We began the day with an hour tour toward the country side outside of Dar es Salaam with Shilla the contractor, Gwilla, our facilitator and mediator, and the SEED team. Although we were venturing to the edges of the city, the density of population remained. The roads shifted from paved to dirt, with the ever present foot-deep potholes, and motorcycle maniacs whipping by. We arrive to a washed out road,where Shilla told us our vehicles would no longer travel [one of the vehicles was submerged in mud up to the tire well, which we rescued using the bark of a banana tree]. Walking a kilometer along the road of farmers and small shops, we noticed everything surrounding us was edible; papaya, mango, banana, cashews, artichoke, chickens and cassava to name a few.
With a deep breath of contentment Shilla stopped in front of a planted field of potatoes, roughly measuring 30 meters by 100 meters. This is the site...it's amazingly gorgeous...we couldn't have imagined a location more beautiful and accepting for building the cost-effective dwelling which is SEED. The foliage painted landscape will provide the perfect controlled canvas for prototyping the common man's dwelling.
Spending some time soaking in the site (literally, we were all barefoot because of the heavy mud), documenting with pictures and site sketches, Gwilla and Shilla told us what we already knew; a heavy rain was encroaching fast. We started walking back to the vehicles, when the sky opened up. A local family let us huddle under their canopy, where we stood and watched the rains dump for a solid hour. The family probably had $10 to their name, yet they offered us their freshly uprooted cassava as a snack, while the storm calmed. It was a great day.
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| Maisha Bora site...the first 10 SEEDS |
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| Chizi Muzungu |
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| Shelter |
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Is that Lance?
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