Got up early this morning and spent a relaxing forty minutes answering facebook messages and emails until the breakfast bell rang. On the schedule for today was only one subject: Environmental Policy. As I mentioned yesterday we learned about PRA (parcipatory rural analysis) in EP class and today we got to try it out in the real world. The students were broken into four groups and each given a different task. My group (group 2) was assigned to walk along a certain track and ask farmers we saw about their crops (how much water do they need, how is the market for them, are they hard to grow, how long of a shelf life do they have etc). Our translator was Paolo, one of the staff members from camp that everyone is fond of and everyone in the village knows him. We set off down into town, crossed the road, passed the new local dispensary, and entered into farm country. We first stopped at Paolo’s relatives’ place so he could say hi and we could poke around a bit. This was super awesome since their dog recently had puppies, there were some younger pigs running around, and one of the young women living there (who’s name was Margaret-small world) had a several month old baby. Lots to ooo and ahhh at. After spending far too much time there we continued on down our track to find farmers to chat with. We found several people to talk to and got lots of opinions on the various crops that they grow. On our way back we again stopped at Paolo’s relatives’ place to pet the puppies and ask the husband his opinions on crops. In the afternoon we had a two hour EP class on the role of wildlife management areas on the conservation goals of Tanzania. Despite my efforts I still do not find this class stimulating unless we are doing field work. So two hours went by agonizingly slowly. However after class the building group from yesterday walked to the school to actually do the job we went to do yesterday. The builder was there and the kids were there and staring at us as usual. We had the kids fill lots of buckets of water and we began mixing the cement on the floor. I have never appreciated cement mixers before now. Our beautifully mixed pile from yesterday quickly got heavy and very difficult to mix evenly while we were trying to preserve as much water as possible. Thank heaven there were eight of us so we could take turns. Only a few minutes in and your back starts aching, and the stuff doesn’t look any different from when you started. We got it done and their stove look gorgeous but my back is paying for it. Upon returning to camp, I finished my third book, played several hand of phase ten, and learned that we were having a goat roast. So here I am full of dinner, goat meat, and marshmallows toasted over the fire. I still have to study for our Swahili test tomorrow and begin writing my paper.
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