KARUCO AG TAG - 2013 - THE TRIP BEGINS

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GATE G6 - MSP to AMS

Pedro Bidegaray, Jay Bell and I (from MN) are meeting Daniel Sherrard (from Costa Rica) in Tanzania. Our trip begins today. Our good friend and colleague, Brighton Katabaro emailed to wish us safe travels and to assure us that this will be a precious time.

The purpose of this trip to Karagwe, Tanzania is to co-create curriculum with the KARUCO Curriculum Development Team made up of professors and leaders from Minnesota, Costa Rica, and of course, Tanzania. We will interview all kinds of people connected to Agriculture - which is the focus of the university. We want to build a curriculum that doesn't just sit on a shelf. We don't want to waste people's time by creating something they memorize but don't implement. Instead we want a curriculum that is something they do. Everything that will be taught will be applied. The beauty is that the 1,000 acre campus holds plenty of room for students to learn in classrooms, or research 'barns', test plots, and animal research areas; and plenty of room to apply and practice what is learned. You get the idea - everything learned is applied. So the outcome is a graduate who knows how to implement relevant ideas related to Ag and Agri-business and will help grow the local economy through Agriculture. Over 90%!o(MISSING)f the people of Karagwe are farmers.

But first we need to get there. First flight - Amsterdam. Departing Tuesday, Jan 22nd. Then on to Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam. 30 hours travel to Dar. Then meetings in Dar with the Ministry of Agriculture. Then two more flights to Mwanza and Bukoba - then finally - the Land Rover to Kayanga. We should be at our final destination on January 25 around 6:00pm local time (9:00am CST).

Meanwhile, the ETI office functions carry on. Our fearless accountant, Lori is working on the end-of-year receipts and will have those to you shortly. Tom continues with grantwriting; Andre and Aara with the website and social media; and our committees with planning our annual fundraiser dinner on May 31st. Mark your calendar! But I digress. Don't want you to think that ETI is just me. We are a team.

I really like this new 'sit at a table' at the MSP gate. I splurged and ordered a cold Pellegrino from the iPad at the table. Never know when I'll be able to do that again. Juicing up the technology while you wait - this is good. I will try to connect again in Amsterdam but make no promises. Thanks for coming along.

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Comments

[Lori Duzan]

love it
Thanks for your first update. You crack me up!! Blessings on your journey, sister!