Back in Mbeya

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It's a lovely evening in Mbeya and I have a decent internet connection! Yesterday afternoon, evening, and night were really rainy, which made me feel like I was back in Baltimore. But today has been very nice, despite some dark clouds that passed by.

So what have I been doing so far? I arrived at midnight on Sunday and then on Monday got picked up at 8am to go to the office.  The first two days were spent in the main office in Dar es Salaam working on logistics and talking about the assignment. 

On Wednesday I traveled to here, Mbeya, which is a 1.5 hour flight but with the driving and getting to the airport early, took most of the day. 


I had a short meeting once I arrived and then I checked into the hotel in the evening. This is the city I was in last year so I will be here a couple days to check in on progress made, challenges faced, and to offer advise. Then on Sunday I leave from here to Iringa. It will be a 5-6 hour car ride to get there I think. I'll be in Iringa for 2.5 weeks to do the same assignment there of assessing the trash and recycling situation and policies and to offer recommendations. 



I'm really enjoying being back here and seeing everyone again. We started the morning meeting with City officials. They gave me the chart of the 30+ recommendations I had made when I was last year with an additional column named "status." I was impressed to see that they have been making progress on many of the items. There is a new City Director and new Department Head since I was here last. It sounds like they are both very energetic. I hope to make them aware of the work we did and to gain their support for moving toward implementation. 


So far, I am settling in easier than I did last year, which I suppose is to be expected. I'm having some challenges sleeping but I think that will get easier. 

My hotel here has a nice menu, including many Indian food options. Both my hotel here and in Dar es Salaam had interesting breakfast options which I'm pretty sure were just leftovers from the previous evening's dinner. But I support not wasting food so I'm ok with eating vegetables and chicken wings along with my banana and coffee in the morning. They do have more normal breakfast food too, like eggs and french toast. 

So overall, things are going very well! Tomorrow we have meetings with the private sector, community groups, government officials, and a visit to the landfill. 

I do have texting and am able to receive calls for free from the US. I'll be checking my email as well. So feel free to reach out! Thanks for reading!






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