Thursday, July 12, 2012

07/12 - Final Project day, Goodbye to Devotha, Phillip, and Seth

It is a little bittersweet.  We finished up our work today on the will project.  We actually ended up getting 103 wills drafted during our trip.  It is pretty amazing considering originally when we started discussing the project with the local attorneys, they said we would be lucky to get any.  At that point, Gretchen said "I want to get at least 4 so each of you can draft one will."  We got 103.


Zafela
Gretchen with one of our partners at Zafela, Saada
(yes she was tiny)

I wanted to do something this summer that would hopefully have some sort of impact and I think that for each of the 103 people, we accomplished this.  In addition, the bigger picture is that many of the people that we helped are leaders with NGOs here in the country or other community leaders.  By doing the sessions we did that were focused on educating them before we drafted the wills, hopefully they will share the information with others.

Random

I know I said yesterday that I probably would not ride the dala dala ever again.  Guess what happened today?  Our driver who took us to the Zafela office this morning, did not show up to pick us up and would not answer his phone.  We ended up having to ride the dala dala about 10 km back to our hotel.  The one we rode in today was not so much a van as a pickup truck with a cover over the back.  There were 17 people in the back when we climbed in.  It was an interesting trip.  :-)  I snuck a couple of pictures.  I had my camera in my bag, so I had to be subtle.  People here get very suspicious of the camera (as if we would blend anyway)
Inside the dala dala

There was another brownout tonight here at the hotel.  The power was out from about 8 to 9:30.  You can pretty much set your watch by the power outages here.  They plan their operation at the hotel by this.  Every night about 7:45, they start putting out candles.  Another thing to put on the list of things I take for granted at home.

Another Zanzibar door


We will spend tomorrow doing some wrap up activities (and hopefully a little beach time).  Seth left for the states tonight.  Tomorrow, Phillip and Devotha are leaving.  I will try to keep the sappy notes to a minimum, but I have to say that to be such a diverse group, we spent 5 weeks together harmoniously (basically) all the time.  We all come from different backgrounds.  Phillip is graduating from UM Law upon his return.  He has a Masters degree in Criminology.  Seth will be starting his 3rd year.  He has a PhD in Political Science.  Kelsey and I are both going to be 2nd year.  Her degree is in Classics.  I was a Finance undergrad (I can prove it...I had to help do the bookkeeping for the group for about 2 hours this afternoon).  We were definitely an odd mix, but it worked.

Cool picture of Kelsey and Phillip
from yesterday outside the Sultans palace

We gave Devotha a going away gift tonight since she is leaving us in the morning to catch the ferry back to Dar.  We would not have been able to accomplish the work we did here without her.  She was not just our translator, but became an integral part of our group.  She is truly an interesting lady and am glad I got to know her.   I hope to keep in touch with her to hear what she is up to in the future here in Tanzania.  I expect good things.

Zanzibar has been an interesting place to end the official project.  I am looking forward to starting our safari on Sunday!


Walk on the beach after our project wind down 



 


1 comment:

  1. Nice to know you met so many different folks and will be able to keep in touch. Hope you have a very happy Monday (anniversary date :) ) while you are traveling to your safari. We have fireworks stored for your next trip home to commemorate the 4th that you missed.

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