The project has started

The project has officially started. They cut some wood this morning, or something. Logan got back from Dar last night, and was excited to see the sim tanks near the primary school this morning.

I missed this, but was told by Sebastian that when the truck arrived, a bunch of people from the village all gathered around to help unload the truck. Apparently, they didn’t really believe the wazungus were going to be actually doing this project until the truck showed up.

This morning (Friday) we started the project. We showed up at the school where one man was cutting some wood. Then, the bureaucratic process began. The school is still under construction, and the contractor of the school project must have his say in the project. Thus, construction has yet to begin, and we’re currently renegotiating the budget to possibly add more. But, we’re getting to the point where there is no more money available.

The original plan was to put two sim tanks on each of the four buildings, totaling eight. Now, they’re thinking about putting four tanks on two buildings. But, this will up the budget a couple hundred thousand shillings. Not going to happen.

The reason why we even thought about changing the first plan was because one of the buildings had paint on its roof, and according to this website (http://www.okinternational.org/lead_paint_background.html) Tanzania is one of the countries that still sells lead paint for painting homes. I really don’t want to gamble with lead poisoning in this village. So we’ve just made a few changes to exclude the painted roof.

Logan:

Hey all! I’m back safely from Dar! I’m so glad to be back. That place is too crazy for me. Sometimes I get very frustrated with how some of the people see tourists just as something to exploit for money. I just have to remember that most of the people aren’t like that. It’s just that those few people are the ones that are easiest to pay attention to (think of many prominent radio hosts in the US). Because of this, some tourists come here and leave, only remembering, “My god, the streets are full of thieves!” I’ve been avoiding this mindset and trying to remember that there are thieves in every country, it’s just that the thieves that live in America live in their multi-million dollar homes, so you won’t find them in the streets (oops… was that too much?).

Anyways, as Monica said, all the equipment is here and the people in the village are happy to see it. I am too, because it means that the multi-thousand dollar wire transfer we made the other day went where it was intended to go. Yay! Also, we can start our project! Today we put some nails in some boards and also sawed a bunch of boards for the gutter fittings. Tomorrow, we’re going to dig big ol’ holes for the cement water tank stands. I took pictures and I’ll post them when I have the opportunity. Thanks for tuning in!