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Karibu! by Tyler Jackson


Nane-Nane
I’ve been working at the Twende Innovation Center in Arusha, Tanzania. The center is located in an area dubbed “nane-nane,” which means 8-8. An agricultural festival takes place here every August, and there are lots of ag-business ventures located here. The grounds are very well kept, and little shops line the main street. It’s a short walk to Twende from the house I’m staying at, and we pass through many garden plots on our way there. It’s all very picture-esque. The innovation center is a hub for social innovation and simple technology solutions. They lead local innovative projects like drip irrigation kits and a bicycle powered maize-sheller while supporting other projects like the crop thresher that I have been researching. It’s quite a busy place to be in; my first day here an eco-tour group stopped in to check out all the projects happening there.

Twende

Every Wednesday they have a “happy-hour” where they do a team building activity. This is help foster community at the center. They buy lunch for everyone and someone from the center leads an activity. One day I was asked to lead the activity, so I thought it would be fun to play Telephone on Paper. In this game everyone gets a stack of blank cards. On the first card, you write a phrase, then pass the stack to the left. The next person reads the phrase, flips the card over and draws what they think the phrase looks like. Then they pass the stack to the next person, who then looks at the picture and writes what they think the phrase is. This continues until all the stacks have gone around, and the results are quite fantastic.

Telephone Game

 The happy hour is a nice mid-week break from working on compiling survey data. Everyone at Twende is very nice, and I have gotten used to getting around town on my own. I’ve even learned some useful phrases in Swahili. I’ve been invited to work at a conference next week and I’m looking forward to it!
The Crew



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