here), and accurate blog entitled “Things About Tanzania That Piss Me Off.” Since I figured I could do no better, I am simply adding one additional item and then stealing hers wholesale… Read More »Things I Love (and Hate) About Tanzania

I’ve been back from my travels for a week now and the photos are starting to filter in from the under water camera enthusiasts with whom I was scuba diving. And then there are the 600 pics I took in my two weeks with Kelsey, about 400 of them from our safari. In retrospect, I can’t get over how many different types of beautiful animals I saw in a few weeks. I started with the amazing underwater world of fish, coral and other creatures and… Read More »Wildlife Wonders

It’s a couple days after Christmas and Kelsey and I are at a resort on the East Coast of the Unguja island of Zanzibar. We spent two days in Stone Town experiencing the literally falling down buildings and plentiful shops. An average of six buildings collapse each year in Stone Town due to a combination of neglect and being made of limestone (thus the town’s name), which deteriorates when exposed to moisture. This year, one of the largest and most famous buildings in town, the… Read More »Touring with Kelsey

Last Saturday was the year closing celebration at Sega. There was dancing by the girls and an appearance by and speech from the Member of Parliament from Morogoro. On Sunday, the first day of my month off, I drove 4 ½ hours West to Iringa to do 4 days of intensive Kiswahili language training at the Iringa Language School and to stay at the Rivervalley Campsite with whom they have a partnership. Their full program is 4 months long but I only have time for… Read More »Language Lessons

What To Do? So, what does one do for fun in Morogoro? Well, there’s not much on the cultural front – no movies, live music, theater, hot new restaurants or any of the other activities I frequent in the Bay Area. There are lots of pubs for drinking in the evening but they are generally full of young, Tanzanian men so not that inviting for a middle-aged mzungu (white) woman like me. There is nice hiking so that’s an option on a weekend. But, in… Read More »Fun In The Sun!

A couple blogs ago, I wrote ago about Subira who is one of our students. I received questions about whether she is on scholarship and how one can help her or other girls here. This blog will answer both queries. Also, I did a home visit last week to a student’s home and have attached some photos and her story, written by her. How To Become A Sega Girl:  The Sega Girls School (Sega) is committed to educating “vulnerable” girls from the Morogoro or Iringa… Read More »More About the Girls and Meet Rehema!

“She remembered the project, although she had not known the people involved in it. She recalled that there had been a white man and a woman from South Africa, and one or two other foreigners. A number of the people from the village had worked there, and people had thought that great things would come of it, but it had eventually fizzled out. She had not been surprised at that. Things fizzled out; you could not hope to change Africa. People lost interest, or they… Read More »Creating Change? Or Not!

I thought it might be nice to periodically introduce a student here at Sega. Since I am not actually teaching classes, I need to make an extra effort to get to know the girls and I figured interviewing for my blog is one more way to do so. I have been working with one of the “Business Clubs,” a group of about 20 students who have met twice weekly over a period of 3 months to start up, form, run, and then liquidate a micro-business.… Read More »Meet Subira!

On my way to Tanzania a little over a month ago, I stopped for three days in Zurich. I was so impressed with the public transportation (smooth and silent trolleys and frequent trains) and the restaurants (tasty food served and paid for in new ways not yet found in the US), I concluded that if Europe is the “first world” and Africa is the “third world,” the US must be the “second world” – as much as we’d like to think otherwise. Then, once I arrived in… Read More »Tanzanian infrastructure…a long way to go!