Jambo! as always, i am pressed for time, my internet access so limited, so frustrating sometimes, wanting to share with whomever is out there what is happening here..First of all it is very very hot these days, way more than even a week ago. Way more than a year or four ago...Mouint Kilimanjaro is melting at a very scary rate; Charles told me this morning that they are predicting it will lose its ice and snow cap completely in the next ten, years....droughts have of course begun, making small businesses and life for most of the people around and in our village even more difficult. I get side tracked with the best of intentions to stay on course, pole...
Visited head of ICA TANZ Doris recouperating from a thyroid operation and feeling much better, albeit with a small voice. With Charles, and Emmanuel our ICa accountant here....she is thrilled with our Majengo update, news of the Warren folk visit, plans, hopes and dreams for the future. Complying with everything we are doing.
Had very extensive staff interviews on Wednesday, detailing the needs of each person, how many children they have, ages and where they are in school. They have worked incredibly well over this last year at Majengo, and even during the entire year before we moved into our new facility, they spent that year working everyday without salary....hugely commited to this project and these kids. We hope to help them, and by doing that ensuring tht they will remain commited to Majengo through the years. WE hope to assist them with their children's education needs, the most important issues I see AFrican families having...how to pay for school, especially Secondary. How to assist them also, with emergencies..Martha our treasurer, her husband running off two years ago to marry another woman, leaving her with 5 kids of her own, especially their school fees, the oldest ones now forced to quit school and make their own way, with small jobs labouring, or working as a cleaner in someone else's home...her father died a couple of months ago, in a far away village, to which she had to delve into precious savings to travel, to pay for his funeral fees, transportation, food....
I have said everyday to myself, it is never enough!
Always, there is everyone, needing something...you just have to listen.
Am studying a book Matt brought me a few weeks ago on micro financing, by Muhammad Yunus...who won the Nobel peace prize a few years ago for creating this concept in rural Bangladesh forty years ago. Learning the details of how this actually works. Charles and ICA begun a program in the 90s and now assist 400 people in and around Mto Wa Mbu with small loans, financed by ICA UK and running smoothly. It has worked well on the whole, they have learned a lot, but financing has dimished over the years could use a boost.

My hope is to startup a group makeup of Majengo staff members where they themselves decide the amount of money they need collectively, take a workshop given by Charles and Ica, and commit themselves to paying back this collective loan in 6 months, with 12% interest, with monthly payments. Members are responsible for each other. When unforseeable things happen, like drought, death in the family, etc...ica and other members will take time to assist that person, and cover for them for several months until they get back on their feet. It is my hope that by loaning them start up money this year, they will be more able to assist in the education payments for their children next year, and the next. I am late at this of course, with millions of people successfully borrowing money around the world, without collateral or credit, and paying back, with interest successfully. What a wonderful concept.

Charles is still deciding with his family and professors what direction he will take, leaning now, toward his acceptance into an 18 month masters program in Public Heath in Guelph, Ontario! Close to Toronto. Close to Warren Pennsylvania. We shall see. If he decides to go this route,he will work in Mto Wa Mbu until August '10, allowing us plenty of time to train someone wonderful to take over his post as director of ica here. WE shall see...
Me...i fly home in three weeks...hard to imagine this time has flown by so quickly, but as always, so many new ideas, concepts, programs...a new budget reflecting the 15 new kids joining our Majengo pre school nursery program, very exciting considering we have just been in operation for a year. Also reflecting higher food costs, and cost of items which one year of operation has allowed us the exerience of understanding. I feel, one year later, that our committment to Majengo, to our slow but steady expansion, to our desire to assist as best we can under the guidance of our African friends, as many families and children as possible, in whatever way we can. I look back on my four years here...how different each one has been for me, what i have learned, how the work has focussed and become more detailed as our understanding has grown, sometimes a little - sometimes a lot.

I am starting too, to think of home now...I miss the meetings, dinners and lunches, breakfast at Mi Casa preparing our days, Diana, Jamie...and then Matt and Brian. It was such fun, catapulting so much into such a short time....a whirlwind of learning, discovering, moving ahead....I miss them all!
Diana asked me, what happens when they leave?? Full days, for sure, of interviews, meetings, discussions, but with more time to ask questions and learn deeply of where to go next, what to do, who to trust, where to go next. The nights are long...A quick trip around the corner to Mi Casa - a glass of wine, a bit of rice, a handful of greens and a couple of spoonfuls sauce and I'm back to my little room with overhead fan and my flashlight, reading well into the night, peaceful, quiet, and after all that lovely commotion, it is all i need. But I miss my family, those gorgeous little grandkids...Pyper and Finn...and new baby Eve...and Sierra with Seanna in Chicago visiting galleries,museum having great mama and daughter time, Johnny running everyday in prep for the Boston marathon mid April, i am so proud of him to be able to keep up that schedule with two kids and a huge film job...Lindsey winding up her latest moview...editing and doing sound..and dear Ted with his dad very ill, Scottie in rehab, oh I miss them all so much and can't wait really, to get home to be back with them allagain...and my dear friends...and that art retreat, a new location for it in downtown toronto, moving in, starting over....
huge...so this time here, of night time rest, is good...

muchlove..miss you all...see you soon...home Easter weekend....great!!
hugs...