I have been working here with a group of 14 students and volunteers from the US for about a week and a half. Thus far, we’ve begun work on a GSE financed microlending poultry project at Mzumbe Secondary, and we’ve broken ground on our garden project Kilalakala Secondary. We have been working alongside Tanzanian GSE students and we are learning about productive ways we can organize and collaborate with our friends here.

The most exciting news is that The Morogoro Youth Training Center is up and running! The MYTC is a facility that we have been designing with our Tanzanian partners throughout the past year. We have rented a beautiful space on the second floor of a building in downtown Morogoro where there are sweeping views of the Uluguru Mountians. Our Califronia members have brought over 25 computers, and a projector for the computer training courses we will offer here. The center will benefit local GSE students, and the Morogoro community as a source of computer training, and Internet access. The revenues generated from the project will benefit GSE Tanzania’s youth leadership courses, and pay local staff in Morogoro to facilitate after school workshops in partnership with 4 local secondary schools. The workshops will focus on health, rural/ agricultural development, computer training, youth leadership, and globalization (including communication with our students in California, Argentina, and Peru). Revenues will also be used as microloans to support the implementation of profit generating projects at participating high schools.

Challenges include: creating the computer network, installing air-conditioning, building the desks, negotiating the lease, training our staff, interviewing candidates for the receptionist position, configuring the network, as well as jumping through the countless bureaucratic hoops. The energy and shared beliefs of our supporters in the United States motivated us to succeed. The MYTC is a beautiful room, and over the past 4 days since we opened, customers are beginning to come in increasing numbers. We have communicated with many university students at Mzumbe University, and Sokoine University of Agriculture who are excited about volunteering for our organization here (which was registered as an official Tanzanian NGO in early May).

We have 2 and a half more weeks here in Morogoro with our ambassadorial group, and we look forward to spending more time working with the GSE Tanzania students and volunteers. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming and excited to work with us, and we’re all learning a lot. Thanks again to all our supporters, and rest assured that all of our hard work and dedication is paying off, and that we are establishing positive international relationships and making real grassroots development in our world.