ATA Party Night Before Leaving - Whoops!

This is part of our awesome team, Ryan, Diana, me and Paul.  Patrick, Rob, Kathleen and Lore were unable to make it due to bad weather and sickness.  I had the bright idea to schedule a party for my company the night before we left and thought I was smart getting Ryan to agree to being a designated driver.  It was smart to get the designated driver but unfortunately I thought this would allow me to happily agree to the "shots" Paul would be pushing all night long.  I had a great time but next morning I was crushed and needed to leave for the airport by 11 AM  with about 5 hours of work to do.  Note to self:  Do not agree to let kids do sleepovers the night before leaving for 7 months. 

4 Weeks Left

The excitement is growing.  Just under 4 weeks left until we leave for Tanzania.

 

Holy cow has it been an enormous amount of work to get ready for this type of undertaking.  Put simply, this is by far the biggest undertaking of my life and my wife and I are extremely busy with getting ready for this trip.  What is interesting to me is how it all is coming together and that is what I would like to share with you.

One of my hopes was to mentor technology professionals and businesses in this part of the world but things have changed since I was there 4 years ago.  The government is not as welcoming to international volunteer assistance as they once were.  One of the techniques the government has implemented is to charge $200 for volunteer permit visas.  I have heard that they are charging more if you intend to volunteer in the medical community.   One of the reasons is that good intentioned volunteers are taking jobs away from Tanzanians.  This makes sense and it is a valid concern.  At our Rotary meeting in Evergreen two weeks ago we listened to World Bicycle Relief speak and they are manufacturing bikes in Africa by Africans.  They have many people, bike mechanics for example, who want to go over and volunteer and help but their help is turned away for the reason mentioned above.  World Bicycle Relief has manufacturing facilities, including in Tanzania, that have 100 workers, 98 of which are local. 

I don’t pretend to understand the needs of Tanzania but I believe, and have been told, that they welcome knowledge and advice that helps them be better at what they do.  In other words, they welcome education.  This type of volunteering interests me but what I have discovered is that to do this with businesses requires a special Consultant Visa that is $2,000.  One of my original hopes was to look into international business opportunities for my  company but have found out that this is called a Business Investment Visa and there is a $300,000 investment needed.  Ouch!  We have a tight budget for this trip that does not include paying 2K, much less 300K, to help other businesses and look into business opportunities. 

So what does this all mean?  At the present time I am going to go into Tanzania with Tourist Visas for myself and my family which are very reasonable.  Here is my understanding of a Tourist Visa:

• I’ll spend a lot of time with my wife and kids.  
• I won’t be able to volunteer or work in Tanzania under this type of visa but I can explore opportunities when I get there. 
• I’m pretty sure I can meet with businesses to find out what they do and what their needs and challenges are currently.  I just can’t start helping to address their challenges. 
• Jim Jackson, the founder of Project CURE which provides medical supplies to hospitals and clinics around the world, is very emphatic about asking people what they need and if you can help them with their needs then it makes everything easier.  I imagine this includes getting the appropriate visas to help if necessary. 
• I’ll regularly visit Rotary Clubs (there are 3 nearby).
• I intend to visit many of the non-profit funded entities that exist over in Arusha to see how they are managing.  There are hospitals and schools that our town of Evergreen is very invested in, I’ve been told that in the last 15 years 300 people from our small community have visited and many, many more have donated toward these very amazing institutions.
• GoAbroad.com is an organization that, in Tanzania alone, has 100 organizations offering a total of 274 volunteer opportunities (http://www.goabroad.com/volunteer-abroad/search/tanzania/volunteer-abroad-1) and I intend to meet with many of these organizations to find out how business is going.  The owner of GoAbroad.com, Troy Peden, is the father of a boy who is a very close friend of my son.  We both have similar feelings toward International volunteering, he just happens to have successfully made it his full time job.

So in closing I am not exactly sure what our trip will look like.  What I do know is this.  One thing you can depend upon in Africa is that you cannot depend on anything. Stay tuned on what will actually happen!


What we need:

Our house in South Evergreen may still be available for rent, click here for more details.

Prayers for safe travel, a safe trip and for our dog, Frank, who will miss us terribly.