Well things are going relatively smoothly so far. I am now situated in the office which is set in Downtown Dar. There are about 10-15 people in the office, mostly tanzanians with a few scattered volunteers from the US. The project has started to make more sense in my head and the more I learn the more I am impressed with its design and sustainability.
The funding, although from the USG is funneled through a non profit which provides the logistical partnerships with an American Institution and a Tanzanian Institution . I am part of one of five partnerships in TZ (they have a social work partnership, lab partnership, substance abuse partnership, nurse partnership (me)). They also have partnerships in Ethiopia, Nigeria, SA, and some other countries. All partnership projects are HIV/AIDS related. The idea in the partnership is very collaborative with the host country (TZ) directing what expertise they would like from the partnering country (US). The idea is to be capacity building the current country so that when the partnership eventually ends, we have not left a hole instead have built a strong infrastructure, team of workers so current projects can be maintained by host countries. The Nurse project has about 5 different themes and is quite complicated.
The overall idea is to build the HIV/AIDS education of new nurse graduates in Tanzania (so we are working with all 68! nurse trainee schools) but we have a lot of projects that are working on this major program outcome. For example a mobile library project that is delivering HIV/AIDS books and resources in shipping containers (Go Danny!) to schools, the HIV/AIDS curriculum which we are integrating into current curriculum, training of faculty members in school, increasing the capacity of current nursing schools through infrastructure development, long term planning with the Tanzania Nurse and Midwifery Council on the direction and education of Nursing Education and a few more that I haven't even got my head around. My to do list is long!
Dar is a nice city, though right now is quite sickly hot (34 C at night) so I have a tendency to melt after walking around for an hour or two. Apt is quite sweet, about a 20-30 minute walk down dirt roads to the office. I have a local bar across the street where I had a Tusker and watched a footie match. I believe my neighbors are english (heard voices yesterday) so will have to go introduce myself. The askari 'Jon' is hilarious, speaks very little english and is (I'm not joking) about 4'11" but the place is very secure so I'm sure he wont have to take on any attackers. The houseboy is on holiday, I have yet to meet.
I believe I am starting my Swahili school today at lunch with a volunteer. Will keep you posted.
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