Thursday, June 24, 2004
Right now, I’m pooped.
I was scrambling all day today, trying to locate material for the Life Opportunity Club. Visited the Junior Achievement League, the Enterprise Development Center and the International Labor Organization, all in different parts of Dar. Each has some programs of interest going and they are glad to talk about them, but they get vague and spacey when you ask for actual copies of their stuff to help guide us in preparing our own business startup course. Start talking about copyrights and things. There were offers to send stuff later – and I’ll believe that when I see it. I am left with a ton of followup to do: thank you letters, request reminders and things. Wonder how this will mesh with class preparations, mixed with reporting to my University guys and getting back in touch with the Mwanza Rotary Club. Well, I guess it won’t be dull.
Also, I again dropped in at the Shia mosque downtown. If you’ve been reading this blog for a long time you might remember that I had a discussion with the Imam the last time I was in Dar, back in November. I wanted to see him again and find out more about their school curriculum. He wasn’t there, but this time the visit felt very uncomfortable. I was again treated with the same welcoming friendship, but had to walk by, and wait near, a very large display of gruesome photographs of war-mutilated Iraqi civilians, each one captioned with quotes from Rumsfeld and Bush about the better lives, freedom and security that the US has brought to Iraq. Especially, young boys were gathered around, studying the pictures.
Tomorrow morning I repack all my stuff so my big suitcase meets the PrecisionAir weight limit, and then I’m back to Mwanza.
I was scrambling all day today, trying to locate material for the Life Opportunity Club. Visited the Junior Achievement League, the Enterprise Development Center and the International Labor Organization, all in different parts of Dar. Each has some programs of interest going and they are glad to talk about them, but they get vague and spacey when you ask for actual copies of their stuff to help guide us in preparing our own business startup course. Start talking about copyrights and things. There were offers to send stuff later – and I’ll believe that when I see it. I am left with a ton of followup to do: thank you letters, request reminders and things. Wonder how this will mesh with class preparations, mixed with reporting to my University guys and getting back in touch with the Mwanza Rotary Club. Well, I guess it won’t be dull.
Also, I again dropped in at the Shia mosque downtown. If you’ve been reading this blog for a long time you might remember that I had a discussion with the Imam the last time I was in Dar, back in November. I wanted to see him again and find out more about their school curriculum. He wasn’t there, but this time the visit felt very uncomfortable. I was again treated with the same welcoming friendship, but had to walk by, and wait near, a very large display of gruesome photographs of war-mutilated Iraqi civilians, each one captioned with quotes from Rumsfeld and Bush about the better lives, freedom and security that the US has brought to Iraq. Especially, young boys were gathered around, studying the pictures.
Tomorrow morning I repack all my stuff so my big suitcase meets the PrecisionAir weight limit, and then I’m back to Mwanza.
