TICC - A story of passion, determination and hope

The last day we spend at Tanga International Conference Centre. We had to shorten the Metafari with one day as Mikael has to take the plane to Dar es Salaam on this day and then we all decided to join him in the plane that stops at Zanzibar where we will spend another 5 days.

Rafael is leaving early to drive to Dar es Salaam. His wife is pregnant so it will be good for him to be with her for a few days before we meet again.

Before Rafael leaves we have a conversation that turns into a feedback session where the rest of the group for each person reflects on the animal he/she is. Some of us has done this exercise before in teambuilding, but having seen and heard the animals in their environment made it special.

Then Ruth came and we got to hear the very amazing story of her life, about her husband Odd, and about the Tanga International Conference Centre. Ruth was born in South Africa where her parents worked, but the family returned to Norway when Ruth was one year old. Africa was always very present in the family and Ruth always had a dream of going back. She was trained as a nurse, but very soon (at 22 years) became a manager, because she had so many improvement ideas. She met her husband Odd who was a road building engineer, and as he also dreamed about going to Africa they went there around 1980. Both their children were born and grew up in Tanzania. Ruth decided that in order to connect to the society you must know the language, so she learned Swahili in 6 months.

Ruth has for almost 30 years been involved in projects around health, culture and business development where the focus always has been on involvement and to use the strengths of each individual.

She has been responsible for a large regional AIDS project in the Tanga Region. She has been working with natural healers and imams to inform about aids and to use existing knowledge to improve conditions.

The Business Centre of Tanga is one of Ruths projects and she is a celebrity in this part of Tanzania. If you walk around with her in the town she is greeted everywhere with "Hello, mama Ruthie!"

It is thanks to Ruth it is possible to visit the Maasai Village where a group of women has built a traditional "boma" with a few huts where visititors can stay overnight.

The big project now for Odd and Ruth is the Tanga International Conference Centre - a dream they've had for 10 years. The idea for the centre is a meetingpoint built on sustainability, respect, funded by "real" money. One aim for the centre is to be a model for other businesses in the region. Ruth has a long list of people who wants to work at the centre.

Of the staff, quite a few are former "school dropouts" where Ruth has initiated programs to help youth with "problems" to find their strengths. The very succesful Tanga Music Club is one part of the dropout program.

There is too much of this to write in a blog. You can read more about the centre on www.meetingpointtanga.net

So when it is time to conclude the Metafari, do we now know more about what it is? In the last reflection there was certainly signs of a lot of learning. More about that in a later post