April in the World

“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!

Lest you think I am simply sitting around eating ugali (corn mush) and sipping Konyagi (local gin), I’m posting the job description that Polly and I agreed to this week.  There are a lot of different tasks I’ll be working on in the next year and I’m sure more will pop up but this is already a pretty full slate. It’s a lot of work to run a good organization, especially in a challenging environment like TZ, and Sega is fairly understaffed right now so volunteers have… Read More »My Job Description

Yesterday, I joined a group of volunteers and some Tanzanians on a hike into the Uluguru mountains to a waterfall.  It was a beautiful hike and, along the way, we saw the homes and farms of people living there. Once we’d climbed a bit, we were able to look back at the growing town of Morogoro with an approximate population of 300,000.  Since almost all the  buildings are single storey with the exception being a few hotels and some two storey businesses in town, growth results… Read More »Into the Mountains

HOW THE HECK did I end up volunteering for this particular organization in Africa and what am I doing here? What is Sega? The Sega (Secondary Education for Girls’ Advancement) School is a residential secondary school for bright, motivated Tanzanian girls who otherwise would not have access to secondary education due to extreme poverty. Founded in 2008 and located in Mkundi near Morogoro in central Tanzania, there are currently 150 students boarding at the school, 90 in Forms 1,2 & 3 (Grades 8-10), and 60… Read More »What is Sega and why am I here?

It is Sunday afternoon and I’ve been here in Morogoro since Wednesday afternoon.  A lot has happened in a very short time or at least it feels that way to me.  This is certainly the first moment I’ve had to sit down and write.  When I arrived Wednesday midday after a 4 hour drive from Dar es Salaam, I spent the afternoon with Polly Dolan, the founder of The Sega Girls School. She had me over to her home, gave me lunch, and then took… Read More »First Impressions

I’m finally off!  Fraser is set up in his dorm at Drexel University in Philadelphia (see photo) and I leave tonight for my extended stint at The Sega Girls School in Morogoro, Tanzania. My house is rented out through June 15, 2013 so my plan is to stay until then and possibly longer. With this blog, I hope to chronicle my experiences living in a place so different from Berkeley and working in a young organization with a group of like-minded people who are excited… Read More »Off to Tanzania…