This post is out of order . . . I hit "publish" a few days ago, but evidently it didn't happen, since I noticed it was still in draft. So the events in this post happened before the post entitled Lyamungo and Miliesita. Love this internet :-)
Met up with Julie and Janet for the day. Sometimes I forget that this is Africa, and as a result, don't adjust my thinking accordingly.
Julie has taken off work for the week so she can spend the time with us. She is the woman who oversees and administers our school lunch programs and our micro loan program. Over the past few years, she has done a remarkable job of pulling together our ideas and fumbling attempts to make something work here in Tanzania, and she has turned them into very functional programs, well organized, well administered and successfully fulfilling the missions of both.
When we travel to TZ, we like to visit the schools where we sponsor lunches; we also try to include visits to some of our micro loan recipients. So our time with Julie is limited to the time she can get off work, and the schedules of everyone else. Yesterday, we wanted to settle our itinerary for the next few days first, before we moved on to other discussions. In my mind, this was a 10 minute process: list out where we want to go, map it out and be done.
But my mind neglected to take into account the tea, visiting, and discussion that accompanies any decisions. So, to make a long story short, we spent almost 3 hours settling the itinerary for the next couple of days. But we were out on the porch of Julie's home, in the garden with a nice breeze and birds singing, so it really was not a hardship!
Julie has organized a kind of community bank, much like the VICOBA concept of Floresta. The people who have micro loans meet once every three months. They have elected three people as officers. The officers are responsible for collecting the loan payments, depositing the money into the bank, and approving new loan recipients. Julie is the head honcho. She has a ledger page for each participant, complete with photo and description of the project the money is used for. She and the other elected folks meet each month to discuss any new loan applications. It seems to be working quite well; the only real delinquencies we have had on micro loans are the ones Asante made before Julie took over! We will visit some of the women tomorrow and Wednesday
Since Julie also manages the school lunch projects for us, she reviewed those programs. Obviously school lunches are near and dear to my heart so I always enjoy hearing about how these projects are working in the villages over here. We will visit the schools tomorrow and Wednesday.
The rest of the day was spent discussing some sizing issues with new skirt and jacket patterns, presenting Julie with a brand new laptop from Asante and hearing from a woman and her daughter who are requesting a partial scholarship to help her finish the equivalent of high school.
All in all, quite a productive day as well as a pleasant one.
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