“Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” Mother Teresa
As we continued to handle construction and engineering priorities for the water project, our days have contained celebrations of hope and happiness in other areas as well.

Barbara & James with Lucia
A visit to Kishumundu Secondary School allowed a wonderful reunion with Lucia Mbuya, the 2012 recipient of ICBD’s Hope of the Future educational scholarship. We were delighted to hear that she had placed 8th out of all Tanzanian students taking admission exams for her current grade level. Lucia’s favorite subject is biology and she is now hoping to be a doctor someday “so she can help people in her country”.
Our Fulbright Scholar and Field Engineer Yana Genchanok welcomed her parents to Tanzania on Sunday, with a dinner at the Ngowi family’s home. We all enjoyed Eva’s wonderful traditional food as well as many stories, tall tales and some shared trepidations as the Genchanoks looked ahead to climbing Mt. Meru this week. We finished the evening with Yana proudly showing her family the water distribution system.

The Genchanoks leaving for Mt. Meru climb.

Eva Ngowi smiles proudly in front of new construction.

Creating handicrafts at the Acorn Coöperative.


Barbara & James at Arusha National Park