Service-Learning in Tanzania?

As much as I enjoy seeing Tanzania, I am not here as a tourist.  I am here to see whether it is possible to do some service-learning projects, perhaps similar to what we have been doing in Rwanda.  I have not posted much on service-learning yet because I do not wish to raise false hopes and expectations.  I hate to disappoint people if things do not turn out as expected.  

I did find many promising leads.  I have found an NGO that is doing a lot of good work, knows the country well, and may be able to help us find potential sites and communities to work with.  There are already a few potential projects that we can take on.  

There are at least two universities that are interested in working with us, perhaps sending their students to work with our students.  China has a big presence here.  At the University of Dar es Salaam, they pointed out to me the main library built with Chinese contributions.  

There is still, of course, a lot of work to be done before a project can happen.  There is no shortage of our own students who would be interested in coming here.  The question is who is going to lead them - which teaching team (subject) is both capable and willing to take it up?  

And the funding for the team - where it is coming from.  I have some ideas but there are still many challenges ahead. 

Again, there is no shortage of communities in need and problems to solve; there are plenty of potential partners that we can work with; there are always students who want to participate; there may be professors who are willing to teach and lead the students; and there are often individuals or organisations who are willing to donate to a good cause.  The challenge is to link them together: putting together a practical, feasible, attractive and convincing project.

I did not realise, when I started so many years ago, that this would be what I am doing.  God indeed works in mysterious ways, very often in ways that we do not expect.