an inspiring group of farmers

Hello everyone -

Today was a new an interesting day. Instead of sitting in offices and hearing about all the different technologies and strategies that various NGOs are implementing in various communities, we got to see some conservation efforts in action. We visiting a tree nursury at a man named Mr. Limo's house. Mr. Limo supplies trees, free of charge to villagers all around his area. He is also training farmers in soil and water conservation practices and was able to show us how he has implemented these practices on his own land. In the afternoon we headed back out to the Marangu area to visit an organization called Floresta which originated out of Santiago, California and now has offices in 5 countries in Latin America and Africa. Floresta has mobilized and organized 35 groups of farmers in various villages throughout the Kilimanjaro region. These groups are, in turn, organizing their own communities to plant trees, conserve water and soil, use fuel efficient stoves, promote small business, and otherwise conserve their environment. We had the opportunity to attend a group meeting this afternoon. They are very well organized and very dedicated to their efforts and excited to talk about them. When they heard we were working with biogas technology, they were very excited to learn about it and asked us to come back and train them in how to build digesters.

As we reexamined our schedule to see if we had time to come back and see their efforts in the field and to discuss biogas further, we were forced to consider the primary question of our trip: is biogas a good technology for this region. As I write this, Miriam and Natalie are posting about our experiences in Uru, that have, from my perspective, been inconclusive to date. Hopefully we'll be able to come to more of a conclusion after visiting the incomplete stoves in Uru tomorrow. In terms of this village farming group, every household has been using fuel efficient stoves for 2 years now and in doing so has been able to cut their time spent gathering firewood from 6 hrs, 4 times per week, to 5 hrs, once per week and are incredibly happy with the stoves as they use them for cooking and heating water and such. As we gather more information and talk to more people about their conservation efforts we are looking back at our technology and all the factors involved, including cost, assembly, results, impact on the environment among other factors. We definetly have to learn more and are excited to head to Dar this weekend and talk to Professor Frederk Godfrey, a watson scholar, and other NGOs and government organizations about our work.

hope all is well!
Melea