Hello from Tanzania and Mozambique

My dearest classmates…

I hope you are all happy with your summer experiences- mine is far exceeding expectations as I end almost every day exhausted, but feeling fulfilled in ways that were seriously lacking at USAID and Princeton. I am working with WWF (wildlife, not wrestling) currently traveling around Tanzania after having spent several weeks traveling Mozambique. At every turn I meet individuals from private sector (and a few from government) who are beyond eager to find ways of engaging with WWF to change the developmental implications of their investments throughout this area. It is wonderful to engage with them and brainstorm on both a concrete and a big-picture systemic level about how we can together be instrumental in encouraging holistic development. If I hadn’t already been convinced of the importance of engaging the private sector (which I was), I would have been converted.

Traveling and staying in hotels (from 4 star to small shacks with three walls) is starting to take its toll and I miss home. It is also the first time traveling in the developing world where I am so far removed from the daily lives of people since my primary mode of engagement (with people I am not paying for services) is professional.

However, I have made a few friends with random folks that have led to – running with a friend around a small city in northern Moz and having kids point and laugh and run with us for a few feet trying to figure out what I was and what I was running from, jumping in a fishing boat with someone I met walking down a calm deserted beach at sunrise, helping a group of nuns plant manioc, helping a rural family put palms on their roof of their new home, ending up in the WRONG part of town and having fun finding my way back, and finally- being taken appallingly seriously by government ministers, the head of the Moz army, BP and Chiquita in an idea I had to change forestry practices throughout Mozambique… stay tuned…

On a more mundane note- I can’t wait to get back to Mozambique at the end of next week and see Saskia and Georgina again- we are going off to a beautiful game park to look for crazy wild animals (other than each other)!

If you are bored feel free to check out my somewhat out-of-date and less analytical personal blog at http://mshmoztanz.blogspot.com/