Arrived at ADRA

ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency, http://www.adratz.org/) is the sponsoring partner organisation VSA has arranged for us to work with while in Africa. We arrived at the ADRA campus on Monday afternoon. It is a campus surrounded by a high wall for security purposes and with 24 hour security. We had great expectations of getting on the internet once here as they have a large wide area wireless ADSL network across the campus. The first day, we got on the internet for about 10 mins then it froze. We find out is it a general power outage. These are common it seems across the country as there is not the generation capacity to meet demand. I read in the paper that it was costing the Tanzanian government $2M a day for these power outages and lost productivity! ADRA have back up generators for the campus, however we found out their UPS’ back up battery had failed and with any power fluctuations from the generator, the UPS would disconnect but not reconnect. There is a Danish education school next door and they have a computer lab which Max’s wife said we could use. We went up there and it was OK but painfully slow, would freeze often. When we came back after dark the power was back on so the internet was up. So good to get connected again as our Australian affairs are backing up.
Thursday we caught a daladala into town to buy a replacement battery for the UPS, to look at a vehicle to possibly purchase and get groceries from the Shoprite store. The power was off most of the day in Usa and in Arusha we learned and the generator was on we returned. We replaced the battery and had webmail on internet that night.
There is a baby home on the ADRA campus run by Davona, Max’s wife, plus a set of cottages or roundels for accommodation for tourists or guests. One has an open plan kitchen dining area with TV with a satellite connection with channels like CNN, BBC news etc. The roundels are split down the middle making a separate accommodation on each side. (We had breakfast one morning at the same time CNN was on & heard USA president-elect Obama’s “acceptance” speech. Ramona did get to vote absentee before we left Melbourne so she was glad about that.) There is also a laundry on the other side of the dining roundel with washer and dryer. Plus a clothes line outside which we will mostly use I’m sure. We’ll be sharing the kitchen with any others (tourists, guests). All in all a good setup. We changed our roundel room around a bit to add a big table to set the computers, printer, phone charges up on etc, to make a good work station.

Also on the campus there is a furniture making section. They make nice wooden furniture for sale to various businesses and organisations. They make just about any piece it seems. Cupboards, dressers, beds, tables etc. Part of Ramona's project is to try and help further market the roundels and this furniture section to see if we can increase sales of these items for ADRA.

On his return from Nairobi last week, we met the Tanzanian ADRA director, Max. Max is from the USA but lived in Africa for the last 25 years and has worked with ADRA for quite a few years. He spoke to us about his plans and what we can get involved in. It was good to hear. We ended up chatting to him for about 2 hours about his projects. He is quite humorous, very friendly, and has some big plans, some good engineering ones too from mini hydro power generation, to water bore drilling and water supply to water deficient villages. Other plans he has are on human care, like aids prevention & education, coordinating the accounting side of the various orphanages around and orphan supplemental care. He has two big water projects on the go, one is for about 12 water wells and the other is 120 water wells. Both encompass other aspects like hygiene and education so the people get to use the water properly and not get sick at times. Another guy (from the USA), now coordinating a program in Zambia, is here at the moment as one of Max’s water projects is shared with him. He was all excited about VSA, he said “you mean I can get experienced people for almost free?” This discussion was a good beginning focus for us.