The Final Countdown

As November comes to a close, our involvement with this project must also wane. Having spent the last five months working in Shimbwe on this project, we are confident in its capability for long-term sustainability. We are on great terms with all stakeholders (NGO, community groups, primary school, local government) who have consistently voiced their intention and desire to maintain this project. Thank you all for reading and keeping up with the project.

Below is a link to the first draft of the final project report.

Final Project Report

Here They Are

in all their glory:

The Goats Have Arrived!

The goats have arrived and are beautiful!

Check out the Picasa link for more pictures.

The Company Store

In the antebellum South, former slaves, lacking funds to purchase land, were often forced to return to their former masters in search of employment. This marked the beginning of sharecropping. Former slaves were required to produce a certain amount of crop; the rest they could keep themselves (however the demanded output was often higher than feasible putting the sharecroppers in spiralling debt). The former slaves were required to purchase seed, sow, and all farming equipment from the white landowner at prices marked up 100 to 300 percent - a process that came to be called "The Company Store."

Here in Shimbwe, we have our own rather mild form of the Company Store. Adolf (not even joking ... real name), the owner of our house, runs the most luxurious bar in town (i.e. it has a second floor). Beneath the bar, he runs a store that sells beverages, rice, beans, soap, and other odds and ends. Further from the main road and closer to our house, Adolf owns yet another store named London. The proximity and stock of his stores make frequenting them logical and easy. However, we often feel a pang of guilt for consistently patronizing stores owned by our realtor rather than spreading the wealth. Luckily, our company store doesn't jack up the price.

-Posted by Sam

Business Ethics and Development Intervention

I am fascinated by the ways that our development intervention engages with Chagga economic culture. We've done our best to invest artfully and to allow our project to interface with local ways of doing business. This is very much a practical concern: the more room we leave for people to apply their own conceptions of economy and business as they engage the project, the more likely the project is to be incorporated successfully into the community once we leave. At times, we must have been hamfisted and have inadvertently trampled on the Chagga way of doing capitalism. But our general approach is to make objective-specific money allocation decisions and allow local people to execute the task at hand. We have two basic systems to minimize our vulnerability to graft. First, we meticulously check facts and prices with as many people as possible before making a purchase. (Yesterday, we went to a wedding. I don't have dress shoes, so I asked a friend if I could borrow some. He lent me what appear to be a pair of second-hand, alligator skin Gucci kicks, but they were dusty, and he instructed me to get them shined prior to the wedding. I asked the chef at a local restaurant how much a shoe cleaning normally costs. I ordered the shine, handed him a small bill, and asked for change based on my well-researched understanding of the standard fare. The shoe shiner clearly anticipated a juicier-than-usual shining fee from this young traveler, and was visibly surprised at my command of local prices.) Second, we are working with multiple stakeholders to produce the physical project, and they often have conflicting interests. We exploit these differences to make sure we are getting the right prices, timely services, and good information. (Mwalimu Richard, for example, is a chronically behind-schedule wood chopper. His lateness started to delay construction, though he insisted he was doing everything possible to get the job on time. The construction workers disagreed and said Richard was just too busy to chop our wood on time. They hired their own chainsaw operator and to Richard's consternation, started chopping wood on-site, and at the right price.)

The downside of our conscious decision to leave most of the execution to local actors (and to pitch in physical help whenever we can) is that several ethical quandaries arise in the process. We're not doing anything evil or malicious, and we're doing our best to shed as much moral baggage as possible. I don't lose sleep over this stuff, and I'm not uncomfortable about it. The reason I raise the issue on this blog is because these ethical issues are both rich in information and they're interesting; I thought I'd share some of what we deal with as a way of soliciting readers' thoughts on the issues in general and possible ways of dealing with them.

Today, I'll start by kicking around the issue of kickbacks.

Everywhere, socially savvy entrepreneurs have mastered the art of the kickback. Whatever kickback institutions prevail in a given locale, the most successful operators are equally adept at seizing opportune kickback moments, and at gracefully accepting kickbacks sent in their direction.

Here's a rough sketch of what I mean when I write "kickback": a nugget of value left over from an economic exchange that one party to the exchange returns to the other following the original or primary exchange. That cash makes everything freely convertible to everything else might render the "value left over" part of the definition functionally irrelevant. But the general idea is intact: an exchanger makes a profit and, for whatever reason, returns some of it.

Sure, kickbacks can be a form of financial credit. They can also consist of a payment for some under-the-table service as in the most widely publicized kickback cases: shameless cases of government or corporate cronyism. This kind of publicity gives kickbacks a bad rapport. But I think most day-to-day kickbacks, the kind that take place innumerable times in markets all over the world, are not ethically problematic. In Luo markets in western Kenya, vendors seal sales by adding an extra couple of vegetables to whatever bundle they've negotiated. The kickback helps vendors retain old customers and capture new ones. It's a marketing tool and its function is social.

It seems to me that kickback ethics get murky in cases where value gets transferred from one domain of economic exchange (DOE) to another. I'm not exactly sure what I mean by DOE--anthropologists have been wrestling with these apparent phenomena and developing concepts to deal with them for a century now. But examples from our medical system illustrate the point. First consider medical referrals. Although their matrix-like, (at-best) interminable nature makes them slightly more complicated than a classic kickback, referrals fit the general mold: an endocrinologist refers a patient to another, the second doctor profits. Eventually, if Dr. 2 holds up her end of the deal, she'll "kick back" a second patient to her colleague Dr. 1 down the line. Presumably, there are several endocrinologists to whom Dr. 2 might refer a given case, and they'd all do a good job. Therefore, Dr. 2's decision to refer back to Dr. 1 is not just medical but also social; it helps her build a professional network, it helps her ensure good care for her patient, and everyone benefits. No ethical qualms here.

Until recently, a more problematic kickback system thrived in doctors offices as drug representatives bought lunch for office staff and supplied piles gimmicky pens with drug logos as well. Those of us who have enjoyed those lunches might not relish the ban on such practices, but the ban is an ethical no-brainer. We all know that at Big Pharma, the bottom line reigns supreme. Furnishing office supplies and lunches was part of an elaborate kickback cycle in which healthcare providers got freebies and drug companies expected favorable treatment when the pen hit the prescription pad. (Whether or not they got it is someone else's debate.)

We finished paying Richard for lumber last week. He earned a significant portion of our grant. At the end of the exchange, he told us not to forget about him when Duma implements additional projects. We paid him in full, but he didn't have change for our cash. First, he said he'd pay it back the next day. Then he thought hard, reached into his new wad of bills, and kicked us back 10,000tsh, about $8, and told us to buy ourselves a soda. It was uncomfortable, but Richard is a teacher at the Lata School and we didn't want to refuse the kickback if this is indeed the way business is done in Chagga land. Following Chagga business etiquette seemed the most prudent path at the time (more on conflicts of interest later). Furthermore, if we were building our own animal shelter, there would be absolutely nothing wrong with accepting the kickback. The ethical dilemma stems from the fact that we are managing money on someone else's behalf, and since we are leaving in three months, we are not reliable business partners as private operators. This dynamic made the kickback feel like the grafty kind you read about in the Times. We decided to err on the side of moral intuition and reinvest our portions of the kickback into the project.

So should we have bought the sodas? What are your thoughts?

I'm not sure about citing sources on blogs. If you want to learn more about the social function of credit, or the ways in which economic entrustment operates in African markets, Parker Shipton's The Nature of Entrustment, on the Kenyan Luo, is a good place to start. The book inspired a lot of the thought behind this post.

Posted by Jake

Ethnography and Alcohol

Although we officially began building the shelter last Thursday, the real work started Wednesday morning at the home of Mwalimu (teacher) Richard, who is selling us the timber for the shelter. Throughout this process, we have attempted to show our commitment to the community: initially by moving up to Shimbwe and later by participating in the building process. Wednesday morning offered the first shot at the latter. We arrived at Mwalimu Charles' home just past 8 a.m. prepared to help load hundreds of wood planks onto a massive lorry to be transferred to the building site at the school.

Yet to grasp the slowing effects of dirt terrain and extreme inclines and declines, we were a few minutes late. The four carpenters had already started loading wood of various widths and heights aided by hordes of school children currently on vacation. While we had been warned that school children would be assisting us, we were slightly taken aback at the sight of tiny bodies hoisting large planks on to their shoulders. Uncomfortable though we were by the idea of unpaid child labor, we felt it wasn't our place to challenge the local customs and traditions. To do so might contradict our desire for a grassroots development project and possibly place a wedge between ourselves and community members.

With the lorry loaded to the brim, we joined the carpenters atop of the surreptitiously placed wood and drove up and down a gravity-defying hill. (To our parents and friends who have visited: we're talking about the final massive hill to Leta School). Sitting on all the wood and waving to idlers and passer-bys, we looked like kings in a castle - an image with which we are hardly comfortable. We loathe coming off as "white knights" riding in and saving the day (though a lorry is far less picturesque than a white steer). However, riding on top of the wood that would eventually become the goat shelter, we acknowledged that there was little use to getting caught up in such imagery and be content with the grassroots nature of the project itself.

Having arrived at the school in one piece, we started the entire process over - this time unloading the wood. The school kids, unable to reach the wood in the truck, were given a break. Exhausted, we all agree to call it a half way (though it was only 10:30) and begin the real construction on Thursday. Content with the day's labor, we joined Mwalimu Richard and Mwalimu Sebastian for a stint at a local bar (ran by the owner of our home). Although we thought it a tad early for drinking, we didn't want to be ...err... culturally insensitive as the teachers bought us round after round. Drinking with the two teachers turned out to be a tremendously captivating anthropological experience. As the engagement ended, we rushed home eager to type and remember everything we could. The following paragraphs was our attempt to recount the evening's conversations. We have left the writing in the same frantic, slightly intoxicated form as when it was first written. Please forgive any lack of clarity.

- In response to our slightly perturbed reaction to child labor, the teachers explained: the children work as a group. They can't be legally hired until they finish primary school, but they can work for free before that. The teachers argued that working builds a community, ushers development, and brings profit. It adds to their education, their strength, and character.

- Mwalimu Richard asked how America came to be? To me, he said, "You don't seem to like talking about America." I explained that the teacher was welcome to ask question, but I had difficultly talking about it without prompt. We talked about England's ownership of America. They asked why England and America are allies. We said because they trade a lot and both speak English. They have a common natural interest. England owned America. The teachers suggested that it seems like whatever America's leaders say, England's leaders go along with.

- Mwalimu Charles talked about Mwalimu Richard's second car to which Richard shushed him and said that "That's my secret." Jake said, "But you already told me about it." But Mwalimu Richard said he told us because he wanted to use the car to pick up the goats. Jake asked why Richard didn't want other people to know about the car. Richard said it's because people are jealous. They want to know why you have something that they don't. And they might try to harm you. Richard said jealously is normal. It was as if he was rationalizing and understanding the jealousy.

- Where did the grant money came from? What is a foundation? There was confusion about whether our country sent us here or the foundation did. They didn't understand what the foundation got from sending us here. We explained that foundation is just happy to see a good project. Somehow that turned to receipts. We explained how the foundation needed know where its money went since we were spending someone else's money. And how we could get in trouble and brought back to the US for spending money without accounting for it. It appeared to be a epiphany moment for the teachers who may have understood why we were hesitant to give Mwalimu Fisher the money for his dala dala ride to see his mother. Jake explained to them that we took the teacher's write up and translated it to grant language and that's how the whole thing came to pass.

- What does America get from your project? What do we get? Why did the Foundation choose our project? We said that we get to learn Swahili, development, and help people. Jake explained how interesting the question was and how we had no idea. He said it would be worth it to ask the foundation why we were chosen. Mwalimu Richard said that people wouldn't do anything without the possibility of profit (child labor not included apparently). The concept of altruism seemed completely foreign to them during our conversations.

- We discussed our idea of starting a micro-credit bank. I asked whether they were using SACCOS (a local micro-credit bank here that takes objects such as bicycles as collateral). They explained that they use Teachers Saccos (which allowed Mwalimu Richard to purchase his lorry) rather the the KNCU Saccos (farmer saccos in Shimbwe). Malissa left Pride (another micro-credit foundation) because they didn't offer high enoughs loans. He couldn't take loans from the National Microcredit Bank (a major bank in Moshi) because it was too risky and collateral is too high. They don't give him another chance. He failed for the first two years after purchasing the lorry, and SACCOS allowed him more time to repay.

- At some point, Mwalimu Richard and Charles criticized Duma for not doing anything productive. They may have noticed us glance at each other with because when discussed later, they were loathe to critize. The teachers said they didn't want Duma or us to turn against them. We explained that we were with the people. They said that Duma pretended to help but was just trying to make a profit. We explained how while there was interest in the goat loans Duma is making to the school, Duma wouldn't be making a profit itself. The teachers said that we needed to work with individuals rather than Duma. Jake explained how since we are mzungus, we need to work with an NGO to get access to the community and make sure that nobody screws us over (perhaps ironic since we may have been thoroughly screwed over by Mwalimu Richard that day). But we are learning, Jake said. I explained to Mwalimu Charles that the reason we moved to Shimbwe is because we did want to work with individuals. Charles drunkenly approved.

- Jake asked how we could make a profit and help people. Jake asked about the poorest of the poor who have a quarter of an acre of land. Mwalimu Richard said that there is nothing you can do for them since they have so little land. He described himself as middle class. Richard takes his crops (as well as for-fee cargo) to Dar es Salaam where it sells higher than in local markets. He says it's not worth it to sell to Moshi. Richard's idea for making money and helping people was since he had 20 acres but could only use five, if you brought the expertise and the capital, you could use his acreage and give him some of the profit (he suggested 3-10 percent). So Richard would be renting out his farmland and he would learn from those people with the capital and the expertise (who were presumably Western). We explained how that concept was similar to Islamic Banks whose customers are religiously forbidden from interest-accruing loans. Jake asked why, if he were to start a business here, he should come to Kili? Why not go somewhere else where he could buy a lot of land for very cheap and make the profit himself. Richard responded, "I have an answer for you. You wouldn't be helping people." We felt this a fantastic point. Jake asked again about the poorest of the poor. Richard suggested that after seeing the expertise that foreigners brought to his middle-class farm, the Westerner could bring poor farmers together and do a similar sharecropping system. He also mentioned that people like him, they have the education and know-how and the skills to be able to implement a system given a right amount of capital. But the poor people who we are talking about don't know anything and wouldn't be able to do it (according to him), which is the reason why organizations like Duma are necessary.

- Used to frequent complaints in Uganda about a lack of market, I asked Mwalimu Richard and Charles what they could do with the capital. The teachers discussed how they would use it to increase their output by expanding the means of production. I asked Mwalimu Richard whether there was a market for an increased output. Richard was secure in his belief that the markets were far from saturated. That being said, he owns a lorry and take his goods to the largest city in Tanzania. However, I was shocked to hear this discrepancy between Uganda and Tanzania. After my experiences researching self-help groups, credit and loan groups, and farmers associations, the issue seemed to be powerless farmers and producers undercutting each other to obtain a market (third world beggar thy neighbor policies). The crux of the issue is not how to capitalize on high volume but how to generate high volume in the first place. That is to say that demand exists but only for those who can supply. The lingering question is whether or not once these farmers are capacitated, they would run into the same sorts of marketing issues that I observed in Uganda. In our project, for example, we're very conscious of marketing. One of Duma's main future roles will be to search out markets for the high quality Toggenburg goats. Small owners will not be able to generate the same sort of market interest that Duma may be able to. We're also encouraging the community to work with Duma to sell their goats in order to avoid undercutting prices.

- Mwalimu Richard talked about how people talk more when they drink. Jake said we're not that drunk, we're just talking normally. Mwalimu Richard said that people become abnormal when they drink too much.

We've had a difficult time negotiating alcohol and anthropology here in Shimbwe. On more than two occasions, we've had fascinating conversations with community members over many a beer. On the other hand, we are consciously trying to stay in shape. Shifting from white rice to brown and removing fatty oil from our cooking preparations does little when we're drinking multiple beers a day. (It's worth mentioning that these aren't normal American or European beers - these are half-liters bottles ranging from 5.5 to 10 percent alcohol content). However, one could make the argument for the necessity of development workers cracking open a beer and taking it very seriously. It's not that you're drinking to get drunk, but rather that you're drinking to do participatory observation (or at least that's how I'd like to justify our all-too-regular drinking habits).

Since our last drinking date with the teachers, we have decided to limit ourselves to drinking the occasional beer on Friday and Saturday only. Whatever gains we make in physical health, we can't deny the anthropological loss this decision has resulted in. However, sometimes it's important to remember that we're not anthropologists. Yes, part of the purpose of being here is to have as culturally in depth an experience as possible, but the primary goal is to get this project done well and efficiently and set it up for future success.

Posted by Sam

Issues Covered in Meeting with Duma Members Interested in Receiving Goats

The purpose of our second meeting with Duma members was to tackle several issues revolving around the mechanics of loaning with women who were interested in receiving goats. First was the question of how to pass loans within bounded groups. It is becoming clear that the one-size-fits all model that we envisioned -- where each uniform group receives a goat and passes it down a line of women until they pay the loan back -- is not going to work within the Shimbwe context. One group, for example, has scrounged the money and materials to build a shelter but doesn't have enough pasture land on their personal plots to build shelters or plant sufficient fodder crops. Instead, they've asked a wealthier neighbor with an uncultivated field for permission to plant fodder on his farm. He agreed. They plan to initially build one shelter on one of their plots and to share fodder. Their approach clouds the clear-cut Grameen-esque model Sam and I once envisioned. On the surface, it also goes against the grain of the way women normally like to work in Shimbwe, namely, alone and on their own plots, independent of others. My gut reaction to hearing this plan was to welcome it as a rare instance in which Chagga women were willing, even keen, to work together. But my instant impression that the one shelter/one pasture pasture per group model these women proposed would undercut the concept of individual ownership that last year's research showed to be prevalent in Shimbwe, and that our model (really the Grameen model) of incentivizing the repayment of credit hinges upon.

I brought the issue up with Francis, asking if we need to to take collateral out on owns in cases where group ownership is the norm. In consultation with her members, Francis clarified the issue saying that although a group might start with one shelter, they plan to save money and will build shelters for the other women in the group as resources become available. Furthermore, individual women will retain ownership over specific goats, which will indeed be passed from one group member to the next (even if ownership is marked cognitively rather than by physical location). What appears to be emerging are a cluster of small groups, each of which has a unique set of capabilities, social dynamics, ecological limitations and corresponding solutions that lead them to a particular methodology of caring for goats and exchanging them between individual members. The groups, as I understand them, are going to operate as bite-sized savings and loans organizations. These have formed based on women's knowledge and experience in hearing about and participating in such schemes, and in response to our outside intervention. This intervention appears to have generated what women perceive to be a strong economic opportunity, and to have incentivized the formation of hybrid collectives (with individual ownership and some shared work, credit, and resources) that women find distasteful under most other circumstances.

The internal politics and resource-sharing within each group will therefore depend on the nature and composition of the group in question. Group members themselves will be responsible for determining how to pass goats and how to pay loans back. Duma will work individually with groups, which will in turn operate according to unique verbal bylaws. The women present seemed to like this way of doing things. I do too: It allows us to leave as much to group members as possible while allowing them to respond to a basic set of financial rules and conditions. These meta-rules will be flexible and dependent on factors such as group size and financial capacity. Most remarkably, this approach is actually Francis's idea, which signals her faith in poor women's capacity to manage their own affairs. It suggests her commitment to a participatory process.

The meeting itself was generally participatory - women responded to our various questions and continually posed their own, mostly assuring us that our concerns could be addressed through group work and shared responsibilities. For example, we asked, "What should be done with male goats?" Women replied in various ways: (a) pass within a group, and mandate that recipients of male kids raise and exchange them for females, (b) raise and sell for profit which can be divided in various ways within a group or for individual profit. But Francis suggested women simply sort the issue out in groups. This seem fine to us and we welcomed what amounted to a method for decentralizing the power structure of our loaning program. Personally, I feel the fairest approach to male goats is probably to sell them and reinvest in the group by building shelters or otherwise investing in group capacities. We can suggest this, but ultimately such decisions will be left up to groups.

Another point of controversy we expected to have to deal with was the order in which groups ought to receive loans. Sam and I expected fierce contention over the pecking order. But as different groups discussed their disparate preparations, the solution to this would-be conundrum materialized quickly: groups will receive goats in the order they are ready to receive them. This is an obvious solution in terms of animal husbandry - you can't give a goat to women who can't house or feed them. It has the added advantage of ensuring those who receive goats are (a) serious about the project and making personal investments in order to participate, and (b) that their seriousness is manifest in sufficient group cooperation to get the group off the ground.

One thing worth nothing about the participatory process: a group of relatively wealthy teachers dominated most of the conversation save for a few select others. In terms of project methodology, this suggests that a more inclusive financial strategy might (a) organize meetings so that the poor, rather than the rich and powerful, sit front and center and (b) use smaller group meetings or individual interviews rather than clunky meetings with all interested parties. Since we are going to work with small groups,we will eventually hear those whose voices went unheard in this initial meeting. Another lesson: imploring women to speak when they're feeling overpowered and alienated is futile. When I tried this, several women insisted they agreed with everything said and that they would chime in when necessary.

More on these poorer women to follow. First a note on haves:

Sam and I took an exploratory walk around Shimbwe as women continued to arrive two hours past the announced starting time. We ended up arriving at the meeting a few minutes late. Francis animatedly informed us that there was a group of women already ready to receive goats. These were the teachers who are ineligible according to the loaning criteria I had announced at the first meeting. It was precisely this type of public outburst that, given the criteria, I expected Francis to steer away from. Sticking firmly to the guidelines already in place, I exasperate Francis and the ineligible group which had been angling for the first loan since we announced the project. Sam and I suggested some alternatives to a loan: talk to the Leta School and see if you can get seed goats for your own school after a few years, or get a loan from Duma after the eligible members get theirs. (Given our pending departure date, we can accept a statute of limitations on our criteria if necessary). At first we suggested teachers by goats from successful groups which would both bolster the project and give the teachers some time to raise cash. But they liked the idea so much that they decided to buy goats immediately through Farm Africa. At the same time, they are keen in maintaining ties with Duma. They also seem keen on launching a project that helps their own local community of Materuni, a village just outside Shimbwe, so working with them might help to extend our own reach. In any case, this elegant solution reaffirmed the efficacy of using criteria.

Another potential problem emerged in the course of laying out the criteria which directly affected the poor. When I announced loanees can't operate on under half an acre, women got nervous because most of them have plots of between zero and a half an acre with about a quarter acre being the norm. This could constrain their ability to build a project if they work off their own pastures only. But when it comes to pasture land in Shimbwe, there seems to be something more complex operating beneath the surface of land ownership. The women assured us not to worry about pasture area apparently they get the bulk of their fodder grass for free by cutting it from public hillsides. Unaware of exactly how this process operates and whether or not the available grass would be healthy for Toggenburg goats, we told them we would reevaluate this policy with consultation with Dr. Lockhart. It would be preposterous to loan modern dairy goats to people who can't provide them with the diet they need to provide milk in the first place, but maybe if they buy some feed, cut some, and grow the rest, they can run profitable home dairies.

During the last stage of the meeting, women physically organized themselves into their groups. We asked each group to name a leader to be responsible for attending all training seminars, training fellow group members, and to be the liaison between Duma and their group. During the course of arranging themselves, the women who had already formed groups and formulated plans to participate in the project gravitated into pairs or triplets, many of whose third or fourth members were absent. Among the women who had not yet joined groups arose a vortex of instantaneous group formation. Many of those who came to the meeting without partners thus left as members of groups which coagulated mostly according to seating proximity. Faith, a very poor woman who I interviewed last summer, was seated adjacent to a pair of women who were standing side-by-side to indicate their intention to work together. Faith hovered on an incline slightly above them. Francis asked her what group she was in, and with a two-handed parting motion, Faith attempted to displace the space between the established pair and root herself as a fellow member between therm. The original pair denied Faith's opportunistic attempt to join their group with shaking heads and firm feet. Eventually, Faith ended up joining one of the groups that formed as a consequence, rather than as a prelude to the meeting.

There is something to be said for groups forming continuously as the project proceeds but the last few groups that formed exemplify the sort of transitive, impromptu social interactions, instigated by a poverty-burning peer-pressure cooker, that would likely lead to dysfunction down the line. One good thing about our system: there is already a mechanism in place to deal with such groups. If they are indeed transient and dysfunctional they will fail to aggregate the resources necessary to proceed with the project; they just won't get a loan. If on the other hand, women inspired by the success of original groups successfully form new ones, we will have established just the type of social organization we intend to. Our financial product will be powerful enough to incentivize productive group work in a place where women tend to avoid collective business activity. We are not aiming to destroy the individual ethic that motivates women here. Instead, we are working with an intensely individualistic economic culture to develop the kind of collectivization that might allow women to get past some of the economic hardships they face alone to allow individuals to improve their livelihoods. As groups return loans, they might fracture into individually-managed projects. But at this stage of the game it is hard to think of ways for women to manage these goats alone.

Posted by Jake

Sorry!

Apologies to everyone for our massive gap in blogging.

We're in the process of filling everything that hasn't been posted through journal entries and memories. In the meantime, here's a brief summary to make sense of the following blog entries:

- We each spent some time travelling separately in August.

- We have left Moshi and are now living in Shimbwe - the beautiful, rural village where the project is located.

- The shelter is nearly complete.

- Things are going much better with Francis and the Duma Group. How and why is best left for another day's blog entry.

- We're planning to drop pictures of the shelter on Friday.

We don't have internet access in the village, but we do have a laptop. We will update at least once every weekend, sometimes with multiple entries. After having looked back at our own previous work, we've decided to try to experiment more with the kinds of things we post. Look for shorter, less narrative-oriented, and hopefully more flavorful character- and sensory-oriented posts in the future.

We hope the following two entries will hold you over until Friday.

Balancing Acts

If development work is like a roller coaster, we've been in the front row of Nitro for the past two weeks.

Although it has been a while since our last post, our project has not made any physical progress. We are still in the process of developing plans. This has been a tedious balancing act between meeting our project goals and meeting the expectations of Duma. The NGO continues to see our project as a political tool to smooth over relations with its membership. Until yesterday, we took the multiple beatings. The original intention of the project was to help a school get some milk revenue and act as a training site for the kids.

But Francis was inspired by the Farm Africa project in Babati, where a group of mostly women farmers spontaneously formed a successful goat-rearing collective. It seems that Francis wants to duplicate this collective model by establishing a group to be administered by Duma. Presumably, this would allow Duma to become the central site for Togenberg goats in the Kilimanjaro region, which would be a lucrative outcome given the high demand for the breed throughout East Africa. With this vision in mind, Francis suggested the scope of the Lata School project be restricted to a buck breeding center. This would keep bucks separate from does and help to ensure the purity of the breed, but as a result, the school wouldn't receive any milk proceeds nor would the students receive any milk.

This would have been an unacceptable outcome given the intentions of our grant proposal. Thus far, we have allowed Francis to have her way when it comes to major project decisions even when we disagreed with them, using our flexibility to garner her trust and friendship. No more. Today we wrote a MoU that we believe takes into account the interests of NGO without railroading the school.

We have always intended this project to be based in bottom-up, grassroots methodology. The idea for a livestock project at the school as conceptualized by the school last year during Jake's research. At every stage of this process, we were determined to get community and NGO input. What is becoming more clear is that the NGO values this project as a capital and status-building project as much as it sees the cash injection we offer as an investment in the community. This is not to say it would be a bad thing to help Duma build its profile, in fact, we think this would be a good thing. But that profile building is a second-tier objective at best, and furthermore, we believe the NGO could accomplish it through the framework the school has outlined.

Below is the draft MoU, feel free to contribute your thoughts:

MoU

The following document constitutes a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Projects Managers (PM) operating within Duma, the Director, and the Lata Primary School (LAT) and outlines the framework of protocols, responsibilities, relationships, and requirements of implementing projects under Duma.

LAT agrees to allow Duma to use the school plot as a livestock farm. Duma retains the right to use this farm as an educational center and as the core capital for a micro-lending operation involving female offspring from the central farm. The specifics of the lending scheme will be determined by Duma and LAT with community input.

Giving Animals to LAT

- Duma agrees to provide funding for a secure livestock shelter to be built using local materials and local labor. Duma agrees to provide a daily meal for each laborer.

- LAT agrees to provide labor for animal shelter.

- During project implementation, Duma will provide animal feed for a pre-determined period of time, after which LAT is solely responsible for providing feed.

- Duma will loan 10 goats to the LAT, comprised of two 100 percent males, two 100 percent females, four 75 percent males and four 75 percent females.

- LAT will receive from the milk of all goats at the school.

- Duma assumes responsibility for initial veterinary fees for a period to be determined by an agricultural extension officer.

The LAT assumes responsibility for the wellbeing and value of the livestock such that:

(a) the LAT will provide all necessary water and food, including modifying the existing plot to serve as a pasture to eliminate the need to purchase feed.

(b) the LAT will oversee the daily cleaning of livestock stalls including weekends and weekdays.

(c) the LAT, in conjunction with the agricultural extension officer, will manage a buck center to control pregnancy and inbreeding.

(d) the LAT will ensure the security of the livestock at all times and will hire a nightwatchmen to ensure animals' safety and the safety of Duma's property.

(e) The LAT will closely monitor livestock health and will report any symptoms to the agricultural extension officer and the Director.

(f) The LAT wgill be responsible for milking the livestock twice daily.

Before receiving the repayment of its loan, Duma reserves the right to relocate the livestock under the following condition:

- LAT fails to meet any of the above conditions such that the value of the livestock and the sustainability of the project are at risk as determined by the Director and a representative from the government livestock extension office.

In order to ensure proper care, LAT may be responsible for hiring a full-time livestock manager funded by proceeds from the project. If the school identifies a trustworthy candidate for this full-time position prior to October, 2009, Duma agrees to provide extensive training for this person through the Livestock Training Institute. This person cannot be a teacher or an immediate family member of any teacher. This person will be responsible for training members of the community.

Teachers will use dairy products and profits derived thereof to supplement students' diets and for the care and treatment of animals. No teacher shall derive personal profit from the products of the central project site.

Teachers are responsible for teaching LAT parents and community members about proper animal husbandry techniques. All community members and Duma members will be allowed to breed their goats with the 100 percent bucks located at the school in exchange for two bushels of feed.

Loaning Animals

When the four 75 percent females give birth to four female kids, they will be divided as follows:

- Two will be loaned from the school to the community in terms determined by the community in a group meeting.

- Two will be given to Duma members in terms determined by Duma members.

They will be divided in the following order:

- The first and third female kid will go to the community.

- The second and fourth female kid will go to Duma.

- Any male kids will be returned to the school to be sold.

The offspring of 100 percent goats will be divided as follows:

- The first male and female offspring of the 100 percent goats will go to Duma to start a new project. All other 100 percent offspring belong to LAT.

After the initial four kids, LAT will be in full ownership of all bucks and does as well as any future kids. It is our recommendation that LAT continue lending a proportion of offspring to the community..

This MoU will be signed by the PM, the Director, and the LAT principal to ensure mutual agreement and understanding.

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On a lighter note, we discovered our own naivete in the process of training secondary school students to conduct a wealth assessment. We provided secondary school students with questionnaires asking about differences between the poor, middle-class, and wealthy. Jake suggested that we have the students ask us the questions as practice and a cultural exchange. Sam was initially hesitant, but it went swimmingly.

We encouraged the students to add questions of their own and to delve for specific examples. The students were surprised that the amount of land an American owns is about as important as the number of bathrooms and floors they have, and that one car counts as average. Also surprising to our students was the fact that billionaires and middle-class people tend to own roughly the same amount of animals (zero cows, one dog, and maybe a cat). The act of answering our own questions prompted us to seriously contemplate richness and poorness in the US in a way that we normally don't have to. Sam, for example, remarked that richness in the city is evaluated on different standards than it is in the suburbs (elevators and ownership rather than bathrooms and acreage). We hope that the focus groups provoked a similar experience in the parents who were present, since one of the main goals of any development intervention should be to get people to start thinking more critically about their own communities, the social problems that underlie poverty, and ways to address those problems.

The research itself got good results and offered crude categories for us to measure wealth. However, having recently decided that the community should determine how and who will receive loans, we have removed ourselves from the process of allocating loans. The data we gathered might be useful as a rough guide for who could be eligible for a loan, but we won't be taking applications.

English Goats in Africa

With Frida, our homestay mother, in tow, we woke up to complete darkness at 5:40 a.m. We wandered outside the gate and hoped the taxi driver we had contacted the night before would arrive on time.

He didn't. But we still arrived at the taxi park before six and met with Francis and Dr. Lockhart, a government agricultural officer. Francis suggested that we bring along Dr. Lockhart to "give him enough rope to hang himself to the project" -- a malapropism that reminded Sam of his ninth grade English teacher who offer students "enough rope with which to hang themselves." Unfortunately, our trip to Arusha did not began without a hitch since the representative from Sia Primary School failed to show up. Putting aside our concern that such an integral member was missing, we saw our first African sunrise en route to Arusha. The hour-long skip to Arusha was the first leg of our trip. We proceeded with a 170 km (that would be kilometers for those of you reading for the glorious motherland) jump to our eventual destination of Babati. The second leg was a turbulent ride on unpaved road spent hopping on two benches in the back of a Land Cruiser we chartered from Arusha.

Joining us for this stage was Mr. Ringo and three development professionals from his firm -- two of whom were stuck in the trunk with us and privy to our countless questions. The torturous ride served as a waterboarding of sorts. We took advantage of their confinement and expertise during the 2.5 hour ride/interrogation. The fact that Mr. Ringo slashed the typically three hour ride by half an hour is a testament to his need for speed. The way in which he pushed the agility of the car was straight out of Grand Theft Auto.

We shared our fear of helping those not in need of help with the development professionals. They offered various categories of wealth measurement we could apply to our target population to determine economic status accurately. For instance, land acreage, source of fodder, type of house, mode of transport, and level of education among other things.

Typically when NGOs go house to house surveying economic means, respondents exaggerate their poverty to dupe researchers into offering undue aid. To stifle this effect, we postponed Tuesday's meeting with Sia School parents, during which we were going to begin discussing our project. Rather, we are recruiting six high achieving secondary school students to facilitate wealth/means assessment focus group discussions with the parents. Instead of interviewing multiple households, respondents discuss what rich, middle-class, and poor means to them.

Asking people to define wealth in culturally relevant terms elicits a set of categories we can use to determine the relative affluence of any given household. We can also use these categories to set criteria for inclusion in our project, which will allow us to narrow our target population. This is critical since our funding will only allow us to offer "direct intervention" in about sixteen households. Since we don't want to direct resources to those who are relatively affluent or those unable to assimilate a capital injection efficiently (aka pay back a loan), we are going to set two benchmarks in each category the community deems important. As a quick example using arbitrary numbers, if someone has a farm of under a half acre, they are unlikely to be able to care for a goat. But if they already have three acres, it may signify that they don't need our help. So we might target those who have over half-acre but under three-acre farms.

Quite an informative backseat ride as you can seen. We arrived in Babati and met with Farm Africa, an organization similar to Heifer that works with goats and through agricultural collectives. About ten years ago, FA launched a project meant to ameliorate rampant malnutrition in Babati. Farmers there told researchers they wanted to work with cows. Citing the relative ease of raising goats, FA asked members of the target population if they would be interested in using these smaller, more durable animals instead of the traditionally better-respected cow. Babati residents agreed, and FA introduced Tanzanian farmers and English Togenberg goats to one another. Despite the risky blind date, both seemed to have thrived: Babati's goat farmers, mostly women, have organized themselves into a cartel of sorts. They use their collective to protect the breed and perhaps more importantly, to set prices. They keep 100%, 75%, and 50% Togenbergs. The remainder of the goats consist of native genes. The women take care of all the business while FA, having trained them, has relegated itself to a technical advisory role.

We met a farmer who told us the goats have helped cut poverty and improve peoples' quality of life. She, for example, has used income from the goats to rebuild her house, add chicken, pig, and rabbit projects, build new toilets, and pay school fees. Next month she is planning to sell a few Togenbergs at $400 a pop to buy a TV.

The coolest thing about the goats aside from their knack for saving the world? Their pupils: every goat has a pair of enchanting deep-brown eyes with black insets that look like miniature barbells with a horizontal strip capped by two vertical pillars on each side.

Relations are thawing between Duma and ourselves. When we told Francis our idea for the focus group discussions, we were expecting some resistance given her overeager approach to breaking ground. Struggling to explain our rationale for extending focus group talks with the community, we were overjoyed when she said, "I will give you the cat but I don't need to see the rat."

We're going to have to start writing down these catch phrases.

Glossary

For those needing a refresher:

Our home

Duma - the NGO we are working with

Francis - the head of the NGO

Uji - our daily breakfast

Our snoring roommate

Who Are We Really Helping?

"In most successful cases we know of, the efforts, resourcefulness, self-discipline, and latent management skills of have rural poor have initially been mobilized and organized by outsiders, overcoming the lack of experience and self-confidence among people who have only known deprivation, hardship, social and economic oppression, and a sense of powerlessness."
- Reasons for Success: Learning From Instructive Experiences in Rural Development

Most contemporary development literature emphasizes the the importance of grassroots over top-down decion-making. The idea is to implement a project that simultaneously pursues "development" while increasing the agency of those it seeks to "develop." Those who form projects are unlikely to succeed without including recipients in every stage of the process. International donors, looking to do good, build a safe water source for a village. But by forgoing consultation and focus group discussions with the community, the donors' project lack the support and enthusiasm of the village to maintain the project.

Here's an apt example: we discussed our project with teachers at a planning meeting with the Lata School staff yesterday for a lengthy exchange of ideas and expectations between Duma and the school. Toward the end of the meeting, the headmaster submitted that although we, the project managers, are ultimately responsible for purchasing animals and building materials, he wanted a representative from the school on hand to vet all our decisions. If we want to purchase a cheap section of iron roofing, for example, the headmaster wants someone to approve the purchase to ensure it won't rust prematurely. There is a precedent for this type of concern. On her own prerogative, one Duma volunteer recently purchased pens and paper to fill what she saw as a need among schoolchildren. She did not ask the teachers whether they felt similarly nor did she ask what kinds of products she ought to supply. The headmaster took issue with her assessment as well as her shopping skills.

The community goodwill we must generate as a precondition for the success of our project is contingent on satisfying a slew of stakeholders with specific expectations. We cannot afford to make these kinds of mistakes.

As such, we met with the Lata School staff to discuss the basic premise of the project and solicit opinions. Francis joined us along with a government agricultural extension worker who conducted an ad hoc feasibility test on the school grounds. According to his analysis, the school has enough room and fodder for two cows or eight goats. Since their meeting with Jake last year, the school had been expecting to receive cows, but budgetary constraints have made goats more appealing lately. Regardless, we intended the decision to be made as a group. Discussing the pros and cons of both animals (e.g. more/less milk, more/fewer animals), some staff preferred goats, others cows, and one triangulated these two positions to suggest one cow and a few goats.

The process of choosing animals required us to collectively reconcile abutting economic and cultural realities. The arguments in favor of goats are the relative ease of care, the value of goat's milk, and goats' ability to reproduce four times as fast as cows (they gestate for half the time and usually produce twins). But as one teacher argued, most people in Shimbwe keep cows and goats are less common. Thus, if the school houses cows, people will be able to genetically improve the local caste and learn advanced animal husbandry.

The school teachers calmed our concerns with specific plans for who would care for the livestock and watch over the shelters at night. While we have yet to draw up a contract (or memorandum of understanding as they say here), we were all able to agree on the basic parameters. Duma would provide funding for the shelter and lease the animals to the Lata School for a determined period of time. The school is responsible for feeding, milking, and otherwise caring for the animals.

The school teachers understood and agreed with our plan to loan livestock to community members. However, Francis, the Duma chairperson, offered to give a group of five teachers the first loan. They enthusiastically agreed. Without much consultation with us, Francis has been determined to offer teachers the first loan as an incentive to take on the project, even though they suggested the project sans loan in the first place. Here, we were unable to avoid what we see as undue favoritism. Perhaps Francis knows this population better than we do and this could grease the social machinery of success despite our reservations.

We left the discussion satisfied and optimistic that the school was ready for the program. All that was left was to determine what materials to use for building the shelter. The school teachers agreed to provide the labor for free (though we debated over what type of lunch we would provide: they wanted fois gras, we offered rice and beans. They assented). Walking towards the main road to catch a dala dala back to Moshi, we were happy that Francis saw so much prospect in the project.

We ended up back in Duma's office and discussed loans in more detail. Choosing a candidate for a loan is a politically-charged procedure. Duma members pay entrance fees and annual dues. The organization is therefore obliged to provide returns on what members see as investments. But our intention is to help the poorest of the poor and to use the school as a local educational center for those in line to receive animals. Alas, the poorest of the poor usually can't afford to pay membership fees. And to make matters even more complicated, potential loanees have to have sufficient land and resources to provide feed and build a shelter.

As outsiders seeking to assist the poor, we are not entirely sensitive to the needs of an NGO to placate its members. On the other hand, we are relying on the NGO to sustain the project after we leave. We are generally committed to common ground and compromise. Still, we feel a moral aversion to using grant money to improve the lives of those who aren't destitute. We don't want to use our resources to reinforce or stratify preexisting inequality. But if we cater too much to the institutional concerns of the NGO, we may end up with just that.

We acknowledge that the poorest of the poor might lack the resources to care for an animal and we do not want to make loans in vain. However, we would rather develop a plan that enables the poor to obtain inaccessible resources than ignore them entirely. Thus, we will suggest using three pilot loan groups: one with Lata teachers, one with Duma members, and one with poor non-member residents of the Sia district.

We will still require arable land and proper shelter but hope the poor will use their well-developed coping skills to meet the these criteria.

Next Tuesday, we are going back up to Sia to meet with parents and teachers to explain the project and our long-term goal of loaning livestock. We are bringing six Swahili speakers along to break up the parents into focus groups with the aim of having parents brainstorm ways for peasants with land but not capital to meet our loaning conditions.

Tuesday is also our target date for ground-breaking on the project site.

Setting the Stage and NGO Drama

"This is your first real dalla dalla ride," Jake told Sam as we drove up Mt. Kili to meet local government leaders with Frida an Francis in tow. Driving up the mountain is an exercise of managed fishtailing. Always a fan of roller coasters, Sam clutched the seat ahead of him as the back end of the dalla dalla glided back and forth along the muddy road. We skidded inches from a precipice that gave way to a gorge lined with banana trees, bean sprouts, and maize stalks. The foreboding ravine was carved by the very tectonic sculpting that gave rise to Kiliminjaro itself.

Unlike last time, when our dalla dalla was essentially a moving firebomb with its payload of gasoline jugs, this time it was much less extreme: 80 glass soda bottles and two jugs of gasoline to produce a shrapnel IED (improvised exploding device). So far, we are a perfect two for two when it comes to skidding up Kiliminjaro in makeshift bombs.

Compared with the comfortable, warm temperature of Moshi, Shimbwe is freezing, particularly in the morning when we first arrive. Gathered in the local government office, a cement structure of two rooms, we discussed the project with two ward counselors and an agricultural extension officer. One ward officer moved to open the window, but Frida and Francis intervened on account of the temperature.

The officials liked the sound of our project, and the agricultural extension officer quelled our fears that residents wouldn't have enough fodder to feed the animals. The agricultural officer was particularly excited, suggesting that people who took loans should be literate. Furthermore, he suggested that groups be organized around age group since different ages would not work together effectively. This is an example of a cultural factor that we would not have come to consider ourselves. We are hoping that our loaning model leaves enough leeway for people to self-sort and account for these kinds of factors. This diffusion of agency allows the project to make appropriate loans without too much thought on the part of management. Frida thought that the local government officials could assist us to vet the self-formed groups to determine trustworthiness. We may incorporate this into our recommended management strategy. But the Grameen model we intend to utilize for lending theoretically provides a social filtration mechanism by which trustworthy clients cluster together and exclude bad apples on their own.

Francis asked the local officials about the possibility of our moving to Shimbwe -- an idea that she is in support of for more reasons than we initially presumed. The officials have taken up the search and already know of one household that has a spare room. Unlike most homes in the area, our prospective abode has electricity and water. Jake considers this cheating. Sam contends that if an electrified house exists on Kilimanjaro then it's fair game. You can take the Sam out of New York, but you can't take the New York out of Sam. That's not quite true: he has taken increasing portions of uji as the days go on.

We descended Kili after paying visits to a dispensary assisted by Duma and local relatives of Francis, who grew up in Shimbwe. We all left the meeting feeling that it was productive.

However, we found out later that afternoon that all was not well in Hoosville. We met up with a foreign Duma volunteer who has worked with others, through great effort, to streamline Duma's operating mechanisms. We had both been impressed by his leadership and social acumen. He clued us into an impending issue that other Duma members felt needed resolving. Francis and some Duma volunteers felt that we were operating outside the organizational operating standards they had worked so hard to create and standardize. They were intending to suggest that we transfer the grant money from America into Duma's bank account.

Jake's initial verbal response was, "No fucking way," which Sam agreed with in less vulgar terms. Since the grant covers our airfare, living expenses, and day-to-day costs of running the project, we felt it would be unfair for Duma to authorize much of the spending that our grant covers. This is especially true given that other volunteers pay out-of-pocket for many of the costs that we can cover with grant money. For the sake of emphasizing our honesty and comfort with transparency, Jake suggested he post a list of personal purchases on the Duma office wall detailing when and where, for example, he gets his underwear.

However, after an in-depth conversation with our forward-thinking co-worker, Duma's logic started to make sense to us for several reasons: (1) by having project money in their bank account the money will accrue interest; (2) the organization will be able to claim credit for the project, which it will run long after we leave, thereby allowing it to apply for other grants in the future; (3) purchasing project materials with money that flows through Duma's account will protect the organization from undue charges in case of audit, since the livestock we purchase is to be owned by the NGO and leased to the Sia School on a semi-permanent basis.

Having the conversation once with our co-worker and letting our initial frustration and presumption that the NGO didn't trust us die down allowed us to think more clearly. Had the co-worker not told us, we would have felt ambushed. Our negative gut reaction would have distorted our logic and impeded our ability to deliberate legitimate issues rationally and productively.

The next morning, we received a text informing us of a meeting with Francis and two volunteers in charge of accounting. It was clear to us that they were expecting a battle, and we were excited to ingratitate them with our magnanimity. Heavy rain was forebode of the looming conversation. We arrived at the Duma office over ten minutes late but much earlier than Francis and the other volunteers.

Francis arrived first and built a case for why accounting procedures had to be standardized for all volunteers while not mentioning the specifics of our circumstances. We enjoyed watching her argument meander towards a conclusion of which we were already aware. Francis used an rhetorical strategy where she jumped from one point to another, asking us to acknowledge the validity of each principle and preceding step. Having just finished the Monica Lewinsky portion of Clinton's autobiography, Sam recalled Ken Starr's technique of asking the same question with slight changes in the hope of teasing out a lie.

The two foreign volunteers arrived just as Francis finished her speech and reiterated the need for accountability. Jake had decided the previous evening to let Sam manage the response. Acknowledging their logic, Sam argued that aggregating all of our grant money in Duma's account would have introduced a new set of double standards for reimbursement. Furthermore, the dollar has lost a surprising amount of value relative to the schilling since we arrived, so Sam suggested we wait for Obama to bolster our currency before heading to the bank. We suggested transferring an initial amount to cover immediate project expenses with the expectation that we would transfer the remaining project funds to Duma once our living expenses are sorted out (we project to be under-budget). Everyone left the meeting much more comfortable than they entered it. Now we need to work out the logistics. That afternoon, Jake bought a pair of underwear. No one in Duma asked about the brand or style.

We went home and celebrated our diplomatic success with an Eagle, a lager brewed from millet rather than wheat. William calls it "poor mans' beer" because it is the cheapest Tanzanian brew and has the highest alcohol content. To our auditing readers: we paid for the Eagles ourselves.

Our Trip to Arusha and Mr. Ringo

After a leisurely weekend of War and Peace and My Life, on Monday morning we hit the ground running. Literally: William needed help getting his 1950-something royal army issue land rover to the repair show, it starter motor out of whack. It took five young men pushing him along the road at a run and then a sudden turn down a third hill with a quick flip of the keys to get the engine humming.

For Sam, driving to town in that car felt like a moment out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Lacking passenger doors, we took sharp turns with one hand latched to a handle and another to a backpack. Arriving at the bus park in true style, we got into a vehicle headed for Arusha and started the 1.5 hour drive. A sign for Spices and Herbs, an Arusha Ethiopian restaurant, caught our eye on our way to our stop.

We compensated for a relaxed weekend with a jam-packed day of informational interviews. First was the famous Mr. Ringo, a Tanzanian development consultant. The last time Jake met with former Beatle, he came off as slightly distant and even discouraging - curious as to why Jake was in Tanzania in the first place. Maybe because he appreciated the return visit or the cash in tow, or maybe because Jake had misread him the first time, Mr. Ringo was much more enthused and seemed quite receptive to our plans.

Our discussion with Mr. Ringo focused on management strategies, who suggested ways in which we should carry out our focus group discussions, unify the women and men in the community, and improve our chances of success. For instance, he suggested bringing farmers participating in the loaning program to exposure visits at similar successful programs and described ways to create a sense of community ownership over the project. He also explained the importance of baseline surveys to assess the initial status of loan recipients in order to determine the success of our program.

Besides management suggestions, Mr. Ringo introduced us to a new and crucial contact: Heifer International. Just minutes after Mr. Ringo made the suggestion, we were sitting in the office of Heifer's Deputy Country Director discussing our plan. The country director was initially skeptical of our proposal during the time of ujamaa, or African socialism, Heifer International had attempted to help ujamaa villages raise livestock collectively by giving them animals raised on a central farm in southern Tanzania. The central farm failed because there was no clear division of duty.

He dove into the details of Heifer procedure, for instance the preparations and training that animal recipients receive before the cow is delivered. In Heifer, communities are organized into groups of 10-20. Half of these farmers receive training, plant fodder, build sheds, come up with a community coordination plan, and generally prepare to receive the cows. The cows and training are eventually passed on to the other half of the group.

From the country director, we were referred to another Heifer branch and Dr. Taxi, a veterinarian. The doctor described the nuts and bolts to us making the case for dairy cows versus dairy goats. Cows' gestation periods are longer and usually produce only one calf. Goats, on the other hand, can reproduce every five months and, if cared for well, have twins 60-70 percent of the time. Goats produce substantially less milk than cows, 2-3 litres per day compared with 10; however, in some markets goats' milk holds a higher value than cows' thanks to its medicinal properties (it's good for ulcers). Cows also require more hectares of land for feeding. We intend to discuss all these factors with the community to determine what species to invest in. The drastic price difference ($120-30 for goats and $600+ for cows) makes goats a more attractive option. Unfortunately, this might hinder our capacity to provide a meaningful choice to community members.

Until our meeting with the doctor, we were somewhat naive about the in-depth training required for animal husbandry. It turns out that we will have to devote substantial effort and funds to host training sessions, send farmers to a two-week livestock training institute, or come up with some combination of both educational methods. Our training plan will consist primarily of a training of trainers; those who receive the first round of training by means of our funding will be responsible for relaying information to their contemporaries in Shimbwe. We are considering integrating this training of trainers into our Grameen approach by assigning either the initial or ultimate loan in each group of five to trained trainers.

Feeding, housing and security, treatment, and breeding are the four critical issues that dictate the success of a livestock project, including milk production and longevity of animals involved. While we believe that families who are loaned animals will be responsible for feeding the livestock, milking it twice a day, and cleaning its faeces. However, the question remains: who is responsible at the central farm at Sia Primary School? We're hoping to have the government provide a vet to visit the animals once every two weeks or potentially have the local Shimbwe vet provide pro bono services and technical advice. Since our first meeting with Duma we have struggled with the question of whether to build a reinforced cement structure or to use a less durable wood frame. After yesterday's meetings, we are leaning heavily toward the latter option. Mr. Ringo suggested that poor community members might perceive an out-of-place cement structure as gaudy and serve as an inadvertent symbol of our projects' elite nature and inaccessibility. Furthermore, he said that committed thieves will find a way to penetrate a structure regardless of its material composition. This renders the question of saving costs by eliminating the need for a nightwatchman moot. Dr. Taxi of Heifer seconded Ringo's perspective, suggesting we use whatever materials are locally available.

After a long and extremely educational day, the memory of the Herbs and Spice advertisement lingered on our minds. We decided to treat ourselves to Ethiopian food - a delicacy anywhere in the world that gets better and better the closer you get to Ethiopia itself (notes from the motherland of Ethiopian fare pending our prospective visit). We didn't have to look at the menu for more than once before deciding to down the combo meat plate, a selection of ground and boned beefs, chicken, and lamb in a splendid smorgasbord of spicy red and yellow sauces. These delights were served in small dishes over a traditional flat and spongy sourdough. After guzzling two meat-loaded rolls of bread apiece, we dumped the remaining sauces onto the dough unfurled over the serving platter. These too we attacked with abandon stoked by weeks of involuntary vegetarianism.

Passed the closing hours of the Rwandan genocide tribunal, we promised to return another day and speed-walked towards the bus station to get out of Arusha before dusk. Walking along the sidewalk (a revolutionary innovation compared with Moshi), a man in a purple sweatsuit straight out of Tony Soprano's wardrobe ran towards us as we crossed a bridge. Rather than averting Sam, the athlete clenched his fists, drew his arms to his chest, and unloaded them into Sam's. With ninja-like speed and elephantesque strength, Sam caught the gentleman's double-strike with open palms and hurled him over the gleaming rail into the furiously foaming level-five rapid below. But with a ravishing flourish of Ghandi-like forgiveness and Chuck Norris-level athleticism, Sam hung one leg over the railing, caught his assailant by a bunch of purple sweatshirt over his chest, and deposited him safely on the other side of the bridge. Without acknowledging the incident, we walked onwards to the bus station avoiding salesman of safaris and illicit drugs alike.

Safely on board the bus, Jake and Sam waited for it to fill. Readers of Sam's Uganda blog may recall when a live chicken was placed directly under his legs for a three hour drive. Apparently, he can live countries but not conditions. Sam sighed when a teenager holding a clucking chicken sat adjacent to him. However, Sam was luckier than the gentleman seated left of the chicken, who spent a large part of the bus ride with a roll of chicken drool tacked to his overcoat.

Our Thanks and Gratitude

We would like to offer our thanks and gratitude to the following people for helping make this project happen:

Deb Boltas and Hanalyn Davies, Deborah Fried, Mr. and Mrs. Gelband, Paul Gelburd, James and Nancy Goldstein, Nancy Guarisco and Alan Orland, Ellen Kanatt and Fred Groen, The Hamill Family, Paul Hanson, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, Amit Oren, Karin Render, Paullette Rosen and Michael Volmar, Janet and Seth Rosenberg, Nancy and Adam Rosenberg, Jeanne Steiner and Will Rosenblatt, Michelle Sugg, Ellen Schwartz, Defne Veral, and Mr. and Mrs. Workman.

Our main benefactor:
The Katherine Wasserman Davis Foundation

And of course, our parents.

Our First Visit to Shimbwe, and a Promotion

Jake:

For the first time on this present visit, Sam and I went to Shimbwe.

Checking whatever jet lag remained at the flaps of our mosquito nets, Sam and I sprang out of bed at 7 am and made our way to Duma's meeting spot at the YMCA at 730. Duma was hosting a blood pressure clinic for elderly Shimbwe residents. about twenty European, American, and Australian volunteers and guests of volunteers greeted us on arrival. Last year, Frida and I traveled to Shimbwe in dala dalas packed with native early-morning travelers. Now, on at least some days, volunteers are capable of filling a public van themselves. This speaks to the organization's sustained growth through increasing popular awareness. The rest of the day would confirm my predilection that our numbers were uncalled for. I don't mean to toot my own horn: aside from introducing Sam to community members and village leaders, who will play a key role in our project, I counted us among the expendable majority.

Outside the blood pressure clinic, which was held in a daycare center that Duma furnished, about ten local workers laid the cement foundation for a new health center the government is erecting in Shimbwe. Shoeless, they shoveled gravel and lugged dirt in buckets through a light but chilly rain. Almost The clinic itself was was a medical assembly line consisting of various stations through which patients passed on their way out the door. Canadian medical students took blood pressures, Sam and others measured BMI's, and a Tanzanian physician saw individual patients, made recommendations, and prescribed treatments. Fumbling aimlessly for a task, myself and some travelers who were visiting Duma agreed it might be best for us to leave. Confirming our suspicions, Lauren, the volunteer in charge of the clinic, discharged five of us to find some food. We climbed Shimbwe's central road until we arrived at a small bar. Corn and wheat flour patties called chapati where the only nourishment available. We ordered two rounds. Stale margarine leaked from the first stack. The next five still trapped heat, but I'm still waiting for my first chapati hot off the stove.

I also told Freddie and Clementi, two government leaders, that Sam and I had arrived ready to execute some of the plans I had discussed with them last summer. I did it in Swahili and like to think they were impressed my new Swahili prowess. Mostly, they just seemed excited to kick-start the project. Freddie also told us he thought it would be safe for us to live in the village, and that he would be willing to watch out for us should we choose to move there.

Until yesterday, our project was barely more than a well-informed concept. Now, the physical layout of the farm, the kinds of financial products it is going to offer, and the social machinery necessary to run the farm and deliver the loans are necessarily coming into view. I envision this as involving two weeks of intensive research on gestation periods, upkeep costs, and profit margins for the various species of farm animals under consideration. We hope community members will ultimately dictate the animals available on the farm. We will elicit their opinions through focus group discussions and village forums we plan to schedule over the next two weeks. By next Friday, we are responsible for submitting a report outlining the "ABCs" of the plan.

Sam:

Jake and I took the first of what will be many trips to Shimbwe, waking up at the crack of dawn though not earlier than our roommate, who has taken to drinking and snoring less.

Hopping into a dala dala packed with other mzungus, we began the journey up Mt. Kili. Dala dalas, like taxis in Uganda, are medium-sized vans that follow specific routes at which you disembark. Dala dalas are like taxis in Uganda but on crack. Whereas in Uganda, taxis were filled to the brim, they still followed strict occupancy limits, which police officers enforced stringently. The dala dalas, however, are more like clown cars in a Chinese circus. When we picked up two Tanzanians at the foot of Mt. Kili, the conductor (who collects fares) took to riding outside the dala dala. Besides Ugandan boda bodas (motorcycle taxis), dala dalas have to be the least safe method of transportation in existence. Oh yeah, our cargo included gallons of gasoline, just for kicks. These vans are literally moving firebombs.

The road up to Shimbwe is beautiful with corn, banana trees, and other flora lining the roads. As we went higher, a small divot by the side of the road was all that separated us from a deep valley. Riding up, volunteers waited anxiously to see whether we would make it beyond one stretch of road that becomes impassable during the rain, which it was. Duma volunteers recalled stories of walking up to Shimbwe on rainy days when the dala dalas couldn't make it beyond the initial ascent. We were happy to make it all the way to the top and even happier when the jugs of gasoline were removed from the trunk.

We set up shop in a day care center built by past volunteers. A rival day care, recently built and managed by Tanzanians, has left this one empty. Some volunteers were upset and felt that their hard work had gone to naught, but others optimistically saw the rival center as evidence of development and the kind of competition that gives rise to a robust capitalism. The residents of Shimbwe may have realized the demand in the market and figured they could do just as good a job themselves. I agree. The flaw with so many NGOs and development agencies is their false presumption that progress means providing more services. On the contrary, a good development agency should see success as a continuously diminished role.

Community members had their blood pressure measured by three Canadian medical students, who didn't look a day older than 13, and then had their height and weight taken so we could measure their BMI. Based on the numbers, community members were referred to an adjacent health specialist and doctor, if necessary. Duma was able to provide discounted medications, courtesy of a government program, to help community members lower their blood pressure. Apparently, Americans and Tanzanians both share a desire for a pill rather than preventative care.

Adjacent to the day care center, laborers were breaking ground for the construction of a new health care center. One of the workers was an albino, a sight not uncommon here. In Tanzania as in Uganda, albinos in rural areas are often in danger because their body parts prove valuable, macabre commodities for sale to witch doctors.

The rain meant that fewer people came and those who did more slowly. Jake and I, along with three volunteers from North Carolina, walked further up the road and dined on chapati, a tasty bread that I hadn't had since Uganda. Packing up, some of the volunteers started the long descent down the mountain with hopes that a dala dala would pick us up. We made it halfway down the mountain before one passed us and was too full to take us. By the time a second one came, we were close enough to home that it wasn't worth it. After the two hour hike ravaged our calves, Jake and I felt comfortable skipping the day's run and treated ourselves to a Tanzanian beer called Safari, which our roommate told us was a "gangster beer." Though delicious and cold, I still have fond memories of Nile Specials and their above average alcohol content.

Both of us:

After the beers, we retired to the chairs in front of our house for some easy reading. Jake continued War and Peace, and Sam, finishing Dead Aid (expect a review shortly), embarked on Bill Clinton's My Life. We were interrupted by a string five text messages sent to both of our phones. The message, from Duma head Francis, let us know we had been officially instated as Directors of Duma's Economic Department. We are to replace Lexi, a young Brit who is continuing her travels in Vietnam. Besides the resume builder, the position puts us in charge of another animal loaning project with distinctly different financing methods than our own. We accepted the position intending to dispense of our responsibility for the pig project using our new found powers of delegation. In addition, Francis requested a detailed report on the fundamentals of our project to be submitted to Duma's management team and for use in creating a memorandum of understanding with the Sia School staff. Using the diplomatic skills we perfected during our four years at Bates College, we got a one-week extension that will allow us to do much research.

Today, we were off. Voluntarily waking up at 8 a.m., we hit the 3.5 mile point in our pursuit of ten. Runners, please advise as to how to train. We have six months, unlimited ambition, and almost as much dedication to match. We've enjoyed a relaxing day and following our morning trek, have replenished our bodies with healthy portions of rndizi (bananas) and mshikaki (cow) roasted on a busy street corner. We have since taken refuge in what seems to be a whites-only coffee shop with western-style toilets (read: plastic seats intact) hedging against likely cases of indigestion. We will continue to run to work on our abs, but thus far the evidence shows that at least our intestines are cut from iron.