One of the groups of farmers we work with farm in a controversial area – the Msimbazi Valley. In the past few months, there’s been lots of media attention on the valley, mainly due to research findings (confirmed or not depends on who you ask) about the toxicity of the water and soil. The Msimbazi Valley runs along the middle of Dar es Salaam. It’s huge, with estimates of hundreds of, maybe even a thousand, people who directly make their […]
I’ve been super busy lately. The process of legitimizing urban agriculture (which I’ve talked about before) is coming along well – very surprisingly to me. We recently had a bit of a milestone. We’ve been planning for a training week for urban agriculture farmers because due to their insecure land tenures, we can’t fund what they want the most – a borehole for clean water. So we asked them what are the second best things you want? And it turns […]
It’s 2:40 am. A rooster is crowing outside my window. Who in the world thought about domesticating these birds? Now that I’m up and unable to fall back into slumber, I might as well give you an update. Work has been pretty crazy the last two days. But I’m really starting to see how I fit into the whole picture of SC’s work here; especially my role and involvement in the legitimisation of urban agriculture part. Let me explain that. […]
The politics and economics behind urban agriculture (specifically land tenure and zoning issues) are so complicated that it’s getting me really excited. Well, it actually makes my job a bit harder, but then if it was an easy issue to be solved, it would have been solved already. One day, when I learn a little bit more, I will write a post about these complicated dynamics between individuals, organizations, and the physical environment.
I’m going back to Tanzania! This time, I’ll be in Dar es Salaam (the largest city, not the capital). Working as a project officer for urban agriculture needs assessment for two NGOs (one based in Vancouver and the other one in Dar). I’m so unbelievably excited about this job, it’s hard to describe. Maybe I should just say that I danced around the UBC office I was working in when I got the phone call. Thankfully, my co-workers knew me […]
The video of my Terry Talk from November 22, 2008 came out. Here it is! I would love to know what you think. Redefining boundaries: Urban Agriculture: Tiffany Tong from terrytalks on Vimeo. (sorry, I can figure out how to imbed the video onto the page…) Remember to check out all the other Terry Talk videos too!!
