Pfenninger.org

I am currently doing an internship with CHEMA in Tanzania's northwestern Kagera region. Check their web site for a location map. CHEMA stands for Community Habitat Environmental Management Programme, and is a local NGO that does mostly forestry and agriculture-related development work. It is a part of the local Catholic Diocese's development program.

We took the plane through Dubai to Dar Es Salaam. After an overnight stay in a islamic hostel somewhere in a suburb, we took an early morning flight from Dar to Mwanza. In Mwanza we had to wait the entire day, as our ticket reservation had apparently not gone through. Finally, just before sunset, this plane took us from Mwanza to Bukoba across Lake Victoria. Becasue driving cross-country is too dangerous overnight, we had to stay another night in Bukoba. From Bukoba, it was a 2-hour drive in a jeep across unpaved roads to reach our current location: Bugene, Kagera Region, Tanzania.

Our house. Solar panels on the roof are not working, but we are hooked up to the electrical grid, which provides power most of the time (although the power comes from coal plants in Uganda). The house is located right next to CHEMA's office and was constructed almost 20 years ago for the German consultant who started the whole project. There was running water in the kitchen and bathrooms but it is not working anymore, so we have to fill water buckets from the two rainwater tanks. Still, it's a very nice and comfortable house.

The office. On the left side, the satellite dish is visible, which provides a 64kbit/s satellite uplink. Not exactly broadband...

Views from the house in the morning...

View across the hills from a path just below our house. We're at about 1600 meters above sea level here, and the terrain is quite hilly. It can also get quite cool and windy during the night.

On the road...

A choir contest organized by local churches. Religion is very important here. Also, most development work is done through church-based organizations. Even the local hospital was built by a church (but is now at least partly government-run). Practically speaking, even though most people are either Christian or Muslim, there is still a lot left from the previous religions, belief in ghosts, rainmaking, etc.

So far, I have been working mostly at the HQ on various tasks, including propping up the IT system which is plagued by the slow internet connection, a multitude of viruses, and a general lack of a proper setup. Soon we will start to go out into the field to look at what's actually being done right now. The idea is to get carbon trading going in one way or another to support the various fledgling development efforts.