Robert was quite busy in the office first thing so his friend Shabani picked us up from the hotel. We then spent a couple of hours in the office, sorting out the computers and equipment we were taking, writing my blog and chatting to staff.
So it was about midday by the time we left Mwanza. Shabani has come with us and and so has Hamisi. We got to the ferry port about 1ish but as usual we had quite a wait. In the end Robert decided we would get some lunch while we waited. There wasn’t a lot of choice so we had fish, beans, rice and greens......not the best meal I have had in Tanzania but the quantities were huge and so it certainly filled hole!!
We eventually boarded the ferry. It was pretty busy, maybe 400 people and I am pretty sure we were the only white faces....but then we are now really outside any sort of tourist area. The ferry took about 40 minutes and we were soon on our way again.
We had a fairly uneventful journey, just a couple of police checks, which is to be expected, and we arrived in Geita about 5pm. We quickly checked into our hotel and left our bags as we were going to carry on to Katoro where Hamisi has his office and he had invited us to see it.
So after another 30 minutes or so we arrived in Katoro. Hamisi’s office is well positioned on the main road and consists of 3 rooms, a reception and sales desk, a training room, and his office. Peter and I were really impressed, he really has got it all very well set out. He also employs 2 members of staff now, a receptionist and a computer trainer and when we visited there was a class in progress. Considering that when we visited a year ago Hamisi was a full time ACTT employee he has done really well. With the support of ACTT he has set up his own business and now works as an ACTT agent. He is a really good example of what can be achieved through the ACTT YES program. Robert hopes that all ACTT agents will eventually achieve the same level of success.
Hamisi also showed us the motorbike that he has purchased using a loan from us. He uses the motorbike to travel around the local area visiting schools and setting up and running computer training courses. It is a credit to him that he is well on the way to paying back the loan.
During our visit we appeared to attracted the attention of some local children who just stood looking at us. When I asked if they would like their picture taken they got very excited. The children in purple attend a local Muslim school.
Before we left Hamisi then gave Peter and I a kikoi each ( a traditional Tanzanian blanket) as a thank you present for helping him and for coming to visit.
After this we returned to Geita where we had a meal and some beers with Shabani and Robert before retiring to bed.
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