cybertree

We got a very warm welcome from Sadock, who picked us up at the airport on Saturday. Much appreciated, as I know how busy he is!

It is very different this time and it isn’t. It is slightly chilly in the mornings, warming up in the afternoons around 3pm. So far we only got a short glimpse of Kili – better than nothing I guess.. I am traveling together with a friend this time – this is much more relaxed, I have to say. There are many new buildings in Moshi, including a brand new shopping mall, which I have only seen from the outside so far. Dee and Christina in the Foot2Afrika office I finally met in person, while Deb, who I have been in touch with on facebook a lot, and I have not managed to meet up yet – a good half-way through the 1^st week.

The way into town hasn’t changed though and I didn’t have any problems finding it. The service at Union Coffee has gotten a lot slower, their wireless has gotten worse and a lot more expensive, while the „new kid on the block“ (as far as I’m concerned..), Kilimanjaro Coffee Lounge has good wifi, very good food and much faster service. The kids are still lying around at the hostel half of the day, busy using the now free wifi to give long reports to frineds and family back home on skypeor chilling together.

It is interesting to see how Sascha has a lot of experiences I had last time: it is a bit unreal to actually be here, the information overload with the unfamiliar food, living situation, smells and noises, e.g. rooster and imam from the mosque, both to be heard around 5 am every morning.

We have spent most of our time getting started: we had a look at the room at the ‘Msamaria Orphange for Street Children’ were the trainings for the orphanage staff and the Rudisha Women Group are starting next week. We collected the laptops they received from a sponsor. Sascha is literally cleaning them, putting new software on the laptops, updating it and I have been looking at OERs and doing some excel, power point and wordpress training with Foot2Afrika.

 It is all good

Just had an idea: I will be in Moshi from next weekend for three weeks.

I will take pictures of Rudisha products and publish them in the Rudisha Women Group on facebook.

If you like something and want to buy it: order in the comment section of the particular item on facebook, then I’ll send you my paypal details and as soon as I can see the money in paypal I’ll confirm in the comment.

I will bring the things back with me in mid-July and send them to people.

Interested?

And before you know it, it’s time to pack the boxes and leave…

I am moving back to Germany next month. I managed to squeeze in 3 weeks in Moshi (Yeah!) with Foot2Afrika , before I start my new job. Preparations for both events keep me very busy, never mind wrapping up my research in Dublin, finalizing all kinds of things and saying good bye to all my friends in Dublin. Gonna miss you guys - don’t be strangers, Germany is just a short trip away

This time a German friend from college is coming as well, so IT training is the flavor of the month.. Over a glass of (good!) wine the idea came up in spring and now, just a few months later we are getting ready for the trip.

We have done some fundraising: both of us online at betterplace and me offline with a coffee morning at DCU and with my sponsoring card “harrassing” pretty much everybody I talked to the last 4 weeks.. So far we have raised about € 1300; another €80 and we have reached our goal.

We also asked for a list of things Foot2Afrika send us. Friends gave us some of the items and we got some donations or vouchers from stores. Thanks to all of you!

Now I am pretty much done with the preparation. Started with the Lariam, so all set..

Now I just need to get my boxes picked up by a moving company. Sounds trivial, but indeed it took 2 weeks to get an offer from 3 companies. Now there are four days left before I am leaving the country and I still haven’t had the chance to arrange a time with the company with the lowest offer. But that’s just a little problem I will probably laugh about in max 1 weeks time

Next week at this time I will be back in Moshi - looking forward to the Foot2Afrika crowd, familiar and new faces.

Thanks to the people who put in the work to provide us with the selection of home-made cakes; here is what you missed if you didn’t make it:

Polish Chocolate cake from Joana - BIG succes again
Lemon Cheesecake from Jie
Banoffi Pie from Evans
Linzer Torte
Marble cake
Chocolate brownies from Tony
Apple crumble cake
Paula’s special cake
Romanian Space cakes - just kidding.. , Ramona brought a variety of fruit cake, delicious as always
Home-made cookies from Jenny
Lemon Cake from Trudy

Thanks to the staff of the chaplaincy for helping with setup and providing the space.
And finally thanks to all who attended the coffee morning.

We raised a fantastic 365 € - a big chunk of the funds we are trying to raise and which I will take with me to Tanzania.

If you couldn’t make it on Wednesday morning, but would like to support the fundraising and online isn’t your thing, there are also these 2 options:

I am still collecting funds with a sponsoring card - just talk to me when you see me on campus - I usually have the sponsoring card with me at all times

AND

Piggy, a money-hungry piglet (aka money bank), has moved in with
Breda McManus, EEng, Room 348, DCU
until Wednesday 19 June.
Piggy prefers paper money, but will eat coins of all sizes as well:)

I have been canvassing among the engineers at DCU for a couple of days and so far we have come up with a fantastic 370€! There is still plenty of room on my fundraising card - feel free to talk to me at any time
Thanks a lot to all supporters: Tarik, Jogile, Tian, Yann, Conor (both ;)), Owen, Evans, Tamas, Joe & Susan from the Inter Faith Center, Sarah (from NDRC), Philip, Gabriel (both ;)), Noel, Paddy and Stephen.
The amount has been added to the total and we have come a lot closer to our target.

Next week’s Tanzania Coffee Morning (5 June, 10am to 1pm, Inter Faith Center, DCU) with a long list of extremely yummy home-made cakes is coming up. So hopefully many will enjoy the cake and feed Piggy (the glorified pink shoebox aka Piggy Bank).

Also, if you live in Dublin, you are on Facebook and you are in need of some kitchen utensils, have a look at Piggy’s Kitchen Sale
Have a good week and spread the word about our fundraising.
Feel free to share the link  to our online fundraising page

Sabine

If you are in Germany or Ireland, preferably either near Stuttgart or Dublin:

we are putting together a number of things needed in some of the orphanages and nurseries in Moshi. We will take these things with us at the end of June.

Here is the list:

• knitting needles & wool,
• slippers,
• bed sheets,
• writing pads,
• nursery teaching resources,
• clothes and underwear for boys & girls 6 to 8 years
• used, but usable digital cameras
• used laptop, but usable with Windows 7