It’s normal for a volunteer to come full-throttle to a new place, ready and gung-ho to start making moves immediately. In Tanzania, though, patience is essential.

As the western world scurries about preparing for Christmas, life is moving along here in Karatu. But despite the very slow nature of life in Tanzania, the past month has been a bit of a whirlwind.

The two loan trainings went great! With a huge turn out, Josephine, Ester, Levina, and Mary led enthralling lessons four days in a row. Our training follows the Women’s Microfinance Initiative model, in which groups of twenty women from the same village or area are separated into four groups of five neighbors.

On Monday Judy and Katharine headed into Arusha to greet Rachel Blackmore, the founder and UK Coordinator for Western Turville Wells for Tanzania (WTWT) who works in a neighboring Maasai village. Similar to NCN, WTWT focuses on a myriad of issues aimed at improving the lives of the Maasai people. We conferred, comparing our microloan programs and finding platforms to potentially work together.

We were lucky enough to get to travel into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area once again to buy beads to later sell in America. This was Katharine’s first time experiencing the delightful chaos that is buying beads. Almost one hundred women showed up, all part of the project, to sell beads to Judy.

Leonila Emanuel has been with the Tloma loan group since it originated, and has done all that she can to contribute to help the loan program run as effectively as possible. During trainings she provides lunch, she acts as Vice Chairwoman for the Tloma Community Organization (TCO) board.