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Reneal Team Tanzania [2022-09-18]

It’s great to be back in Tanzania!  It is really a thrill to be working side-by-side with Reneal Team Tanzania again.  Since we were last here in early 2020, we have added two new Team members and watched the entire Team take over most of the key activities that Neal and I used to do.  In addition to our early partners at Habari Node and Arusha Node Marie, Reneal now works much more closely with national, regional, and district officials around Tanzania.  We are so honored to be a part of this joint effort to bring computers and technology to students and teachers in Tanzania!

Since we’ve been here, the Team has installed computer labs in three new government secondary schools: one in Meru District and two in Babati in Manyara Region.  The latter two brought to a close Reneal’s projects with ClosingTheDivide (www.closingthedivide.foundation) – we are so grateful for their support to bring computer labs to a total of six schools in Manyara Region!  We have two more labs to install to complete the 2022 Phase 1 projects done with the generous support of Apto Solutions (www.aptosolutions.com) and Network the World.
We were joined early in the trip by Reneal Board of Directors member Nathan Martinez and his brother Michael.  It was great for them to be able to meet the Team in person and to observe an installation.  Experiencing work in the field is always eye-opening, as the Team contends with long drives, electricity outages, and other challenges in their work.  It takes patience and dedication, and they always prevail to get the job done.

Neal’s goal for this trip is to complete a software update on all of the servers, so the Team has kept a steady flow of hardware coming in for his work.  He is making good steady progress, and we anticipate updated servers starting to go back to the schools sometime this week.

Reneal Country Director David Nyangaka has introduced us to many officials in the Arusha Regional Office as well as from the President’s Office for Regional Administration and Local Government.  David has worked tirelessly to share Reneal’s work and mission as Reneal expands to other areas within Tanzania.  He is currently traveling to investigate candidate schools for the 2022 Phase 2 projects.

Long-time technician Robert Nyangaka spent all of last week in Babati, spearheading the two installations plus doing computer teacher training and teacher orientation.  Technician Erick Mneney has been coordinating server delivery and other vital equipment movements.  Technician Ashura Hamis, Reneal’s graphics design expert, is now managing the spares inventory; thanks to Habari Node and Arusha Node Marie, Reneal now has secure and accessible storage.  Technician Patrick Peter has assisted Erick with equipment movements and has the unenviable but much-appreciated task of blowing the dust out of the incoming servers.  Neal has held some training classes for the Team, something we’ve longed to do for two years now!

Neal and I have three more weeks here before heading home.  Still lots to do, but we are optimistic that together with our Team, we can finish our work.

 (Photos: Team in action at Nkoarisambu Secondary School installation (from left: Robert, Ashura, David, Patrick, and Erick)]