Cool Gardens in Mufindi
A relaxing day 1 mile up in the mountains of
Tanzania.
The day began with mist flowing through the valley
below the farm. Mufindi is at the heart of Tea Production in Tanzania. Unlike
the lower areas of Ruaha, it’s much cooler, lush, and more like San
Francisco...without all the noise. The Fox’s Farm is a 670 acre estate
complete with horses, crochet, golf, bikes, and fishing. A day after Ruaha,
it’s like taking a cool shower after a hot
day.
6:30am and Todd and Chantal are shooting away.
The Main House and the Cabin
Mwanga catching the view from the deck.
They least the farm from the Government for 99 years. No one owns land in Tanzania. It was an effort to curtail the problems in other countries (like Zimbabwe). If you misuse the land or don’t use it for what you promised...it can be taken away. While foreign for an American, it makes sense after I thought about it for a while. Especially given what is happening right now. The IMF has forced Tanzania to privatize most industries, which makes sense but the speed at which it happened, there was little control...South Africans now own everything. While Tanzania is growing quickly, foreign ownership will be the next challenge for the country.
A little Fox with a little Lamb.
The crew having fun with the new 4-wheeler
Todd...the unstoppable QTVR master (Kaidan)
Chantal catching the Tea Talk...
Anyway...
Saturday turned out to be fairly relaxed. We got up early to shoot morning shots but a dense covering of fog thwarted our plans. Instead, we settled in for a relaxed breakfast and a discussion of the DVD production with Bruce Fox, the head of PR for the family business. We found that our original plan of returning in November would not be feasible due to rains that will change the landscape. We also need to finish the DVD prior to a big tourism show in the UK in November. This revelation opened the discussion to how we would complete the project on time.
Tea as far as the eye can see....
The Elder Fox sharing the finer points of Tea Production with the Guests.
OK...we didn't work all the time...
Within a half hour, we had decided to send two teams to Tanzania. One will go in October to complete the disk. The second will go with me in November to focus more on training and the arts. A third team will come with me to Zimbabwe to build proof of concepts and continue training the ZIVA students. With Roddy hopefully joining us in San Francisco for the fall, the process is starting to really pick up speed.
I can’t wait to bring the Pixel Corps and production to areas like Mufindi. Obviously, not all of it is lush and free...I see media as an opportunity to transform education in remote locations. While this may seem unpractical...high-tech education will prepare the next generation to be able to seize the opportunities of a global information market. In that context, the cost of a few machines is trivial. Especially if the schools are being funded by production being generated locally.
Anyway, my training in Swahili and Shona should be complete about the same time the hubs in Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, and Harare are mature. I don’t see anyway to make it work if the trainers are not both technical and fluent in the local language. While I learn, I hope to train a small army of specialists in San Francisco to learn the language of the rural areas with me while bringing Pixel Corps members from these countries to San Francisco for intensive training in graphics and education media design. The cross pollination will be the key to success.
This requirement is what is driving our interest in creating super high-tech language training. As with most of dvGarage’s products, we are creating the disks not as products but because we need them.
6:30am and Todd and Chantal are shooting away.
The Main House and the Cabin
Mwanga catching the view from the deck.
They least the farm from the Government for 99 years. No one owns land in Tanzania. It was an effort to curtail the problems in other countries (like Zimbabwe). If you misuse the land or don’t use it for what you promised...it can be taken away. While foreign for an American, it makes sense after I thought about it for a while. Especially given what is happening right now. The IMF has forced Tanzania to privatize most industries, which makes sense but the speed at which it happened, there was little control...South Africans now own everything. While Tanzania is growing quickly, foreign ownership will be the next challenge for the country.
A little Fox with a little Lamb.
The crew having fun with the new 4-wheeler
Todd...the unstoppable QTVR master (Kaidan)
Chantal catching the Tea Talk...
Anyway...
Saturday turned out to be fairly relaxed. We got up early to shoot morning shots but a dense covering of fog thwarted our plans. Instead, we settled in for a relaxed breakfast and a discussion of the DVD production with Bruce Fox, the head of PR for the family business. We found that our original plan of returning in November would not be feasible due to rains that will change the landscape. We also need to finish the DVD prior to a big tourism show in the UK in November. This revelation opened the discussion to how we would complete the project on time.
Tea as far as the eye can see....
The Elder Fox sharing the finer points of Tea Production with the Guests.
OK...we didn't work all the time...
Within a half hour, we had decided to send two teams to Tanzania. One will go in October to complete the disk. The second will go with me in November to focus more on training and the arts. A third team will come with me to Zimbabwe to build proof of concepts and continue training the ZIVA students. With Roddy hopefully joining us in San Francisco for the fall, the process is starting to really pick up speed.
I can’t wait to bring the Pixel Corps and production to areas like Mufindi. Obviously, not all of it is lush and free...I see media as an opportunity to transform education in remote locations. While this may seem unpractical...high-tech education will prepare the next generation to be able to seize the opportunities of a global information market. In that context, the cost of a few machines is trivial. Especially if the schools are being funded by production being generated locally.
Anyway, my training in Swahili and Shona should be complete about the same time the hubs in Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, and Harare are mature. I don’t see anyway to make it work if the trainers are not both technical and fluent in the local language. While I learn, I hope to train a small army of specialists in San Francisco to learn the language of the rural areas with me while bringing Pixel Corps members from these countries to San Francisco for intensive training in graphics and education media design. The cross pollination will be the key to success.
This requirement is what is driving our interest in creating super high-tech language training. As with most of dvGarage’s products, we are creating the disks not as products but because we need them.
Posted: Sat - July 26, 2003 at 09:41 PM Africa, Summer (Winter) 2003 Email Comments
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Total entries in this blog: 31
Total entries in this category: 31
Published On: Aug 05, 2003 10:45 AM
Total entries in this category: 31
Published On: Aug 05, 2003 10:45 AM