Day 1

I can't believe it has only been 2 days that we have been in Tanzania, it feels like so much more.

We arrived late on Saturday night and just had enough time to get a bite to eat, unpack and go to sleep. The next day we got a tour of the town by three locals. They showed us all of the places to go to eat and shop as well as the places we should avoid. Moshi is a very small town and can be walked in about an hour. There are many small shops, street vendors, markets and other various establishments. While it is a very impoverished city it is what I expected and is typical of a poor town in Africa.

The people we met were very friendly although most of them were probably only nice because they were trying to sell things to us. It was a bit strange at first to be the only tourists in the city, we definitely got some strange looks. I bought a few souvenirs and got some good pictures of the major landmarks as well as with people we met along the way.

The rest of the day was spent planning for the remainder of our trip and the projects we would be working on. We met with Michael the director of the Kili Centre and collaborated our goals as well as what we thought would be realistic to accomplish in our time here. In addition to working with the kids we decided to focus on projects that could create long term sustainability through continued growth such as a garden and revenue generating projects like a chicken coop. I also met with Zaneb who is a local tour operator and owner of the hotel we are staying at who we are doing some business development and consulting for. We have begun to formulate a marketing plan as well as a SWOT analysis and ways to improve her current business. After that we hung out at the hotel which is a beautiful facility with a great pool and good food. We read, wrote and relaxed.

Day 2 is our first day at the orphanage, I will write more when I can.

More to come,

Alex