Snows of Mount Kilmanjaro

On the way to Dar Es Salam (early Oct 08) the plane passed over Mount Kilmanjaro. Here's what's left of the snows...

To the right is a photo of the mountain in snowier times.

Blown cellulose

We're moving along in construction of our homes! Yesterday Chom and I spent the day blowing cellulose insulation into the attic spaces of three homes. 14" deep, R-49. The cellulose is made of recycled newspaper with boric acid added as a fire retardant. It's a 2-person operation. One is manning a 4" diameter hose, spraying the insluation. The other is downstairs, constantly feeding the blower/agitator with 25 pound bales of cellulose. I was upstairs crouching in the attic space doing the blowing. To keep the dust down, I would keep the hose submerged. Cellulose would bubble and spurt up like lava.

We were glad to be inside! The rest of the crew (20 or so at the site yesterday) were out in the pouring rain, doing emergency repairs. It's the first heavy rain, and there was some damage to some of the intermediate plaster layers on the strawbale walls. Others were dealing with erosion helping direct water that was puddling dangerously in the newly bulldozed grounds.

We've also just started shingling!!! Come one, come all if you want to pound some nails.

View from the Kempinski Hotel in Dar Es Salam

Today's "Daily News" published in Dar Es Salam had a story with the following:

In 1998, a year before his death, Nyerere met with top level staff at the World Bank in Washington DC. The officals had asked him why he had failed in some of his political ambitions. His answer must have dismayed them. He answered: "The British Empire left us with 85 per cent illiteracy, two engineers, and 12 doctors. I left office 13 years ago. Then our per capita income was twice what it is today. We now have one third less children in our schools and public health and social services are in ruin. During these 13 years Tanzania has done everything the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have demanded."

I'm here in Tanzania right now working with as a World Bank consultant for the first time in my life. I'm helping the Tanzanian government put in place regulations that make it easier for renewable energy generators to connect to the grid and sell power to offset Tanzania's use of expensive diesel fuel for electricity generation. Seems like a win-win-win situation. Cheaper electricity. Less fossil fuels burned. Local people develop small scale projects so the money circulates within the economy rather than going to Saudi Arabia to purchase diesel.

Has the Bank changed? It seems that parts of it has, anyway.

Intern Gino, my sister-in-law Oy, and myself work on installing metal roofing on one of the Common Ground homes.

Working on the roof is great... when the weather is nice. Great views!

Our house is the vertical collection of 2x6's just to the left of the big green forklift thingey! It just leapt from a cement slab a few days ago. What a change! We are bewildered and excited to wander through the rooms to get a sense of the space.

Many of the homes in the Common Ground project have straw bale walls in place with plaster on them. Some have even got metal roofing on them. We've really enjoyed working on the site, and have set up a separate Common Ground blog for residents and interns to share thoughts, dreams, images.

Most saturdays we've been helping Ty and Sara to sell Thai icetea and coconut stickyrice at the Lopez Farmer's Market. Here's Ty in his chef's hat giving a free Thai language lesson to a patron.

4th of July

We went to see the 4th of July fireworks. The fireworks and the reflection on the water were beautiful!

Earlier in the day we were all in the parade. It's Lopez at its most diverse -- the hippies dressed in moss and cedar bark, all the way to the folks in black hummers with "God Bless the USA" stickers and flags. We found ourselves in the Friends of Lopez Island Pool (FLIP) -- with Sara dressed as a mermaid (throwing candy), Ty as Neptune (operating a water-blasting firearm), and Chom and Chris trailing behind blowing bubbles and waving a flag.