“Sisi kwa sisi” literally translates as “us for us.” But it actually means amongst us. For some reason I really love this word. I learnt this because it’s the name of one of the mtaa (pl: mitaa) or sub-wards (smallest government level).
Monthly Archives: November 2010
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.” – E.F.Schumacher
My favourite weekend afternoons are still those with interesting conversations that effortlessly jump from topic to topic, a delicious home cooked meal, and laughter. I find you can have conversations like these anywhere in the world. It makes me feel at home.
I am thankful
Yesterday was the American Thanksgiving. My American roommate and friends decided to put on a huge thanksgiving dinner. It was amazing. The food was so good and the atmosphere just ‘homey.’ We went around the table to say what we were thankful for. (I had never done this before; my family doesn’t celebrate thanksgiving – my mind actually went blank for a while) Tears almost started coming up (well, this isn’t a hard feat for me, but still I was […]
What do you call it when you get a string of good signs?
That a higher up force is on our side? That’s what’s been happening a lot during the process of legitimizing urban agriculture (part of my job) here in Dar. As I’ve explained before, I work a lot with government officials. Sometimes, it’s frustrating, but sometimes you just feel like everything is happening to help us get our jobs done. Today was such a day. First I must explain, though. Currently, we’re asking each municipality (there are three) to write a […]
another blunder
Big meeting this morning. One of the trainers from the urban agriculture training week (goodness, that was more than a month ago) finally came with her report for the training (I’ve been calling and texting for 3 weeks now). I was so excited to see her at this meeting and to get the report that I completely forgot to think. Oops. I just handed her the money in front of everyone after the meeting. Shit. My supervisor calls me aside. […]
