Last Day in Mbeya

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The last week has been very busy. On the 13th and 14th we held public private dialogues which had great participation. I completed some other interviews and then frantically worked on getting my report done. The report gives and assessment of the waste situation, recommendations for improvements, and strategies to achieve those improvements. My report, along with my notes from all the meetings, site visits, and interviews, is almost 70 pages single spaced. It's been a lot to pull together. Now I just need to fix up my works cited page, create a table of contents, and do some general editing.

This morning I presented my assessment and recommendations to the city officials and it went very well. I did a short Powerpoint presentation and I went through the chart or recommendations in the report. It seemed like they were very interested in some of the ideas. We have formed a small implementation team of both public and private sector representations to look at the recommendations and create an action plan for moving forward.  I am hopeful that this team will make some progress quickly. I've been fortunate to work with some amazing, committed individuals. Here is a photo of the group I gave the briefing to:




It's my last night in Mbeya and I am sad to be leaving. I really love it here. The people have been so nice, the setting amazingly beautiful, the weather perfect, and the work very interesting and rewarding. One of my favorite things here has been hiking on the paths near the hotel. It's such a beautiful area.  Going for a walk or hike in this nice weather has been a wonderful way to start and end the day.




The hotel itself has also been wonderful, not only because of the beautiful setting but also the very kind and friendly people who work here. The hotel manager even came along to a national park with me one day. The sunset every evening has been really nice:


So tomorrow I go back to Dar es Salaam and on Wednesday I do my exit debriefing where I present on my project to the leadership team there. This trip has gone by very quickly.

The last two weekends I was able to do some trips to national parks, both of which were really incredible. I will post photos from those later. On the 12th I went to Kitulo National Park which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life, and to Lake Ngozi, which is a crater lake on top of a mountain. This past weekend I went to Ruaha National Park which has all the major animals - lions, elephants, hippos, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, buffalo, antelope, etc., and we saw all of those animals! It was a very long trip there and very hot in the park but an amazing experience.



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