The focus of this photo journal entry is "The People". What could possibly be more interesting than people? We start with a compelling photo of a young girl transporting a small bag on her head. The caption asks you to imagine your life activities and then replace 75% of them with the one activity of transporting things from Point A to Point B. Walking. Mostly this activity 'belongs' to the girls we know who walk between 4-7 miles per day to fetch water. One upside is the galvanized friendships forged on the walk. The downsides are too numerous to mention in this blog but two biggies are 1) not being able to attend school and 2) roadside dangers some of which result in pregnancy. On a lighter note, don't miss the faces of the child-onlookers who ... read more

The focus of this photo journal entry is the second entry on "Foods". See previous blog for particulars of crops of Karagwe - beautiful banana, coffee, pineapple, sugar, avacado, tomato, potato, cassava, maize, papaya, mango, and trees to name some staples. As I said in my last entry, challenges, due to limited broad-based understanding of some basics such as pest control, irrigation, mulching, crop rotation, seed selection, and marketing strategies, include the farmers not getting large yields or returns on their harvested crops. Most are subsistence farmers aching for new ways to go about crop production, crop conservation, and harvest-to-market techniques. This is where the comprehensive plan for KARUCO - Karagwe University College comes in. Dr. Benson Bagonza founded KARUCO - Karagwe University College to address the need for improved agriculture. His concept ... read more

The focus of this second photo journal entry is "KAYANGA TOWN 2", where Educate Tanzania does most of its work in Karagwe. As I shared in my last entry, Kayanga is a center of activity and home to the Kayanga Hotel where we stay; eat; meet with business and community leaders; attend church (see blog "KARUCO AG TAG" for details on the 4-hour church service); shop; meet friends; find taxis to neighboring towns; and walk to visit friends in their homes. Kayanga is about 7 km from the KARUCO site - an easy access. OVERVIEW: Join Educate Tanzania on a tour of Karagwe using the beautiful images of Ashley Miller of AshMill Photography in Nashville, Tennessee. Ashley volunteered to accompany Educate Tanzania Inc. (ETI) in January, 2013 as ETI led a team of curriculum developers from ... read more

I am home. No matter where I have been and no matter how good the trip has been, it is always a joy to return home. Steve met me at the airport with some of my favorite things (including the latest family news, a winter coat and a Diet Coke). Great to see him. Thank you for following the blog. I will fill in a few entries that I was unable to upload in Tanzania so you will see a few out of order entries. I will also include photos you haven't seen since I could not upload as many as I would have liked. (It took four hours to upload 2 entries.) AND tune in next time when Educate Tanzania takes another step toward building KARUCO. Stay with us on this exciting adventure! SPECIAL THANKS ... read more

Best road trip ever to Uganda. What are the odds that just as you and your Land Cruiser full (as in 4 people on the back seat, 3 grown men on the middle, and 3 of us in the front) happen upon a bend in the rutty, bumpy, dust road under construction - just as a large excavator (crane-type shovel) operated by a frustrated Chinese construction worker, would dig a channel crosswise in the road, making way for a large culvert? Seriously - what are the odds? I took one look and knew we would be delayed for quite some time. In Africa, I accept these things. In the U.S.- not so much. I did not like the cavalier attitude toward the on-lookers and the way the operator challenged them with the big machine. I also ... read more