What can I say.
Goodbye Cat, you will be sorely missed and thank you for your hard work with STT. Yep, Cat has gone – left on the 1st July and Lesley her replacement has arrived, is settling in well and not long after arriving has gone to Kenya with Justin for 10 days. I for one am very much looking forward to the new stove design that they will bring back with them. Also have to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to my very best friend here Dr. Eunice as she is leaving Dodoma for very new and green pastures studying a postgraduate in paediatrics at the prestigious Makerere University in Uganda – CONGRATULATIONS EUNICE.
I said at the end of June, I really wanted a holiday before July and yeah! I have had a couple of weekends away to Dar es Salaam to visit my friend Eunice’s parents.
However, I have also had some official work trips to Dar es Salaam which have not come at a good time considering the all that is happening at the moment. Fortunately I have managed to balance things at work. I had to go to the Prime Minister’s Officer to make an application for ‘compliance’ so that STT can comply as an NGO under the new NGO Act. All NGOs have to do this exercise! Must say a big THANK YOU to Patron of STT Simba Mbenna who has helped enormously by directing me to the right offices and Ministerial buildings.
June has also seen me working with Trustee Bridgette Bridgewater on sourcing insulation material for a potential urban HRC project as well as pricing. The types of material we are currently looking at are foam, polystyrene, and dry grasses as well as plastic bags. Foam is turning out to be quite expensive while the cheapest material seems to be dry grasses. Justin and I took a trip to a village called Swaswa known as the major source of dry grass in Dodoma. And sure enough when we go there dry grass was all over the place – what we need to find out is if poor and middle class households are willing to buy a product which uses dry grass as an insulation material.
The four placements came at the beginning of July rather than the end of June to sign their programmes for their six week placements. They will start on the 23rd July, the week STT begins its new baseline research into the DEP II stove project – the findings will help inform the design of DEP III. All seem very keen and ready to get stuck and do lots of hard and physical work. They will also get involved in stove building – which will be very dirty work!
Well better get back to things here. Take care and see you all next month!
