In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro - Our Arrival

            "All I know is that every time I go to Africa, I'm shaken to my core."

-   Stephen Lewis, former Canadian UN Ambassador and UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa 
    

Mount Kilimanjaro - The view on the commute to work for the Building Crew

           We were watching TV today and Mike Holmes came on in a charity commercial asking us to sponsor African children and I had to rethink my typical thought process on these commercials. These commercials are always different people saying the same thing... "For a dollar a day...". Every day, we hear about places that need our help or money. Earthquakes in Haiti, Aids in Africa, Floods in Pakistan, Tsunamis in Indonesia, there's always somewhere to donate. It's tough to watch, we feel helpless, we can't afford to donate to everything so often we bury it and we carry on. At least I often do. I encourage anyone who's ever thought about going on a mission like this for a couple of weeks or months, to do so. I'm fairly certain we're not the first to say that everything we put into this we got out times fifteen hundred. I know because our dollar is worth about 1500 Tanzanian shillings. If there's one thing I miss it's getting a bank statement showing a balance in the millions. It was worth it even for that.

                                                 "Mambo!" ~ What's up!
                                                 "Poa!"       ~ I'm cool!


           We arrived from Amsterdam at about 9:30 at night on Sunday January 9th and were ready to get rolling. We both had the same feeling coming into our project though for different reasons. Jill was anxious to get started and didn't know entirely what to expect while I was concerned with the schedule and how little we knew going in. Though we had sent a number of emails asking about the project to learn about local materials, site conditions, labour, tools, building practices and standards, we knew only the dimensions and rough layout of the structure we would be building before our arrival. To be honest, I was concerned that with all the fundraising we'd done, we wouldn't be able to accomplish enough with the time frame we had. We were carrying not only our personal sacrifices, but the contributions of over a hundred people who had donated to our cause and we put the pressure on ourselves to everything we could while we were there.
           The Pamoja Tunaweza (Together We Can) Women's Centre provides support for women in the Kilimanjaro region who suffer from poverty, gender based violence and often are affected by HIV/AIDS. (See top right for more info).
          They're currently operating out of a place that they're renting for a reduced but not insignificant rate and anyone who, like ourselves, is or has ever paid rent on someone's elses mortgage can understand the reason for the new self-owned and operated Women's Centre. Especially in a situation like this when every dollar counts. So CACHA made a good business decision and bought some property in Moshi with a smaller structure but area to expand in hopes to smoothly transition over in April. Our goal was to being this expansion by building a Pavilion-style daycare area with a polished concrete floor and an A-framed roof. Here's what we knew going in:

- 22 feet x 24 feet are
- Open air structure with a roof
- Polished concrete floor 
- 2 foot high wall to prevent baby-escapes
- That's it.

         Arriving in Africa for the first time at night-time is like going to the Superbowl with a blindfold on. Our anticipation had been building for the trip since this had become a reality, thanks to many of you, and we were ready to dive in. The 45 minute bus ride took us to the Guest House where we would be staying in a room with my folks, summer camp bunk-bed style. We had mosquito nets and a manual fan (i.e. works if you spin it) as a power surge had blown it out. Jill and I graciously accepted the top bunk as after all those Grinds climbing up didn't seem that bad.  Also, we had a bathroom I liked to call the 'Double-Tasker'; a result of the toilet being located directly over the shower. We knew we'd gotten ourselves into something a little deeper than the usual. We loved it and were ready to jump in.

              "Shake it up baby" - The Beatles

 Next Chapter: Hard Barders, Disintegrating Sunglasses, Hundred Greeting Days, Shovel Ceremony and the first Caravan!

Dunc checks to see if it's break time yet.