I’m having some trouble deciding what my role is here. I’ve always been on the policy advocacy side of things. Now I’m supposed to be a facilitator, a stakeholder engager, a bridge, a person who is supposedly more neutral. Now some of you would probably roll your eyes by now, since I’m rarely neutral on any issue, especially something as important to me as food/agriculture. But that’s what I’m supposed to be. I’m supposed to be helping bridge the gap […]
I had such a good work day today. Not that I accomplished a lot (well, I did get two meetings organized, which is quite big since it’s really hard to get anyone from the government to have a meeting), but because I was able to face some of my fears. phoning people I don’t know or haven’t met face to face before. I’m getting much better at this essential skill. I got quite good at it back in Canada, but […]
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 […]
I had a long and interesting talk with one of my roommates last night. I don’t really remember the specific details since I was quite brain dead after a 12-hour work day. But I remember we were discussing about how we were adjusting to life here in Dar. As I mentioned in another post, frankly, there wasn’t much adjusting on my side. This is way easier than how we lived in Kampala, which was my first time in any “developing” […]
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 arrived in the morning and immediately got to work after lunch. Met lots of people relevant to my projects to just introduce myself. Participated in a meeting where they were negotiating/asking for funding. Interesting people dynamics. Definitely different than what I’ve experienced before. Now I’m super jet lagged and sleepy. Dar is very different than Kampala. I can’t wait to find out more.
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 […]
