We spent our last week in Tanzania back in Morogoro then Dar Es Salaam. We stayed a couple nights with Sekoine in Morogoro, where we had a launching dinner for ELI Africa Tanzania. The members are people with whom Sekoine has worked in Maasai advocacy. They include a teacher, an engineer, a student, and a pure, cattle-raising Maasai–all professions germane to our work. The engineer migt be especially useful if we take on some development projects beyond education. The dinner was nice. The people were friendly, and we are in the process of officially registering as a local NGO. The ELI Africa tree now has one of its roots in Tanzania.
Our time in Dar was pretty uneventful. We spent most it working on the documents that will boil this month of discovery down to a few flat and white pages. We worked in the expensive Holiday Inn in the center of Dar. It’s advantages include air-conditioning, well-litness, few potentially malarial mosquitos, alpha-male businessmen whose conversations you can eves drop on, and that if you have light skin, people assume you are staying in the hotel and don’t kick you out. We met a girl named Sakina, who wants to join te ELI Africa Tanzania crew and who very kindly had us at her house for an afternoon.
Vedant and I are in Mauritius right now. We are staying at Vedant’s house with Vedant’s superlatively hospitable family. Vedant showed me his gaden with its many litchi trees and the various animals that share the house with his parents. We ate at our favorite noodle stand and said hi to its smiley owner, we played dejambe on Vedant’s roof, we visited Etoile de Mer and left a note for the students (the garden has survived and some beans are ready to be harvested!), and we whimsically planted some mangroves along the beach.
In two days, Yale thoughts will once again crowd my mind, and not long after, board meetings will begin.