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The future is in sharing

2011-07-17T11:08:00.002+02:00

Tonight I will drive the roundtrip of Fårö to Visby to fetch Oscar who comes with the ferry from the mainland. The journey to Visby is 70 km and takes an hour including the short ferry ride between Fårö and Gotland.
Yesterday I got a email from another Fårö-dweller who asked if someone could pick up a son who was landing at the airport in the afternoon and was heading for Fårö. I responded so now I have filled up the car, but there is still yet another available seat.

This reminds me about a conversation with a client almost 12 years ago. I was a facilitator in IBM's Customer Room Program which was centered around a shared space in Lotus Notes for IBM's Global Sales team, to use for collaboration around their customers. We ran a two day workshop around Team Mission, roles, diversity and training in using the Customer Room space.
One client was IBM's Peugeot - Citroen team who at that time (1999) was very much involved in the pioneering of Telematics. The teamleader, Bernard visioned in a lunch break.

I believe that in the future cars will become a service, because the only way to solve the traffic situations on the European roads is to automate traffic. And when you are no longer in charge of your car, owning it will be less of a freedom symbol. It will be much more practical if you can use a car that makes sense at each moment.

Let's say you are going on vacation with the family. Then you need a big car. But when you travel to work, then you would share a smaller car with others, or use public transportation.

It is impossible to build roads to accomodate the growing number of cars with the current idea of each person owning his/her own car.

Some people say that development is happening fast today. I tend to think that sometimes it is remarkably slow. After all this is 12 years ago. But now things start to happen. In the book "The Mesh" (and on TED) by Lisa Gansky talks about how the future is in sharing. A privately owned car is used in average 9% of the time. The rest of the time it is just consuming space and money. The car is perceived as a means to freedom. But for more and more people now, NOT having a car makes them feel free.

Here on the islands of Gotland and Fårö the concept of Mesh could revolutionize public transportation. All it would take is the information about "who drives where" in their own car, combining it with "who wants to go where" and a secure way to transfer money between those who provide a space in their cars and those who gets a ride.

In the debate about sustainability and around the question if growth is desirable this is an interesting opportunity. If sharing cars could increase the average use of a car from 9% to 50%, what would be the consequences?

Sharing cars is just one aspect on the Mesh. How about if we started to share the future?

Vision Day - Sustainable Chemistry - From #almedalen 2011

2011-07-06T10:13:00.004+02:00

After two years of being the curious explorer of The Almedalen week (previously described HERE and HERE),I got the opportunity to be working at an event. The consulting company MacMannBerg invited me to work with their customer The Swedish Plastics and Chemical Association who wanted to use the space for an exploration of the future. Six speakers introduced six seminars each moving the audience to the year 2030. When the speaker had presented the vision, the audience where split up in groups who each was instructed to explore how this vision was made possible.

My role together with Olle Torgny was to capture this day in words and images so it could be presented at an exhibit and cocktail party later at night.

The six seminars was listed in the official program of #Almedalen which means that anyone can come to listen and join the conversation.

Here are the topics of the day and some notes. Above are some images

Sustainable Development 2030 – How be became the investors favorite country
Jan Svärd – AkzoNobel
We no longer burn forests for energy. Windpower and continuous use of nuclear power leads to a strong position for Sweden. In Sweden not only half but the whole population can be engineers with a strong position of women. A woman with immigration background invented the paint that was capturing solar energy: “We paint the world with solar power”

Where did the knowledge go – And how do we get it back again?
Lena Englemark Embertén – Sweden Science Centers

2030 Sweden is at the top to value knowledge. We have created a knowledge culture. The proudest teachers of Europe can be found in Sweden. We work problem based, learning for life.

Stenungsund Valley 2030 – Networks, coordination and innovation for sustainable development.
Gert Inge Andersson – Chairman of the Regional board Västra Götalands Region.

A climate strategy to be fossile independent was established in 2009 and a vision for sustainable chemistry was adopted in 2011. 600 people from business, politics and society cooperated in this. Now 2030 we are here!

The four system conditions

The use of finite resources must to go faster than new formation
No unnatural substances in nature
Give space for biological diversity and the natural cycle
Turnover of resources needs to be adapted to what the natural cycle can manage

Forest, grass and waste – commodities for chemical business in Stenungsund 2030
Lars Josefsson – Chairman of the board INEOS Sweden

Bio based is the natural choice for companies and consumers. Sweden is leading in this change. Industry, research, poltics, academy. TOGETHER we have achieved this.

Capturing ideas – Collaboration between universities and industry in 2030
Karin Markides – President Chalmers University, Göteborg

The knowledge triangle was launched in Göteborg 20 years ago. A new way to work in Europe that integrates research, commercial awareness and innovation. Today, 2030, there are no more industry clusters. EVERYONE participates to collaborate around new opportunities. And people from the whole world comes to little Sweden.

Blue and Yellow in top 2030 – When the world switches to sustainability
Tomas Kåberger – General Manager – Sweden Energy Authority

An industry that was associated with planks, paper, chemicals and oil has come a long way. Now call it the organic material industry and by that we men both the old forest- chemistry- and refinery industry. Our ability to collaborate lead to competitive solutions and an elegant ability to continue collaborate even though their companies changed owners, names or logotypes.

Today is the start of #Almedalen - Probably the largest open event in Europe for Media, PR, NGO, Politics, Lobby....

2011-07-03T10:52:00.001+02:00

Today is the start of the amazing Almedalsveckan in Visby, Gotland. This is a week when almost everyone who is someone, wants to be someone, or wants to see someone who is someone, goes to Visby, Gotland.

The park of Almedalen becomes center of the universe for a week.
More than 1500 Open Seminars are published in the official catalogue which is one of the legs of what this event is resting on.
The other leg is the speeches of the leaders of the political parties.
The Almedalsveckan is arranged by the political parties of Gotland.
I'll give you an introduction to the Swedish political scene.
Name - abbreviation - my guess of current % of sympathies - English translation of name - my comment

Vänsterpartiet (v) 5% -Left party - previouslly communist, now against all change
Socialdemokraterna (s) 35% Social Democrats - A bit lost as the Moderaterna stole their visible ideas, and as they forgot their values, they don't really know what to do.
Miljöpartiet (mp) 10% (Greens) - Only party that is navigating outside of the traditional right-left paradigm
Folkpartiet (fp) 5% (Liberal) - Previously social liberal but currently profiling in negative talk about our school system even though the party leader is minister of education
Centerpartiet (c) 5% - Kind of liberal but with rural history - Might select a 28 year old woman next partyleader
Kristdemokraterna (kd) 5% Kind of liberal with religous history. Unlike countries like the US and Iran it is not adviceable here to make religion your profile.
Moderaterna (m) 30% Now very liberal, previously conservative. Has stolen the welfare language from (s) The Treasury minister has become the rockstar of recovery as Sweden has hardly been affected by the current financial crisis.
Sverigedemokraterna (sd) 5%- Xenophic party targeting muslims as source of all evil. For that purpose now embracing groups they previously hated, like gays, who they hope will hate muslims as some islamists hate gays.

Each night for 8 days a political party leader holds a speech in the park of Almedalen. The speech is broadcasted direct on national television and afterwards it is analyzed by political commentators.
This is only part of the story. As it has become, "everyone" goes there, so the event is now a gigantic arena for seminars and exhibitions for anyone who wants to influence the future of Sweden our place in the world. More than 1500 seminars are arranged under theses conditions.

Any participant is welcome. You are not allowed to exclude someone.
All seminars must bee free of charge. No entrance fee
You are not allowed to sell something at the seminar.

Tomorrow I will work the whole day, documenting a full day of seminars for the Swedish Association of Plastics & Chemistry Companies. It will be a vision day where the current time is set to year 2030 and Sweden has become world leading in Sustainable Development. More about that after tomorrow. I will now be a happy daily commuter from Fårö to Visby

Everything becomes easy (eventually) when you allow for complexity

2011-07-02T13:07:00.002+02:00

For years I have been struggling with identity. Who am I? What do I do? Why do I do what I do? And for whom? So much in the stories of todays world is about clarification. “Keep it simple stupid!” The messages we meet on newspapers, billboards, TV goes like this:

“Become a better XXXX in 20 days”

“This is how you XXXXX”

We are offered answers to everything, even before the questions are asked. I hate that. I have always hated that. I love the world to be wonderfully complicated. When we allow the world to be complicated we can also look at patterns without judgement and prejudice. If we think that the world is wonderfully mysterious and that we each have our own story of this mysterious world, that is the point when the world becomes interesting.

The paradox is that when you allow the complexity to be present, this also creates possibilities to make things more simple.

In my last post I wrote about the Essay in Two Voices and attached the first Essay I wrote together with Madelyn Blair: Space. Later the same day I got an email from Belgrade, Serbia. Rosemarie Cairns is editor for the digital magazine of International Association of Facilitators (IAF)

We had contact before and she has previously published some material from our network in the magazine. Rosemarie had read theessay on Space and had become interested…

Hi Leif.
I just saw your Essay in two voices through Facebook. I am intrigued! I wondered if there might be a way I could reprint some of this in the IAF Europe Newsletter - what do you think?

I was so struck by one thing you said in the essay, which spoke to where I feel I am at the moment:
"But then, from times to time, it is like the ability to weave space disappears. The fragility ofthe web overwhelms me and I find myself without purpose and energy. I loose connection with the network of people. The switch is turned OFF and the Space of Dialogue is gone. This scares me."
And then you said, in response to Madelyn's response:
"The infinity of choices can easily overwhelm us and we can react very differently to the space of opportunities. While we have the opportunity to venture out to find unchartered land and unknown opportunities in the infinity of space, this can also cripple and paralyze us. For a creative person this is both an opportunity and can be a deadly trap."
How do you deal with this when it happens? How do you turn the switch back on?
Best regards, Rosemary

So now I have to spend some time to think about Rosemary’s questions. How do we deal with weaving space in the new world? And how do we deal with the unlimited space of opportunities?

Maybe you can help? What do you think. By the way, this is exactly 500 words, the length of the first Essay in E2V

Essay in two Voices - Dialogues of Discovery. From blog to tweet in 2,5 hours

2011-06-30T16:47:00.002+02:00

The result of Networking can be very unpredictable. Who'd think that I´d be appearing in two books this year? Not me.

The Metafari is a network product, and the Metafari has lead to other things.
After launching the Metafari in 2007 I was invited by Madelyn Blair, (owner of Pelerei Inc, and an influental person in the Storytelling community) to come and present the Metafari at the Golden Fleece Storytelling conference, in Washington D.C.
I did so, and got to know Madelyn who is a great person. Madelyn then started to join network meetings in Europe and I have visited her home in Maryland a couple of times.
At some point of time, Madelyn told about an idea about "Essay in two voices" which she had developed together with Victoria Ward.
We agreed to use the format to write an essay on "Space".
First to write 500 words each and in the next step write 250 words.
It took me 9 months to write the first 500 words.
I told about the idea to my friend Eva Wetterdal on Gotland, who replied

"Why not continue to cut in half until you reach 140 characters?"

Great idea! I presented it to Madelyn who thought it was great. We agreed to meet at her home in january 2010 to work on this and the current version of Essay in Two Voices was created!

We tested this way to write with friends, colleagues, partners and we were begeistred! The parallell process of writing gives a unique insight in each others thinking, and this way of writing can be used for almost any topic.

Madelyn who is a woman with amazing energy, decided to write a book about. You can read about the book here. You can also order the book from Amazon here

It starts with a blog post, and it ends with a tweet....

If you want to try it, I'd be glad to do a first Essay with you or advice you how to use it with someone else.

And you can click here to download our first Essay in Two Voices - Topic was "Space"

#Almedalen. Probably the coolest adult education event in the world...

2011-06-28T21:37:00.004+02:00

I don't want to spoil my new habit of daily blogging now that I have started. But today here at Fårö I have been busy with so many other things. Anyway, now that my wife and her friends Anna Bergström & Maria Liedholm is busy with the opening of the Bergman week, I find some peace of mind to write.

Today I want to write about a unique event that is now over 40 years old, and is growing for every year: The Almedalsveckan. I start with quoting the official site

"In 2008, Almedalen Week celebrated its 40^th anniversary. It was 40 years since Olof Palme spoke from the back of a lorry at Kruttornet, Almedalen. The political speeches of the early years have developed into Sweden’s biggest political meeting place which, via democracy and openness, gives everyone who wants to debate social issues the opportunity to take part. The openness and accessibility are unique both for Sweden and for the rest of the world."

Together with Sören Wallin (See proof from National News below) I have been scouting at Almedalen for the last two years, taking part in what could best be characterized as a fantastic people's open university.

This year there will be over 1400 seminars on all kinds of topics in this event where the political, newsmedia and lobby scene has moved to the medieval town of Visby. Walking the streets, popping in to great seminars, sneaking in to grab a free glass of rosé wine, breakfast or an evening buffe. Finding yourself face to face with government representatives, political celebreties, TV journalist, actors or whoever is present at the scene which becomes a grand Open Space arena.
Two years ago everyone thought the event had reached the limit with around 1000 seminars. Last year was election year and many thought that it now could not get bigger with almost 1400 seminars. This year there will be even more.
There are many interesting observations from our participation.

A social media orgy
With almost everyone from politics, PR, lobby organisation, NGO's here this is the Mekka of social media. I was timing the frequency of tweets during a couple of party leader speeches, (Each night the leader of a political party represented in the parliamant holds a speech) and measured a tweet frequency of appr 6tpm (tweets per minute). Being able to follow the comments from the tweetsphere and compare it with the noice from the audicence in applause and acclamation was interesting. One party leader got really enthusiastic appplause, but was smashed in the tweets.. It becomes an almost absurd experience watching the crowd walking around with their nose into the IPhone or Android gadget.

Three simple rules does the work
With any traditional business logic imaginable these rules would not work. In order to get a seminar into the Almedalen Catalogue you have to comply with three simple rules:

Seminars must be open to everyone
You are not allowed to charge an entrance fee
A seminar must not sell a product or service.

So how come organisations, parties, companies are spending hundreds of thousands of kronor to arrange seminars where they cannot choose who comes, cannot charge money for participation, and are not even allowed to sell something to the people who come?

The Right Chemistry

This year I will continue my scouting,. However, on Monday July 4th I will also work for Plast & Kemiföretagen / The Swedish Plastics and Chemical Federation to be responsible for Process Documentation of the "Vision Day" they will arrange at Gotlands Museum. The topic is how Sweden can be world leading in sustainable development and the time will be set at 2030. It will be a full day with six seminars each with a specific topic that will set a vision out of the present moment of 2030. The participants (you could be one of them) will work in groups after each presentation to create scenarios on how the vision became reality. Stay tuned in this blog and I will share that day.

Good night. Enjoy the slideshow at the top from last years Almedalen.
For twitterers: The hashtag is #Almedalen

The actual and metaphorical transformation from being a father to becoming a grandfather

2011-06-27T09:20:00.006+02:00

For over a year I've had an ongoing conversation with a wise man in Denmark. It started with exchanging emails around the development of the "Begeistring Community - The European Network around Appreciative Inquiry and Strength Based Change" where he introduced some concepts about this Community of Practice as a Playground in addition to the metaphor of Landscape.

But Kaj Voetmann has also been a speaking partner on other topics, and today I want to explore the idea of transformation from being a father to becoming a grandfather.

Every day we get older. We pass through milestones. (examples are from a Swedish context)

Day 0: Delivery
6 Years. School starts
15 years: Drive a moped
18 years: We can vote, get a drivers license and order alcohol at restaurants (in Sweden).
20 years: Buy alcohol at the Systembolaget (in Sweden)
30 years: Average age for first child
31 years: Average age for marriage
50 years: Age when you are no longer attractive at labor market
63 years: Average retirement age
85 years: Expected termination

Ooops! Where did the 50 year milestone come from? It is not supported by statistics but the story of becoming useless at the labor market is there. Just open a newspaper and you are very likely to read a story about employers not hiring people over 50. So what is there to do if you are closer to 60 than 50?

There is a paradox here. Let me see if you agree with me in this observation.
It seems that when it comes to sustaining yourself we become of age later and later in life.
The age when we form family and get children now is around 30 years. When it is about duties and obligations it seems that we enter adulthood later than ever.

But when it comes to benefits and rights it seems that we are becoming adult earlier than ever. A youngster is the owner of a mobile phone and computer even before entering adolescence.
It is a human right to have your own room before you even start school. At the age of 12 most kids have travelled across the world with their parents.

But it is not until you are around 30 that you have entered society as a full citizen.
And then, when you are 50, you have become to old. So for about 65 year of your life, you are either to young or to old. And between the age of 30 and 50 you have to parent your children, make a career, save money for the time when you are to old and to support all the people that are to old or to young to support themselves. Tough shit.

Maybe this observation is a bit biased. However, learning from my Maasai partner Rafael ole Moono and from my conversations with Kaj Voetmann I have been starting to think of life transitions. I believe we should start to look at life more as a series of cycles. For a Maasai male there are four cycles in life. From boy to warrior. From Warrior to Retired Warrior/Young elder And from Young Elder to Elder.

During this spring Kaj and I have had a conversation about the transition from being a father to becoming a grandfather. I choose the image of "Creative Grandfather" as the goal for my transition.

Here are some grandfather competencies I look forward to master

Patience
Inviting to many perspectives
Finding use of the diversity of my background
Designing spaces that invites to dialogue and new perspectives
The abilitiy to be in the right position in helping others to fulfil their needs
Observe patterns, and reflect on the observations
Follow with a deviation, and make unnoticable adjustments
Trusting my wisdom
Asking for help without shame
Allowing younger people to be in the spotlight, whispering in their ears

As a creative grandfather I have just begun my career, and I can let go of the stories that there is anything like "to old" or "not useful". We need a new way to look at the different stages of life. This is one aspect of what MetaSpace is about, and certainly an interesting topic for the Metafari!

Finally, here is an image that has been of great help to me during the last year

Self Directed Learning

The Metafari within

2011-06-26T07:14:00.008+02:00

It has been 4 months now since the last post in this blog. What happened?
I was talking to a friend early this spring, and I expressed my struggle with finding a way to reach out with the Metafari, and also about how to find a way to describe the true offer of MetaSpace.

But, have you done your own Metafari? If you want to sell it to others, have your really done the Metafari yourself?

From end of March until late May I was struggling. Concerns about money, about competence, about the future, about becoming older. It was all there and I felt lost. Talking with another wonderful friend she came up with a perspective.

I see you as sort of an Indiana Jones. Always out in the world exploring new territory. But you are doing the exploration on the inside territory as well.

It took some time for me to accept that, but gradually I started to accept and like the idea of being "Indiana Josefsson".
All true exploration involves going outside of the comfortable and wellknown landscape. It means going through unchartered territory, which sometimes can be a hot, humid, dense jungle where you have to chop your way forward with the machete, gaining inch by inch.
So I was fighting my way forward, step by step. It was a tough journey, but with a realization that I was on my own Metafari.
Another aspect of this journey is the path towards becoming a Zen coach which I entered last year. The approach has included a mixture of Zen, Non Violent Communication (NVC), Focusing, the Diamond approach and created a way of coaching that includes acceptance of what is, body awareness, and a very strong support for the clients own path.
I had been looking for a certification path in coaching for quite some years and when I found the Zen-coaching a decided to join.
In my own coaching process I was searching for the essence of my feelings I was trying words to describe it such as feelings of Loneliness, abandonment and annxiety.

From a friend in Denmark I got a harsh comment.

I am interested in see what happens when you discover the power of your own stories in your own life and take charge of the stories.

( ....)

Back to the 9 basic emotions of human beings: Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, Fear, Jealousy, Love, Guilt,

Hope,Lonelines, abandonment and anxiety are not on the list, so I guess they all are socially constructed.

All three of them belong to the psychoanalytical language where the stories are based on a trauma you have repressed and now works from your subconscious and have taken control of your whole life. I have noticed you use these kinds of descriptions of emotions and all the ocean of meaning that is connected to these words. I find them harmful, simply because they make it harder for you change your life.

I started to explore my true feelings. Behind my reactions I found fear, a feeling of fear (just like I felt the in the plane on my way up for my second parachute jump in 2004). It opened my eyes, and in a couple of coaching sessions I entered into the landscape of fear. Eploring it with daring curiosity I found no real danger, so I allowed it to be where it was, and left. I will probably return when there is a need for it, but for the moment there is nothing to fear.
Bye bye fear!
And in this process I started to sleep well in the nights to wake up happy in the morning.
The purpose and offer of MetaSpace is also getting clearer inside me. Describing this is where the next part of my journey is about. Coming up!

ps. Do you wonder about the image at the top? My first IPad artwork, created with the App Drawing Pad
Inspired by Lars Triers wonderful film Melancholia.

From a warm chaos to a cold chaos

2011-02-11T10:35:00.000+01:00

I came back to a Stockholm where the snow was gone on the streets, but the promise was for more snow for the night. And so it came.
By late afternoon the snow was falling and continued over the night.
This morning all buses in Stockholm were cancelled, it was impossible to find a taxi. Only the underground was in operations.
What a change from the +32C of Dar es Salaam.
Enjoy the slideshow from winter Stockholm!

Ho ho! Hello...! Where are everybody?

2011-02-10T09:44:00.003+01:00

On Arlanda Express, the train that will take me the 40 km to Stockholm City in 20 minutes.

It's cold, empty. Pale. Only 24 hours ago we were in the traffic of Dar es Salaam on our way to have lunch with Regina Mchao, the wonderful woman who is a childhood friend of Rafael.

5 hours in Addis Ababa went fast as I found a wifi network that did not allow for web surfing, but Skype worked!
So Calle, mother, Mika, Fritz, Andreas, Pernilla, Johanna. Thank you for making the staying Ethiopia so enjoyable.!

Rafael, I miss you already!

Will it be able to fit in the box we might need, to be able to reach out?

2011-02-08T19:33:00.003+01:00

This is our last full day together. Rafael and I talk about where we are right now.
Our day started in the Swedish Embassy where we met with Margaretha Brisman.
We told our story, as usual with lots of words which is a tendency for the two of us.

But when we gave Margaretha the space we heard very encouraging words. That Sweden will focus on fewer areas of which energy is one with priorities. And that another priority is to change the view of this part of Africa as a place of poverty and need of aid, to a place of opportunities and resources.

So where our "Off Grid Community Development" ideas fit into the energy priorities, our Metafari fit very well into a focus on changing peoples views.

There were a lot of ideas coming up in the conversation.

-Why not targeting at all these companies who spends lots of money on incentive travel. With this they could get out something meaningful!

-We'd be happy to help you with feedback and answers. Just email us. And Rafael, please contact us next time you're in town!

We are definitely on the right track.

Metafari: A leadership journey into the new landscape of a changing world of opportunities and possibilities.

MetaMarket: Intermediatory services for green tech companies who wants to explore market possibilities, do feasability studies and test their new producs here in Tanzania.

I want to get some more out of Rafael to discuss the project application for the Rural Development Agency about bringing HiLight to the district of Handeni, but he fell asleep before he said good night.

So, good night from Dar es Salaam. Tomorrow at this time I will be in Addis Ababa, waiting for the flight home!

We live an ancient life with lots of modern thinking.

2011-02-08T07:01:00.000+01:00

We have breakfast with Mac Odell of http://www.macodell.com
He is here on a project where the NGO Africare is responsible to facilitate the process of resettlement of people affected by the construction of a new powergrid across Tanzania.
Mac is also a long time practitioner of Appreciative Inquiry and has been working a lot in Nepal with the ideas of AI.

For breakfast we talk about basic values of humanity and the importance of belonging to a community, something that is often lost in the western world.
Rafael reflects:
-This is about depending on each others as humans, on fellow community members as part of your life and your responsibilities.
The paradox to me, is that even though we are what could be called a 18th century people, it seems that our our thinking is very modern and very relevant. This becomes apparent in areas such as leadership, sustainability, diversity. Our challenge is to bring education to our people, mostly literacy.

Leifs reflection.
-Yes, but then not being exposed to the 20th century ideas of schools. This could be a great model for the education of the later part of the 21st century in our part of the world.

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Sent from a mobile device
Follow the Metafari - http://metafari.blogspot.com

Low tide. Same place, and yet not.

2011-02-07T06:31:00.001+01:00

I ask Rafael to reflect on the low tide.

-It is when everything is down at the ground level. Things that were submerged by the high tide come up over the surface. Bottom level details, big and small becomes prominent. Dead shells, small life. All debris that is left behind by the outgoing tide.

Mangrove roots are given space to breathe and many other small details are clearly visible. You see underwater life become active. Small crabs are crawling around, being active, digging holes, moving sand.

How often have we gotten really low, coming to the bottom of our lives? How often has our full tide life hidden all these features and details that exist at the bottom level?

How often have we failed to appreciate the lessons of the low, of hard times.

The Mangrove Tidal Swamp is the theme for one of the days of the Metafari. The images in this and the previous post is from Tanga International Conference Centre.

http://www.meetingponttanga.net

As leaders, have we just been floating on the full tide? How often have we forgot to see the details that equally matters, daring to curiously explore also the low tide.

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Sent from a mobile device

High tide at the Mangrove tidal swamp.

2011-02-06T05:09:00.001+01:00

Sunrise and high tide here at Tanga International Conference Centre. www.meetingponttanga.net
The tide is theme for Wednesday of a Metafari.
Right now it's high tide. We like being in this state of mind. Getting into the water is easy.
The morning sun rays turn the water into gold.
Nothing disturbs the image of a perfect world

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Sent from a mobile device

Connecting people and the cause of change.

2011-02-04T15:11:00.000+01:00

Michael Schrage wrote 1989 that it is probably more correct to say that the tools create us than that we create the tools.

Tools like Facebook or mobile phone networks were created by people who had no idea what the real impact would be.

The mobile network mast here create patterns of change of which we have no idea of where this will lead to in the future.

It is now bringing change to societies. Estimates here in East Africa indicates that for every 10% of mobile phone penetration, this creates a growth of approximately 1%.

Is the development in North Africa signs of something profoundly new to happen?
What do you think?
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Sent from a mobile device

The longest blogpost ever on Metafari, Begeistring Community and the power of networking.

2011-02-04T05:24:00.006+01:00

A background

The Metafari is to 100% a product of networking. Five years ago I was asked by Sven Sandström from Kebbe Sandström to join a meeting in Vinkeveen, Netherlands. The invitation came from Kees Ahaus of TNO Management Consultants "on behalf of" Anne Radford, founder of AI Practitioner.

Svens wife and partner Lisen Kebbe could not join so he asked me to keep company. The original purpose for the meeting was to discuss about the possibility to arrange a world conference around Appreciative Inquiry in Europe 2008. We soon found out that the timing was not right to arrange such a conference but that we would very much like to continue to meet to start building a momentum for a possible network in the future. We who came from Sweden agreed to invite the network to Stockholm in October 2006. This started a tradition that has led to a network with meetings in Hungary, Greece, Norway, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Slovenia. The last meeting was in Loutraki, Greece October 2010.

From the first meeting I started to take notes, capture flipcharts and post on a website. It then developed to a responsibility to support in organizing the network meetings who has always been arranged by volunteers who does not get paid, and with no fee for the meetings.

The network now has close to 600 members from all over Europe - and the world

How I view it now

Most of my worklife I have spent in the IT business although I started out my career as a pre school teacher. Working with IT project I have often struggled with the question why it is so hard to make people change the way they work when the potential of improvement from the use of technology is so great. To me it has been clear for a long time that although the tremendous change in societies in the world is powered by machines connected to the internet, these are machines that enable us from freeing ourselves of the constraints of the traditional way of looking at organisations and companies - As machines!

Getting in touch with systemic ideas, with Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space technology and other similar thoughts in 1999 gave me a framework in which to think, and it connected to my experiences in the use of technology.

Internet technology is an enabler that allows us to create organisations that are based on images of living systems!

This might feel a bit scary as we now are leaving the comfortable domains of control, right and wrong, finding "the best" solution etc and are entering the domains of simply looking for what brings life, and what works. Instead of finding unity we celebrate diversity. Instead of trying to kill the competition we are inspired by them.

How the Metafari came into being

I was working in a project at a Swedish public agency where we were to create a website around

strategies for public property. Not a very "sexy" topic although much more interesting that one thinks. We were talking about how to talk about the website. What should it be like?

Maybe it should be like a waterhole?

This idea created a big leap of energy. We talked about why you come to the waterhole, about what happens at the waterhole, about the dangers at the waterhole. Hours of interesting discussion.

I had been in South Africa on vacation in 2004 and remembered the great safari guide we had in Hluhluwe Imfulozi National park. I found a phone number on a picture of his car and called Jeff again.

-Jeff, this is Leif from Sweden. Do you remember me? It was the day it had rained so much and we watched a group of elephants that almost drowned?

-Oh yes! I remember! And you sent me the pictures

-Well, I am working with a website here in Sweden and we talked about using the waterhole as a Metaphor. Now I wonder, do you have any good waterhole pictures?

-I am going out over the weekend to do some Safari. I will look for good shots!

-Thank you. Would it also be possible for you to write something personal about the meaning of the waterhole.

-OK

One week later I got pictures and a wonderful story that I made into a presentation that was very succesful.

LOOK HERE AT THE ORIGINAL WATERHOLE PRESENTATION

And then, there in 2006 the idea popped up. There are more places of strong symbolic value. The termite mound, the coral reef, etc. Would it be possible to arrange a journey into the images of living systems, a Metaphor Safari?

I should never have told the idea to Ruth Nesje who was one of the participants in the meeting in Vinkeveen in May 2006. I told her about my idea when we met in Stockholm October 2006.

-I think its a great idea! I am building a Conference Center in Tanzania. So lets do it.

In the original group I also reconnected with Lena Holmberg who was a consultant with a genuine interest for new ideas and a true international outlook.

-I think this is a great idea! Let's partner in doing this!

We planned the first Metafari was to November 2007 and we got four test pilots to join us. The design of the Metafari week was created by Ruth and me on a ferry from Pireaus to Santorini after the network meeting in Athens, September 2007.

And the journey took place, and was a great succes. You can view the blogposts here

But as usual with great ideas, the main work is still yet ahead.

-To do this, you need a local partner. I know a guy, Rafael ole Moono. He is the best Maasai in Tanzania for this purpose

So I went back to Tanzania and Tanga in March 2008 to meet with Rafael, and after that we are partners.

Together with Elisabeth Wollsén we did a second "prototype Metafari" that we called Narrative Metafari or Metafari Ya Pili in October 2008.

We learned even more about this, but as the financial crisis hit the world we postponed our plans of arranging Metafaris until conditions had improved.

During this time we also found another opportunity connected to the fact that almost everyone in Tanzania now has a phone but less then 15% have access to electricity. This means that there is a huge need for "off grid technology". So in Sept-Oct 2010 we traveled Tanzania with HiNation in HiLightin Tanzania - a Market feasability study and test journey for the first batch of production units. But that is another story and you can follow that in the blogposts

Welcome to join the Metafari

We are inviting you to a journey of hope in a space of many voices. You will leave the idea of Africa as a place for problems and poverty behind and find opportunies and new perspectives.

You will be able to explore ideas, issues and challenges using the inspiring places, your journey partners, people you meet along the way, and your Metafari guides; me and Rafael.

In Metafari you will find a generative space, where you will exit as another person then you were when you came.

Welcome to join the Metafari.

And as a text like this probably creates more questions than answers, please use the comment function below, ask questions on Facebook, or email us directly.

leif.josefsson@gmail.com

olemoono@gmail.com

Living the Life of Leif - The honoring of Leif ole Pellos, born October 2010

2011-02-02T09:41:00.002+01:00

Wednesday February 2 was a great day. This was the day when Big Leif was to meet Little Leif for the first time.

Little Leif ole Pellos is the son of the second wife of chief Marias ole Pello. When we were here in October with HiNation Marias told us that his second wife was just about to have a baby.

If it is a girl, the name will be Linda, and if it is a boy, the name will be Leif.

Well, a boy was born, given the name Leif ole Pellos.

So returning to Engaruka was a big day. We started early from Ol Mesera and drove to Marias village that is beautifully situated on top of a hill. We were greeted by the community, and then we were invited under the shady roof of a shed. I had brought a photo book with pictures from our last visit which was really appreciated.

Then it was time to be invited to the hut of the second wife where little Leif stayed. For the first three months in a childs life it is kept inside the hut together with its mother for her nourishment and caretaking. She is provided food and other services by other wifes and neighbors. After three months there is a special ritual done by women to bring out the baby and the mother. For the Maasai, women are the carriers of rituals. I was presented a chair in the little foreroom of the hut where I met with little Leif for the first time. You can see proof of our meeting in the slideshow above.

After a while we moved on to go to the village of Engaruka where Marias has his office and bar. I got tired and was given a mattress where I could have a rest in the shadow of the tree where community meetings take place. It was then time for a traditional lunch where a shoulder, leg and a liver from a goat was served. The meat is grilled over open fire, and is prepared without any spices which are considered to spoil good meat, and ruin the original taste. Specially for me there was also bananas, oranges and mango. A traditional Maasai meal is normally just meat as you see it consumed in the pictures.

Continuing our journey we drove to Engaruka Juu Primary school which is a long term testing place for the HiLight. On the way to the school we encountered a small tornado very close to the car.

The headmaster showed us the HiLight they were testing and were very happy about the product. Only problem was that the battery did not seem to deliver the power it was specified to do. But we discussed that being a tester was about finding out such things. We could also demonstrate how the HiLight could be dismantled to reset the power as it seems that the electronics sometimes get stuck.

Finally we went to see Marias campground which is just below the Engaruka ruins. It is a beautiful lot with access to water. Nice shading trees, flowers, meeting spaces. A space waiting to be developed further.

Returning back to Ol Mesera we were very happy for a great day, and continued sharing stories into the night. Good night!

The story of Ol Mesera luxury tented camp and the fascinating owner Barbara Lavrich

2011-02-01T09:19:00.003+01:00

We have now back again staying at the Ol Mesera Luxury Tented Camp. It is situated in the Rift Valley between Lake Manyara and Lake Natron just under the Ngorongoro ridge. Barbara Lavrich is the extraordinary woman who is running this wonderful resort. This is her story

I was a young woman living in Slovenia when i met a young African student who was studying medicine in 1958. We married 1962. 1968 we moved to Tanzania where my husband worked for the government in different places. Moshi, Same, Dar es Salaam.

1973 my husband started a private hospital in Tarime, north Tanzania. We got three children, 1965, 1973, 1975. The oldest son stayed in Tanzania while the two daughters are living abroad, in Australia and the US.

When I entered work live after staying home with the children I was first working in the hospital and then joined a NGO run by an Anglican dioceses as an accountant administrator. During this time I also divorced. When it was time to go to pension I decided not to sit at home and not do something. So I found this place in 2004 and 2005 I started to build, and I could open it in 2007.

To operate a place in such a remote place is special. To get water, for example. Closest water source was 10 km away in the Ngorongoro ridge. So I had to get it here by installing a water pipe all the way and I also funded a pipe to the closest village here. First year we had problems with elephants that dug the pipes out, but then we put the pipes deeper into the ground. Now we have occasional problems with poachers who crack the pipes to attract animals with water so they can shoot them more easily.

I dreamed about creating a place for somebody who would come and see the beauty of Tanzania, the interesting culture of the people. To have a quiet holiday.

Ol Mesera has four luxury tents. One tent with double bed. Two tents with two double beds and one tent with one double and two single bed. In total, 9 people can sleep here. Each tent is equipped with toilet and shower. Electricity is by a generator which is on every night between sunset and around 22:30

I enjoy the work, but I would like to have more clients. Today I get my clients mostly by the website, and by lonely planet. People who come here recommend this place to others, so I am getting more customers by word of mouth

My staff is all Maasai from the local community. I train them for all jobs except cooking where I have found a great cook from Mto Wa Mbo. There are six persons in my staff plus the cook.

This has been working very well. If I was young it would not have been easy to be a manager but as I am older they treat me with respect, as a mother.

I was hoping to employ women but that was not possible. Younger women would not be allowed by their fathers, and the older women would not be allowed by their husbands. But employing warriors works well, and I even managed to get them to do household chores.

What I appreciate most in the Maasai culture is the stubbornness in the way they keep in the traditional way. I find this good. They are not interfered by the church or the government. They accept what they want to accept. They are very aware of modern society, so it is not out of ignorance they choose the traditional way. It is out of choice.

Out of our conversations and meetings, you, Rafael, Marias I believe we could work together promoting modern technology in this valley, working together with the people here to improve animal breeding. Maybe we could work together to find more productive animals. Together with Marias we could promote a special tourism in this area. The nature in Engaruka and the Rift Valley is very unique and unspoiled. The animals that normally can be seen in the parks are still around here. Buffalo, giraffes, zebras, elephants, ostrich, leopards and even on occasion lions can be spotted here.

The only live volcano in Tanzania can be found here, Oldoinyo Lengai. This is a beautiful climb, and is also the holy mountain of the Maasai.

Other interesting place here is Engaruka ruin, where you find stone paintings and ruins of an irrigation system of unknown origin that is more than 500 years old.

Further north is Lake Natron, a soda lake which is the only place where the Lesser flamingo are breeding.

In Engaresero village fossilized human footprints were recently found in stone. These are very ancient but have not been fully investigated yet.

Welcome to Tanzania. Welcome to this place of wonders.

+255 84 428 332 or info@ol-mesera.com www.ol-mesera.com

The Waterhole - what would bring you here?

2011-02-01T05:25:00.004+01:00

Yesterday here in Arusha Rafael and I worked a lot in getting the Metafari information into this site. So take a special look at The Journey facts and What others say for more specific information on what the Metafari is and how others perceive it.

We have set dates for three Metafaris where a maximum of 12 people will travel in two cars. We have a vision; That there should be no more than 5 people from one country in one Metafari. This is a journey in new perspectives where the most important assets are the Metafarians themselves. Using the diversity of the group to explore the places we are inspired by, to create an Open Space of many perspectives.

The Metafari sometimes has a tendency to flow into philosophical language. But the journey itself is more practical than philosophical, and the purpose is determined by the participants themselves.

This is exactly what my husband and I needs regularely to find out directions and new ideas for our Restaurant Business, commented an owner of a large Restaurant in Stockholm

This would be a great training for a group of sales people, said an owner representative of a large car dealership

We have found that in the Metafari some elements of learning seems to be present

Suspending your assumptions. So much of our actions and our decisions are based on hidden assumptions that we are not really aware of. This becomes very evident in the Metafari
Exploring the use of dialogue. When you become aware of that much of what you took for granted, you realize the power of open dialogue. What are good questions and answers? And what brings us most learning. The questions we ask, or the questions we are being asked to answer?
The power of storytelling. The door to good dialogue is understanding how to make use of stories. Listening to stories, helping other in enrichening stories, and telling stories yoursel.
Accepting what is. Traveling in Tanzania is a wonderful lesson in acceptance. Time plans are disrupted. Power cuts happen. Accepting what is happening, learning to adjust while still being focused on the preferred outcome. And still feel safe, because this is a friendly and safe country.

Join the Metafari

When we say join the Metafari it is not only an invitation to join one journey, it is also to play with the ideas of Metafari, and maybe create one of your own. This is Open Source Leadership, and the Metasaga in Shetland, Orkney, Scotland and Western Isles was inspired by Metafari.

Or maybe you have customers or a network where you could use what we have built and book one of the Metafaris for your purposes.

The Metafari came out of the European Network around Appreciative Inquiry and Strength Based Change A.K.A Begeistring Community

Begeistring is a word that exists in many European languages and means literally "Inspirited". This network community is a European network in search of what brings life to organizations, and the Metafari is a true expression of that search. So please, Karibu Sana, Welcome to join us in any way you want. And as Rafael and I continue our journey here in Tanzania until Feb 9th we will clarify and develop our offers and ideas.

We really appreciate any comments, questions, suggestions here in the blog or in Facebook and Twitter where these posts appear as well.

Is the Baobab tree a good foundation for the MetaSpace logo?

2011-01-31T14:40:00.004+01:00

We have been working with the idea that our logo should be based on the Baobab tree. Today here in Arusha we were visited by Christopher ole Ndangoya who Rafael has known for many years. I ask them about the Baobab tree. This is their story.

The meaning of the Baobab to the Maasai.

The Maasai name for the tree is Ol-Mesera. It is a shelter during a long walk in the bush. In the dry season, when there is nothing for the goats to eat you take the fruits , crush the seeds and give to animals.

You can often find beehives in the Baobab from where you can get honey. Standing there alone in the bush it can also be an observation point for warriors, looking out for poachers or enemies.

Observing the Baobab you also can get indications for weather, weather forecasts. For exemple, when the flowers of the tree are early this is an indication of rain which allows for preparations of the shifting of animals from one area to another.

In times of lot of rain the tree knows it can absorb lots of water for future use. It is an enormous storage tank of water. Even though the baobab is very hard and massive, it is not wood but made of fibres. The water is stored almost as if the Baobab was a spunge.

The tree is a symbol for beauty, standing alone in the plains, symbolizing the mother of their land. The fruits are somewhat similar to cocoa. If you taste them you can feel the taste of chocolate. The fruits can be added to hot or cold water to make a drink. You can mix it with honey and put in wine or beer to make a drink.

The seeds can be used as markers in games and the Bao game got it’s from the seeds. There has been proven scientic research showing many nutritional and medical values of the fruit. Twice as much Vitamin C as in oranges. Great effect the immunal system of the body, with effects close to that of Aloa Vera

It is a plant with lots of qualities. High up in the tree the trunk kan form water reservoirs and there can be caves where you can sleep for the night.

An image of a crying Baobab tree has been used in environmental programs as a symbol for the fight against deforestation. It is in a way becoming a picture of a crying mother earth. There are children stories where parents will tell them that if they are not behaving in a good way the tree will be sad, angry or cry. Or in the worst instance, the Baobab might swallow them. Or even being grabbed by the baobab and hung up as a fruit in the tree.

The Baobab is not really threatened by deforestation. The wood is not useful for burning. But if the Baobab is made lonely by the cutting down of trees in the surroundings it can die slowly by loneliness.

So what do you think about this tree as a metaphor for MetaSpace?

The Disturbed bao “GAMER”

2011-01-30T16:59:00.003+01:00

The journey of exploration is up and seriously on....

We are in an odyssey and today it saw us starting from Tanga to Arusha where we are now when I write these words. We had small stop for lunch at Same. There is this nice shady hotel called Elefant motel where we stopped some other time with the Hilight team.

This time it was specially good to meet my fellow Maasai elder whom we had a wonderful moment to meet and exchange as it is with maasai when they just meet. The most wonderful thing this man said was looking at Leif typing a blog on his computer and he remembered some other white people who have passed this place during the day and they sit by themselves on this thing for hours. To him this computer looks like it is maasai elders who play the bao game.

Bao game is a greatest pastime for most Maasai elders and other in Tanzania but it is never played alone. In this and several other instances he has seen white people play this game by themselves and they looked like thinking hard, challenged in their facial expressions, being isolated and lonely but just going on for ours on and dont seem to be reaching anything to soften their disturbed facial expressions while on the game.

Are they always losing the game and therefore end with the look of a disturbed losing gamer????

He always wondered. He never met or had no one to ask until today when he sees one whiteman with this Maasai man who is like sinking in his own personal bao game while we, him and me are chatting our moments away with laughter in this light hearted mood. Just happy to meet as two elders of the same age group. In this instance however, he has someone to ask on his wonders about the personal bao game right before his eyes in the table he was sharing.

As a Metafarian....what would you think of this comaprison from the diverse perspectives of a man of this age who wonders about the this disturbing bao game which gamers seems to be always on the losing side????!!!!!

What is happening along the road?

2011-01-30T10:12:00.008+01:00

I ask Rafael about what we should write about as we are taking a break here in Arusha. But I realize when he starts to talk in metaphors that he is even more philosphical and metaphorical than I.

So I go into more practical mode and go back to our discussion in the car from Tanga and the interesting conversation we had about how we would calculate wages and fees in a collaboration between him and me. How would we create equal conditions taking into account the wast differences between Tanzania and Sweden.

"Rafael, how much would you need in salary in order to sustain a minimum level of living standard? And, if you would live a good life with your standards, how much would that take?"

"Leif, what would be the similar amounts for you?"

We compare numbers, standards, talk about how much people earn in different positions. It is interesting how practical conversations can be really learning experiences if being experienced in an atmosphere of curiosity.

Also we find now how we are moving toward much more clarity in what we want to achieve. Every new person we meet is a test object to tell about our projects, and we notice how our message becomes clearer and clearer each time.

We are doing this in the open, according the the principles of open source. Following this blog you are invited to use our thoughts, join our conversation, or just be inspired.

But of course, what we really want is for you to be so inspired that you will join us in Tanzania in October 2011 for one of our Metafaris that will take place then. We will do more work when we are in Arusha. Here in Same the mobile internet is a bit slow, and now we have to move on, hoping for Kilimanjaro to show itself for us as we pass by.

When is it time for you to join the Metafari?

2011-01-29T14:18:00.006+01:00

Today we met with Ellen Gjelstad and David Kimea of Ilya Tours who will be our partners in organizing all the practical arrangements of the Metafari.
Ellen is a Norwegian woman who came here as a volunteer 5 years ago, fell in love with Tanzania and David, and they started the tour company together.
This is great as we now have a local partner who can provide all local booking of accomodation and also provide us with cars.

We have now looked at dates for the next Metafaris. Which do you want to join?

Metafari ya Tatu (the third Metafari): Oct 1-8
Metafari ya Nne (The fourth Metafari): Oct 15-22
Metafari ya Tano (The fourth Metafari): Oct 22-29

We will fill the ya Tatu first and see if there is interest enought for more.

OK, so what quesstions do you have around this? We'd be glad to connect.

Where does this road take us?

2011-01-28T13:34:00.001+01:00

On one level the answer is simple: to Tanga and www.meetingponttanga.net where we will arrive in an hour.
But asked on the Metaspace level this question has kept us busy from Dar es Salaam this morning until now as we approach our goal for today.

We have talked about..
How you build bridges from the present to the preferred future.
How we want to look upon ideas of needs and resources in new perspectives.

And we talked about what we do in MetaSpace. Rafael find the words that sounds great right now:
"We create tools to allow people to see beyond their ordinary perspectives. "
And
"Connecting people to share exchangeable matters that enrich life in all aspects of their work surroundings"
Hmmm. Do you find it vague? Well, you are invited to the conversation. All comments are welcome, here at the blog or in Facebook. Look for Metaspace there.

...........................................
Sent from a mobile device
Follow the Metafari - http://metafari.blogspot.com

Hello Dar es Salaam, Karibu sana Leif. The journey can start!

2011-01-27T21:07:00.004+01:00

Ethiopian Airlines flies from Stockholm 20:00 at night. You feel happy because there are so many empty seats in the plane and you gets lot of space. But landing in Rome takes that illusion away quickly as the plane fills up with people around midnight. The leg to Addis Ababa is surprisingly short, less than 6 hours. And then the final leg to Dar es Salaam. Around three hours later you enter out in the welcoming warmth of Dar es Salaam.

The strict ambitions soon collide with the development of events. We spend part of the afternoon to get my computer and phone connected to internet, and then we end up for dinner with our friend Regina Mchao and Rafaels neighbor Damas Bayanga who has agreed to lend a car to us.

There was an ambition earlier today to write something catching and intelligent. But now I am too tired for that. Good Night

Dreaming about MetaSpace Tanzania

2010-12-12T18:26:00.003+01:00

What we are dreaming about......

It's still a long way to go, but we are getting closer to go into business with the ideas we have developed around Metafari and MetaSpace. An important step was taken a couple of days ago when I sent in the application for name change of my Swedish company to MetaSpace AB. Yesterday there was a very pleasant surprise in the company account - Tax return money!

Suddenly I could start planning to return to Tanzania in January to move our plans forward toward a business around our ideas. MetaSpace Tanzania... Here is where we are at the moment..

MetaSpace (Tanzania) ltd is a company, jointly owned by Leif Josefsson and Rafael ole Moono – through our organisations Metaspace AB and Imusut e Purka

The purpose of the company is to offer spaces for leaders, consultants and business owners, designed for creative conversation and learning, to create new perspectives, deep and wide insights. We achieve this through journeys, meetings, projects and coaching.

In our work we use observations of nature, culture and the world around us, decoding the meaning of what we normally don’t see, but exists before our eyes.

These are life journeys off the beaten tracks, learning from metaphors of nature in collaboration with the wisdom and philosophy of local communities, as well as the different perspective of the participants

Values

A sound business – We are a commercial venture with a purpose to bring income to the owners and collaboration partners, and to other stakeholders.

Learning – not helping. The aim is to facilitate learning in order to make long term solutions possible. We do not believe in short term relief, aid, which puts the parties on different levels, and in dependency.

Equality –The responsibility from all sides to create a reasonable balance in responsibilities, financial outcome, psychological balance and the security of the partners. Maximum care is taken that every step in the process is managed on equal terms. Openness and honesty is a requirement to participate in this venture.

Sustainability – The design of our programs should always aim at having long lasting effect to all participating parties. The implementation of our journeys are done as ecofriendly as possible. We are traveling and meeting under conditions that is in alignment with, and respect for, the conditions of the local people.

Diversity – The value of being different is in the core of our programs. “Awareness for all” True diversity creates a foundation for learning, both in the groups that journey and the people we meet.

Corporate Social Responsibility – Every step of the process is done in a responsible way, and care is taken to see that the maximum amount of income stays in Tanzania. Our aim is to make mutual benefit from different aspects of technology and knowledge transfer in connection with our activities. This means that if we see a possibility for development, at least offer our view on the possibility

Products

Metafari – the original journey, community meetings, cultural dialogue.
MetaMarket - Market studies, product testing, project support
Coaching
Tailor made arrangements for individuals and groups.
Seminars and workshops, in Tanzania and Europe

Metafari, Metasaga, MetaSpace

2010-12-03T07:44:00.005+01:00

The last 49 postings were tagged with HiLightin Tanzania, the Market and feasability study that Rafael ole Moono and Leif Josefsson (me) was hosting in Tanzania together with HiNation - Linda Krondahl and Kristina Linhardt.

The Metafari blog seem to be able to live only on journeys or actual "Meta-events" but it is time for an update about what is going on. Yesterday was a good publicity day, when HiNation and our journey was published in an article in Computer Sweden. (Translated version here)

The article is commented by quite a few people. Mostly negative comments, like "You can buy cheeper in the hardware store" or "Another example of wasting taxpayers money" etc.

It's possibly so that the comments in papers are populated by people who thrive on negative thoughts, but from a Metafari perspective it is very interesting to study the assumptions we are so full of. The assumption that people in Tanzania are poor. And as a consequence of that the assumption that they cannot afford the product. And even if they could afford the product, there are many others that are much cheaper. And if government money is involved, there is an element of corruption.

One of the fundamendts of the Metafari ideas is around assumptions. That we leave our assumptions behind and travel on a journey of "not knowing".
When we are in that mindset, it is much more likely that we make discoveries beyound what we thought we knew.

A last day & last goodbye

2010-10-26T16:34:00.005+02:00

I have to tell you, our reader, about a problem me and Kristina have noticed. In our urge to fit in as much as possible, we fill our business trips to the max – same thing this time! Our last day was no different; why not meet the people when we’re here, discussing via mail later will be so much harder! So, even during the day for our take-off, we were able to squeeze in a few meetings.

At FSDT (see earlier blog), we were greeted by mr Sosthenes Kewe and invited into the board room to describe our product. FSDT invests money in financial organizations, who in their turn support local entrepreneurs. The purpose was to understand how HiLight could be made accessible to the users who does not afford to purchase the HiLight straight off the shelf.

- Your product helps the users directly; financially, with security, environmentally – people can invest in this instead of kerosene. I also see an opportunity for a bigger version, that runs a radio or TV, pumps water and so on!
Mr Kewe recommended us to talk directly to the organizations of interest, and we got a good list of great persons to contact. With the input from our testers in the teachers and health fields, I feel we have a very strong case!

In our next meeting at SNV Tanzania, the local branch of Netherlands development organization, we got the opportunity to meet mr Jan Meelker. SNV in Tanzania is mainly working with energy from biogas, oil seeds etc and not yet looking into the possibilities in solar energy, but could still see possibilities:

- With our focus on renewable energy, this is definitely a product in the right direction. We do

not work with solar energy today, but we see that there is a big demand for it, and a great potential for this type of products!
As a final input, Mr Meelker actually pointed out a few new user groups that we until now did not look into; farmers and local cooperatives! Great news – where do we start?

The trip is drawing to a close. Our bags are packed, ready to head for the airport and a long flight back. How do you summarize a month of experiences? What is going on at home? While cut off from our “normal” life at home for a month, with only sporadic glimpses of news and updates, it feels like we’ve been away forever – yet only made a quick loop out of the normal routines. Soon, we will be back at the desk or with our families, and life goes on. What do we take with us back? How did this trip change the direction of our future lives, our understanding of the world? That’s yet for us to find out. But one thing is for sure; Tanzania - we’ll be back!

Next step: Talking to the retailers

2010-10-26T16:32:00.013+02:00

By now, we know that the users are interested. But how do we reach them? We decided to meet with a few retailers to understand their view on our product.

First, we met with Mrs Nasreen Bhimani at Zara Solar. Their head quarter is in Mwanza and is one of the larger solar panel importers. They work a lot with public tenders providing energy in schools, dispensaries and villages, and mainly with larger products. Their product range is between 5W-130W panels, all with separate solar panels.

- My brother is decision maker in these questions, and I’m sure he will

like this product. I’m going to forward all the information to him.

On Tuesday morning, we met with Managing director Francis Kibhisa and Joshua Chikowero, head of commercial service at Rex Investments. Mr Kibhisa is electrical engineer and put a lot of focus on the importance of quality in their product range. Before taking in any new products, they are tested internally by the company for a few months to verify their performance.

- We have met with several companies presenting their products. Look at this! Mr Kibhisa brings a bag full of small solar products. Unfortunately, they usually do not last very long, and at this point, we have still not found any smaller solar products that qualify to be sold by us.

Rex Investments have about 25 sales spots in Tanzania and neighboring countries, and indicates sales volumes in terms of containers rather than single items.

The last meeting in the retailer area is Shoprite and Mr Mathews Kaubo, Procurement Manager. Shoprite is one of the main retail chains in Africa, with shops in 18 countries, and 3 stores in Dar es Salaam and Arusha.

- With increased volumes the price can probably be decreased. This is what the market needs now, this is the perfect product! We can test it in Arusha, because both the Maasai and the tourist organizations shop in our store there. We are even willing to sell with a smaller margin than normal, since we see the value of providing this product to our communities.

Back in Dar Es Salaam and more than 3500 kilometres in the car – our Maasai Maserati - and many, many interesting kinds of roads, both bumpy (or “unbalanced” as our Maasai Rafael referred to them) and occasionally more balanced ones, I guess we must admit that our meetings in the city so far is of the “balanced” kind.

An uplifting meeting on 2nd floor...

2010-10-26T16:32:00.012+02:00

REA, Rural Energy Agency, recently moved into a brand new building in the outskirts of the city, with a magnificent view of Dar es Salaam from the top floor. Despite being on 2nd floor, we had a really "uplifting" meeting with Mr Bengiel Msofe and Mrs Justina Uisso!

REA promotes access to modern energy and can support local entrepreneurs in this field by part financing, assuming the applicant can provide a strong business plan for the project. After Rafael has explained why he is engaged in this trip and how he sees the need for HiLight in his home area in Handeni, Mr Msofe says:

- Well, Rafael - you should apply for our support! Give us a project proposal, and we’ll take a look at it!

Mr Msofe and Mrs Uisso is encouraging with their positive can-do attitude. We look at each other and realize that we just found a second strong project proposal, where “Imosut e Purka”, Rafaels NGO (“Awareness for all” in Maasai), could play a large role. We leave the meeting with a great feeling and head off to get ready for our last evening in Dar es Salaam.

Until now, we have not been able to meet up with Regina, who we met our first day in Dar. Regina is a business woman who runs a taxi business, single mom with two kids and works full time in a law firm. We seize the opportunity to meet with her during our farewell dinner.
- You know, I’ve used the HiLight so much! We hang it in the middle room, and it lights up the two adjoining rooms too. We used hurricane lamps before, but it was embarrassing to bring them to the office during the day to charge them, I felt that my colleagues were looking at me. Now I don’t have to do that anymore!

Regina is one of the users who will keep a HiLight, and regularly report to us on how it works and how she uses it over time. A great excuse for us to stay in touch with this remarkable woman!

A busy Monday in Dar es Salaam

2010-10-20T10:11:00.007+02:00

Monday morning started at the Swedish Embassy together with Mr Samer Al Fayadh, working with Energy and appointed by SIDA, and mr Love Theodossiadis, Private Development and Trade.

They explained different types of funding and projects supported by the Swedish govenment. Love also described FSDT, Financial Sector Deepening Trust, a donor fund working with access to financial services. Some of the donors are SIDA, World Bank, IKN, CIDA, DFID, Dutch Embassy and we will meet with them on Wednesday.

Next stop: Ministry of Health and dr Gilbert Mliga, director for Human Resources Development and working with education of nurses and doctors.

- I agree it is very useful to have something like this. I am impressed and I would like have it myself. For the price, the value is definitely there!

We discussed the possibility to include HiLight in the midwife and nurses kit, which each student get after finishing their education. Annually, over 4.000 nurses finishes their education, and the content in their respective kit is decided by each school separately.

- But this is not only interesting for nurses; also for emergencies, the schools and so on.

The government meetings continued with mr Jeff Felten, representing Ministry of Energy, and Mr Andrew Mnzava, project leader for a solar lantern project which is just starting up.

It seems like we meet them just in the right time, as the project is currently seeking high-quality solar lanterns to include! The project will provide small start-up capital for a number of credit organisations supporting micro-entrepreneurs investing in small scale solar projects. To us, this could be a great way to be independently evaluated against some competing products and an opportunity to increase the knowledge of our product on the market!

Personally, I hope this project will prioritize selecting and promoting high-quality products to the users, since evaluation products and comparing technical specifications is not always straight forward!

During this trip, we've been presented with products without brands and company names or any contact details. In many cases, technical specifications are not included, in other cases, they do not make sense in terms of what the product can deliver!

How is a normal user supposed to be able to judge and compare products under these circumstances?

Catching up...

2010-10-18T20:14:00.006+02:00

We never got to tell you about all the meetings that concluded last week! Besides Solar Aid (see earlier post), we passed by both Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education to get meeting appointments for the coming week

After a short meeting at Kilimanjaro Kempinski Hotel (who wanted to meet us to heat the tap water;HiLight does NOT heat water, but I know some companies working with this perhaps I should connect you?), we moved on to Care International/VSL; the community based banking system we discussed the night before. We got to meet Mr George Mkoma, heading more than 15,000 VSL groups in Tanzania, and is in contact with additional 15,000 alumni groups. Again, he liked the product, could see how it could benefit the teachers and others, and again - he wanted to buy the HiLight on the spot!

- We are willing to use this product in our channels, and can use our structure to provide local training.

To round up the Friday meetings, we met with mr Chris Steenkamp and George van der Werken at Game, a major retail chain present in about 14 countries in Africa - and expanding. They agreed to give HiLight a try in their store, and if it would be a success, they saw the possibility to provide our product in other countries!

Busy Friday, and Saturday continued in the same way; meeting up with with mr Matthew J. Matimbwi at TAREA, Tanzania Renewable Energy Association.This membership organisation connects players in the industry of renewable energy, lobbying at governmental level and works against counterfeit and substandard products. We were really happy to hear this, since one of the problems we could face in the future is copying of our product!

- We are running the project "Replacing kerosene lanterns", using radio, TV and newsletters to communicate the message.

Most likely, this is a membership organisation that we will be joining!

We also met again with Ernest Mtayo, the teacher we met our first night in Dar es Salaam, to get his input on the use and suggestions for improvements. He was happy being selected as one of our long term testers, and he will keep the HiLight and give us monthly reports on the result. This is a great way to follow-up how the UV light and heat affects the product over time.

- I have electricity at home, but I still prefer to use this one, he says and points at HiLight. I like the idea of using energy from the sun! I fasten it to my back-pack, and lots of people has come up and asked me what it is!

All in all - our first two days back in Dar has provided us with additional clues on ways forward and a new doors have opened along the way! I already see that we will soon face the difficulty of selecting what customers to prioritze, and how to solve the distribution - one of the main issues according to our meetings.

On Sunday, the team took a day trip to Zanzibar. Fishermen is one of the possible customer groups that keep popping up in our discussions, and the HiLight would be perfect, considering the strong light, water resistent construction and that it floats! The weather gods was in their most giving mode, and provided us with as much rain as we possible could take - and some more. :-)

`I need this NOW...`

2010-10-17T05:21:00.009+02:00

Rafael is writing...

-Just remembered a story from the road to Dar last Thursday... Loaded and cruising on the Tanga Segera highway it is a non stop drive untill we reach Chalinze. This is a junction of the main road from Dar es Salaam and the hinterland of Tanzania central and north. It is a high traffic road and it is well balanced... in one of many trip buzz words on the types of raods we have travelled.

In Chalinze we meet maasai hitch hiker and give him a lift; Kibonge, a maasai man I know and have met when I was with my friend and collegue Adam Mwarabu in several of our community activities in Morogoro. We give him a lift and on the way we have a traditional exchange of news. I mention to him that we are moving around with a product called HiLight. I told him we are from north and tanga, and sitting next to him was the creator of the the HiLight. Linda makes a short demonstration of the product while I translate with my focus on the road. He tests that his phone charges, and gets delighted and amazed of the peformance of the product.

- I need this one because some of my cows have moved far to follow grass and I am not getting enough information because phones ran out of charge and there is nowhere to charge phones.

He ask for the price and i tell him it is about 200,000 Tsh (~100 Eur). There was a moment of silence. I suspect that he was scaling the gains, and costs for the product perhaps. I also suspect this will diminsh his enthusiasm.

- Two hundred thousands, he repeats. `Hmm.. light and charging... I need the charging more.`

`I think I will even need to take two so one can stay with me and another with the herd in te bush so we have constant contact.` I tell him 'Sorry we don't have any for sale right now. But he insists. 'Sell this one to me!' he demands. I tell him again this is for test in other places, otherwise we will not have anything to work with.

`Can I get one next week?` he asks and I say 'no, but I will give you information as soon as they are possible to get. We exchange telefone contacts so he can check me often for updated. We drop him in Vigwaza after reaching home station and say good bye. It is amzing when you find bush natives who make a decisions upon meeting an opportunity and costs are non issue as envisaged by many. We proceed to Dar es Salaam.

PS. Linda adds: Having a massive maasai next to me in the car demanding to buy two of our test HiLights is quite an eye opener. This was a guy used to get what he wants, and now I'm standing between him and a solution to his every day difficulties. Again, I realize that if I can provide a solution that is good enough, money is not an issue! DS.

A SolarAid offer - but next week is too early....

2010-10-15T18:46:00.007+02:00

Our first day back in Dar Es Salam starts with a beautiful view and breakfast.

We hurry on to a meeting with SolarAid - a NGO with mainly solar products in light.

Mr Mason Huffine describes their distribution models to schools and how they by funding can distribute with a low cost for the receiver. He tells us about the kiosks and the plans of building more kiosks.

He starts talking about selling HiLights in these kiosks and invites us to an opening of a brand new one in Dar. Exciting but by then we`ll be back in Sweden, too bad! But next time perhaps?

//Kristina

Kwa heri Tanga, Jambo Dar es Salaam!

2010-10-15T18:09:00.006+02:00

First, apologies for not keeping you up to date with yesterdays adventures! So, a short recap of our last day in Tanga: we had a great morning meeting with Ruth Nesje and Ragnar Johansen on how we could structure a future larger project supporting health or education - or both - in the Tanga region. The need on a grass root level is definately there, now we need to make sure that we get all parties on board! If we succed, about 2.500 teachers and/or nurses will have access to a great, safe light and charging!

Then time for "Kwa heri" to TICC (for now - we'll be back!) and take-off for the Maasai Maserati and a last trip! 7,5 hours later we arrived, tired and sweaty, for a meeting with Ms Daphrosa and Mr Ngate, with experience from working with VSL/Vicoba (see earlier post). At least 300,000 persons are currently involved in this type of local banking, probably twice as many including the initial groups!

Slipway is our new home for the remaining week; after check-in, an exhausted team enjoyed a well-deserved pizza along the shoreline of the Indian Ocean. If we only knew then what the Friday should bring... [oh, yes - a cliff hanger!]

Every meeting opens new doors!

2010-10-13T19:50:00.010+02:00

As the Maasai Maserati parked at the schoolyard of Mwhako Primary School, we were greeted by head teacher Mr Edward Mokiwa. Mr Mokiwa tested Mrs Zainab Nanyaro's HiLight for a few days, as he - as most people in the area - lack electricity in his home where he lives with wife and 3 children.

- We have electrical grid in the area, but it is too expensive to connect it to our house. Kerosene is the only option, but it is expensive. As a teacher, I need to prepare my lessons at night, which requires working in the light from a kerosene lamp. If the families had access to HiLight, children could study at night and the teachers could start evening classes in the schools.

Another meeting participant, mr Abraham T. Khatib, added such;
- This product does not only solve the problem of fuel cost or mobile phone charging - it would also save us from burnings and health problems. The injuries and smoke from the fumes is a common problem but not clearly pronounced, people don't see a link to the use of kerosene! Tanga town has about 1,200 teachers, and the Tanga region about 8,000 teachers. Imagine that all teachers could get one HiLight each; that would make a huge difference in our communities!
Well, actually, I think you should meet with the Regional Administration Secretary to discuss this possibility.

So off we went! Mr Tikhatib quickly rescheduled his morning meetings, we got his bike into our car and drove off towards Tanga to talk with the RAS, Regional Administrative Secretary, responsible for the day-to-day management of the regions affairs. He was not in, but we were lucky enough to meet Mrs Monica Kinala, Assistant Administrative Secretary of Land & Infrastructure, and Mr Julias Mhanusi, Regional Educational, Health & Social Welfare Officer. After explaining our sudden appearance, we introduced our ideas around a common project directed towards teachers. Monica liked our product, despite having electricity at home:
- How many of these do you have here? Can I buy it?

After discussing our thoughts on a common project, we were directed even higher.
- You should talk directly to the City Directors, and the ministries of Education and Health in Dar es Salaam.

This fits well with our travel plans, as we are heading for Dar es Salaam tomorrow!

We had earlier on planned to meet up with BRAC a microfinance organisation with its offices in the region. Our attempts never succeeded depite visiting the office premise some 3 times to find no one.

We headed back to proceed with more meeting at TICC in the remaing part of the day....

Taking over the keyboard...

2010-10-12T20:45:00.008+02:00

Since our project secretary has left the keyboard unattended, the remaining parts of the team is taking over! Linda, Kristina and Rafael will from now on, with combined forces, try to keep up the great communication level of Leif.

In his absence, we started the day by meeting Mr Ramadhani Jawa, the Ward Executive Officer of Tanga Sisi Ward, being the contact between local communities and the City Directors on a district level across all areas; education, health, infrastructure, livestock etc. Mr Jawa used one of the HiLights for more than two weeks to put it to test.

- I would like to buy it myself, for my mom. She does not have electricity and uses kerosene for light, which is exponsive. My friends who saw it likes it very much, they want to know where to find it!

The discussion focused on how people in deciding positions could understand the need for the product to include it in a coming budgeting for the city municipalities and region. We also explored the presence of local NGOs and financial institutions like PRIDE TANZANIA, FINCA, BRAC, POVERTY AFRICA and SEDA; all providing ways for people to borrow small amounts of money to start businesses providing an income for the families. In Tanzania today, only 5% are eligible for loans at the regular banks!

Our amazing host Ruth Nesje at TICC helped us further in our search, by arranging a meeting with Michael Nyangusi. Mr Nyangusi founded a nursery school in Popatlal, is Swahili teacher and initiator to a local VICOBA group; the latter being reason for our interest.

VICOBA stands for Village Community Banks, a "saving and credit society", creating small, local "banks" run by the group members. After saving money regularly for 3 months, you are eligible for a loan of 3*your savings. Since your fellow "bankers" are friends and neighbours, the risk of not getting the money back is limited. To our current understanding, this system seems to be a good way to get the local communities to work together to create an improved situation for the neighbourhood!

After a long day, we are looking forward to an early morning meeting with the head teacher of the local school. I'm excited to hear his opinion on HiLight and how it could simplify his daily life!

The last good morning view - from Tanzoma Hotel in Dar es Salaam.

2010-10-12T07:17:00.002+02:00

So it it's the last day in Tanzania. The excitement of being i Dar again, going home to meet the close ones (including the new grandchild) is combined with missing my journey partners since almost a month now. Kristina, Linda. And of course Rafael, my friend and partner.
We have traveled over 2500 km in our "Maasai Maserati" and before the others are back their journey will exceed 3000 km.

What have I learned? I wonder. This is a brief summary:
* Go here to learn, not to help. If you come here with the mind of "not knowing" you open up for learning also within thw people you meet.
* When you are in true partnership with the local community you stay connected.
* Dare to trust in people, until you are proved othervise.
* There are so many opportunities here!

The Metafari was start if a journey in new perspectives. Learning from the spaces we enter, the people we meet, and ourselves.
Together with HiNation we have learned so much about people, market, trends.
We have shown a solution to a real need for 85% of Tanzanias population, and we have become rich in relations, knowledge, experience.

Finally, one last observation. We knew that we have been testing a product with a rather high price. But looking back at the test persons: The wealthier person, the more objections on prices.
Swedes and Americans: Too expensive!
Maasai: When can we buy it?

Rafael, don't forget to post today!
...........................................
Sent mobile from Tanzania

A farewell to Leif....

2010-10-11T14:07:00.004+02:00

This is Rafael taking over the story as it is the last day for Leif to be in Tanga with HiLight team. I drop him at the airport to catch with a flight of Coastal Aviation services that operates flights between Tanga and the off coast islands of Unguja and Pemba and finally to Dar es salaam.

Leif speaking...

- It will be very strange not to hear the snoring of my maasai friend in the nights here in Tanzania. We have gone through new levels of learning together, and maybe started a company here in Tanzania. What do you think about the name Metaspace Tanzania ltd?

An unexpected story, lunch at the Yacht Club and the inevitable farewell

2010-10-11T08:27:00.005+02:00

When we find the Kagame family house the door is closed and nobody is at home. Within a minute we are greeted by others who come rushing! A small old woman appears and opens up the door to the house. This is the great grandmother. Bent back, lively eyes and a big friendly smile! Maryam soon comes with her two children.

As we are greeted into the house we sit down on the floor, and the great grandmother starts to tell her story. She has been working as a midwife all her life, without a formal education. Now she is retired but is still called in when there are complicated cases. She was born in the time British colonial time. When she was young she was hurt by a falling coconut, which made her back bad. Others told hernot to put strain on the back but that was an advice she could never follow.

-How can one not work. Someone needs to carry things, and take care of the house.

We are proceeding to talk with Mariam. Her husband Abdi has gone to Zanzibar to work. Here in Tanga, Abdi fishes, buth fishing does not give any serious money. In Zanzibar he can make some money to bring to the house, selling to tourists. When at home, Abdi also works in the home as a private teacher for people who needs to learn more. This is mostly evening classes for adults.

Others told us that this is a very good family, with a real responsible father. In this village it is too common for children to be left behind, not only by fathers but also mothers. So the grandparents get to take care of the children.

We ask Rafael about his views about this.

Sometimes I feel that it's only we Maasai that takes the responsibility of marriage seriously! It's terrible how these people behave!

Now we enter into serious test discussions. Linda asks if they filled in the test. We see a perfect user report with statistics for each day. The family has used the HiLight every day for two weeks, putting it out in the sun at around 8 in the mornings and letting it charge until late afternoon. At night they switched on the light around 20:00 and then keep the light on until sunrise.

Maryam has been taking responsibility for the testing. Rafaels interviews her in Swahili. A neighbor comes in and asks what is going on. Rafael tells that we now have three tribes in the room; Wadigi, Maasai and Mzungu.

-Generally this is very good. We used it for both light and charging. I have been moving the HiLight around to fit best to the position of the sun. People were bringing me phones to charge. Unfortunately our HiLight did not work to charge phones, but otherwise I could have made some money on that function. I am very grateful to be part of this test, even thoughthe HiLight did not work perfectly.

Off to the Tanga Yacht Club where we reconnect with Sture Teir, one of the three Swedes in the Tanga area. Sture moved to Tanga six years ago when he was looking for a warmer place where his health could be better. In the cold of Sweden he gets serious back aches. In Tanzania he is well, and with a Swedish pension he can live well. He has already married a local woman, Ellen.

When seeing the HiLight when we were in Tanga last time he got very enthusiastic, and he became a tester. In this role he used it on the boat, fishing and with tourist, when hunting and having it as an emergency light in his car. For him, light and charging is equally important.

It is a hot day, the hottest day yet. I escape from the interview to the cooler water. After a good late lunch at the Yacht Club we return to TICC. After dinner, Rafael brings Linda and Kristina out in the darkness of the streets in Tanga to explore the sales stands along the road. I stay at the center, talking about the future of the Metafari and other project with Ruth Nesje.

And then it's the last goodnight here in Tanga for me.

Preparing to visit friends - the Makame family.

2010-10-10T08:27:00.004+02:00

Today it will be interesting to hear the stories from the Makami family, living in a village just outside Tanga, close to www.MeetingPointTanga.net

A morning walk with unexpected perspectives

2010-10-09T07:23:00.000+02:00

Five o'clock in the morning, and I am clearly awake. Thoughts wander around about our project here and other the network projects back home in Europe. At 5:30 I hear church bells. I must have fallen asleep again because I dream music and singing, until I realize that there is music and singing going on in the world that is awake too.

So I get up and walk in the direction of where I heard music. And only about 100 meters from Maweni Farm I enter another world. Dormitories, class rooms and a church. I hear praying. As I walk closer I find an open door where it is possible to look into the room, full of young men in blue trousers and lighter blue shirts. I see the priests at the altar, and communion starts just as I find a place to rest. Blood of Christ. Body of Christ. The serenity of the ritual is touching, and tears want to come out. Music, reading and prayers continue, until at around 7, the morning mass is finished.

Outside the church I meet two priest who tells me this is a Priest Seminar with 220 students who are on the path of becoming catholic priests.

I ask if there is a path up the mountain and they point upwards. As the walk starts I recognize the desire in me to go to the top of the mountain. It's still early in the morning. I left my phone at the tent and I don't have water. But now it is too late. My legs have started the ascent so it is just for the rest of my body to join upwards. On the very steep path I pass banana trees and, what I later learn, coffee plants. When I am close to the ridge I suddenly enter a village. It seems this narrow path is the only way there.

-Jambo! Jambo!

-Habari? Msuri!

-Karibu sante! Asana santé!

Hello! How are you? Good! Welcome! Thank you. The words come out naturally, and suddenly I feel I am on a first step of beginning to learn Swahili.

I reach the top ridge breathing heavily. It is nice and cool, but I am sweating. Thirsty I begin to feel the desire for breakfast, down in the valley at Maweni Farm. I enter the village again and am greeted in English by a man.

-How are you man! Welcome!

-I am well thank you! I was at the top!

-Where do you stay?

-Maweni Farm. But now I need to go down for breakfast!

-Welcome to eat breakfast here!

-Sorry I must go now!

-Bye bye

Further down through the village I'm greeted by the children and as I exit there's a whole group following me down the hill! Some elder boys were machetes. For a moment I feel a little concerned, but it drifts away like the clouds at the ridge when I feel the friendliness surrounding me.

-Photo, photo!!

I get some great photos of the kids. After a while I hear

-Hey Mzungo!

I turn left and the others go right. I start to feel a little concerned.

-I hope they are not nervous for me down at Maweni Farm, now that I have been away for so long.

But in the breakfast room it is empty. Linda, Kristina and Rafael are still asleep.

I feel happy about my excursion. There's always another world waiting to be discovered. There are always new perspectives to be explored.

Before lunch Linda is interviewing the manager Subi about her usage of the HiLIght. Again, great reviews. Subi lives in an apartment house where there should be electricity, but the owner did not pay the electricity bill so electricity is shut off! But Subi would still appreciate the HiLight for the bright light alone. Now she could read even in the night.

We are served lunch before we leave. Pasta Bolognese, cooked by the best chef in this part of Africa. Visit www.maweni.com and dream about goin there!

An invitation to join the conversation.

2010-10-08T21:05:00.002+02:00

Dear all! We have been blogging now for almost four weeks, blogging from every possible position here in Tanzania, except in Engaruka, where there was absolutely no network.

We can see that the number of pageviews are increasing – and now we have almost one hundred per day…

But it would be cool to get in touch with you more. What questions does our journey awake in you? What do you think about what we do? We are traveling with our partner Rafael, who is Maasai – do you have questions for him about the way of the Maasai, or about Tanzania? What can you see we could do better, especially with regards to spread the blog to a larger audience!

This goes definitely beyond selling solar products to Africa – We are on a learning journey where we hope that our journey inspires you in some way, dear reader.

It is very easy to post a comment. Or you can just become a follower of our blog. Please – join!

Deepening the conversation in Nanyogie

2010-10-08T20:49:00.002+02:00

Today felt like a real turning point. Up early at Herbs & Spices Ethiopian Restaurant and Guest House in Arusha. We wanted to reach Nanyogie around lunch for performing seven test interviews: Two at the school, one at the dispensary, and four in the Maasai community.

Approaching Moshi we were lucky again with sightings; Kilimanjaro in full glory rising above the clouds. Snow on top. After being stopped and released by police controls a number of times Rafael tells me that I am an African now!

-Jambo!!! Nice to see you! How are you! Glad you are here! Oh, we are going to Mombo today! Yes, thank you!

Smiles, handshakes and happy faces takes you a long way here in Tanzania.

At around noon we reach Bwiko, where we turn off the road to drive the bush road 16 km to Nanyogie. Two Norwegian nursing students and the young warrior Mussa awaits us to join this trip, thus saving themselves a four hour walk.

It is to Bwiko the people of Nanyogie have to walk or ride the bicycle to charge their phones.

No more four hour walk to Bwiko – and four hour back if we have the Higlight!!

Simon, the young teacher is almost ecstatic by the thought, when being interviewed by Kristina as she and Linda are doing the follow up test interviews after the 10 days of use! He continues

This is so great! We have used it every night for reading, and we have been able to charge our phones! If we had this at school we could borrow it out to school children if they need to do homework.

Linda is interviewing Maria, Daniel, Martin with help of Rafael. For them this technology is also a revolution. Maria already had started to charge phones for 200 tzs each. For Linda this was also a great thing as she has children for evening classes. They all have been very serious filling out test protocols, and have been using the product extensively!

I walk around with my friend Jacobo, who I met already in 2007 when I was here for the first time. It was not until the third time I was here that I found out that he speaks really good English! We walk down to the school and meet the head teacher, who I also know since the first time I was here. I get an idea and bring up my computer to check if we can connect to internet. The Zantel network is not live here, but the Vodacom network has really improved and we have a full reading on network strength. I try to connect using my Samsung Galaxy as mobile access point , and voila – it works!

So 16 km from the nearest electricity outlet we have a good internet connection here! A used netbook computer, a USB Internet stick from Vodacom, and the possibility to charge the computer would actually give the school internet access! This was not possible two years ago!

So we get more ideas to feed to Rafaels and mine project idea around "Off Grid Community Development" .

We could not stay in Nanyogie tonight, as we had to go to Maweni Farm for our nest test interview. So here I am here at this wonderful spot up in the Usambara Mountains. And the food is definitely the best in this part of Africa. Go here if you can! Good night!

The HiLightIn Tanzania live journey map

2010-10-07T11:46:00.003+02:00

This is our journey. Currenty being updated. Click on the blue pointers to read about people and places

Visa HiLightIn Tanzania - 2010 på en större karta

First test interviews, and elephants along the highway.

2010-10-06T11:05:00.007+02:00

We thought that we'd said goodbye to the wild animals as we started our drive back toward Arusha.

But suddenly we spot a whole herd of elephants along the highway. A whole clan, more than 10 of them are here.

We stop to have our lunch, waiting here to see what happens.

This morning we said goodbye to Barbara of ol Mesera. It has become home to us. Go and stay there if you can.

There was also the first concluding interviews of the test. Marias described the HiLight as a revolutionary tool for the Maasai.
-Suffering is finished, as for phonecharging. The best thing is that it is very userfriendly. One button, no wires, anyone can use it. After two days our village was already depending on the one HiLight unit. We charged 8 phones in the first two days! This saved us 12000 TZS = 6 EUR!!

-We had it in our shop during the early evening, and then my boys brought it home to do their homework. Also, during a normal day we use two coca cola bottles of kerosene, costing 2000 TZS = 1 EUR. This we also save.

-I showed the HiLight to the person we buy kerosene from and he was speechless! Already I had people here asking where they can buy it!

Barbaras statement was:
-This is so good so you have to use "seeing is believing". This would lower the cost of diesel but also a way to be environmentally friendly. I would buy the HiLight to my 5 staff and pay half of the cost myself. They could then bring the HiLight home for light and make some money on charging.

Something about communication technology on our journey

2010-10-05T08:28:00.005+02:00

This post is for you who is a bit interested in how technology makes our postings possible.

Tanzania is a country where less than 15% of the population have access to electricity.

Less than 15% have a bank account, and only about 5% of the population is eligible for a bank loan.

According to this article there are 15 million mobile phone users in Tanzania, accounting for around 25% of the population. Another source states that by 2013, the penetration will reach 100%

In the Maasai villages we visited it seemed that the penetration was higher. In Ngaruka, where there was not even a network coverage, the people estimated that around 3 out of 4 owned a mobile phone.

The postings of this blog has been done entirely via the mobile network. We have three solutions

A Vodacom Data account on my Samsung Galaxy makes it possible to to connect from the phone. Postings can be made by taking a picture and then e-mailing it to the blog account.
A USB stick from Zantel connects my computer to Internet where Zantels network is available. This only seem to work in the cities. On the other hand, when it works it is quite speedy, up to 1Mbit
The last resort is to use the Samsung Galaxy as a Mobile Access Point, thus creating an instant WiFi network. This is how I am doing this post now. The speed here at the foot of Ngorongoro mountain is about 128kB. A bit slow, but it works.

The cost of 2GB Data is about 38000TZS which amounts to around 20EUR. Much cheaper, and a lot faster than using the Internet connection at most hotels. And you can connect to Internet anywhere this way.

It is a connected world!

HiLight in Tanzania is starting the journey back

2010-10-05T06:22:00.003+02:00

Good morning all!

After two days of Safaring it is time to become Metafarians again and get back to work. On our journey back we will meet the people who has borrowed HiLights for testing, interview them and to collect their experience of using the product.

The three HiLights we have left have been through some serious testing. Exposed to the extremely penetrating fine dust, and the hot sun. We discover things to modify and improve, but so far this journey has validated the idea and the construction of the product.

One striking reflection is how we always have been in "business conversations" - Not once has somebody brought up the idea that "we should give this to them".

Rafael adds.

-Yes we have been on a mission that everybody understands and all seems to want to be part of this. There is an interest of becoming both buyers and sellers of the product.

We have posted som reports and added in the right place in this blog. Follow the links below

- Ngaruka Juu Primary School

- Community meeting in Ngaruka village

- A visit to the Kirumuru luxury tented camp

- The story of how Marias Ole Pello became a Maasai leader

Today we will pay visit to some lodges along the way back to ol Mesera where the owner Barbara is testing a product. But she already gave us an enthusiastic report.

-It is really great! I could do needlework in the light of the HiLight!

Safari days at Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro

2010-10-04T20:55:00.005+02:00

As we now have handed out all the HiLights to their testers we could take two days off to do some actual Safari. Sunday we spent in Lake Manyara National Park, and Monday in the Ngorongoro Crater.

We tried hard not to talk about HiLight, but failed miserably. But we also had many interesting discussions around the not always easy relationship between Maasai and farmers/landowners.

Share our journey here. Don't miss the lion activities.

The story of how Marias ole Pello became a chief

2010-10-02T20:05:00.000+02:00

Marias ole Pello became a Maasai chief in 1986. This is his story of how it happened.

In 1986 people of the area had a big big meeting, where over 200 elders gathered. The reason for the meeting was to decide on a new traditional leader for the area of Engaruka. In that time there was about 1600 people who lived in that area with around 400 in my age group.

When we have special problems we call on meetings and solve problems. At this time our current leader was getting too old and a new one was to be elected. The elders think that now is the time to have a new traditional leader, and therefore call to this meeting.

Initially the people decide on 10 names out of the 400 young Maasais. In the next step the people decide on 10 names. When I first heard my name called I got very afraid. I could not feel that I was strong enough to deal with the community problems, and to finish them.

We don't make votes. The selection happens in the conversation.. Elders stand up and present names. Others express views around those names and the number of names become smaller until only one is left. The selection process takes around three months, and the elders meet a number of times during this period.

When I was elected, the younger elders made a very big ceremony between the communities. They chose a leader stick and brought it to me. In the ceremony they slaughtered 10 cows and 60 goats and sheep. They made a traditional alcohol for the celebration. Many people came to this fiest where people were eating and drinking, dancing and singing to celebrate the new leader.

At this time I was 26 years old. I was very happy to realize that all people in the areas respected me. People where happy to have a new leader.

I think I am a good leader because I give people space to decide themselves. Also many times I have helped people. I have sold cows so that I could sponsor people in my village at times.

After I become a leader my life was changed in several ways. One way that is different is that as a leader you are no longer allowed to have an opinion. As a leader I help my community, my people to make decisions. If I get a new idea I must share my thoughts with the community. Being a Maasai leader is not like being a king. I don't say "I like that cow from Leif. Bring it!" or similar. I am always obliged to share my thoughts with the community and to find solutions together.

An amazing day at Ngaruka

2010-10-02T11:47:00.001+02:00

This was an absolutely amazing day. From the traditional welcoming meeting at Marias ole Pello's home village to the business meetings in the town.

Find the stories here

- The community meeting in Ngaruka village

- The Ngaruka Ruu Primary School

With these two test groups we've reached our furthest point at this journey, and we will also leave two HiLights here for long term testing. This will be seriously testing, the dust here is present everywhere, and the sun is as very powerful here just south of the equator.

Allow yourself to enjoy the images in the slideshow below

Ngaruka Juu Primary School

2010-10-02T06:06:00.000+02:00

We drive up from Ngaruka town a few km toward the mountain side of the Ngorongoro area and arrive at the Ngaruka Juu Primary School where we are met by Mikas Laizer, the head teacher of this school.

The school has currently 910 pupils and around 14 teachers. Thanks to sponsoring from Tanzania National Parks four new classrooms are being added so it can become a total of 11 classrooms.
The number of students that passed standard Seven level last year was 79 and could go further to secondary school. Only 12 students went on to specialized schools. (technical, medical etc) The school was founded in 1949 by a Lutheran church. In 1963 the school was handed over to the government.
We have now two major student groups. One group are students from Maasai places. They don't pay anything. We also have some students from other places in Tanzania. They pay a small fee to support food etc.

Again we enter a new meeting. Two of the Maasai elders from the village joined us here, and now we are set in a classroom with five teachers who also joined us for a conversation. Marias stands up and makes the introduction, introducing us all in Maasai language.

Linda, those are our school teachers. This is the head of our school. And now you maybe could show us the solar product.

Linda makes an introduction and give back the task of demonstrating the product to Rafael, as usual. He becomes a better and better salesperson each time, each time also demonstrating his natural authority as a leader. Even though we don't understand what he says, we get really sold on the product. Nods, hums and an intensive interest is shown today in HiLight, as it does every time.

Rafael leaves the room open for question

Is it possible to charge a radio?
If it is possible to charge a radio from USB, then it works

As the conversation flows on and move into the subject of mobile phones we hear that 3 out of 4 here has a mobile phone even though that there's not even any network coverage here in Ngaruka. You have to climb up to the top of the mountain to get in reach for the mobile network!

The school has a solar unit on the roof, and people come to the school from the villages around to charge their phones at a cost of 500tzs per charge. ( appr 0,2 EUR)

The teachers also live at the schools, in rooms that lack electricity. They use kerosene lamps for light, as do the pupils who live at the school. Kerosene is expensive but also dangerous. The school uses 40 l per month of kerosene at a cost of approximately 20EUR.

Would the HiLight be useful here?
Absolutely. We would buy these with our own funding, but we could also ask parents for contributions to buy.

And we drive back to Ol Mesera in the sunset after a overwhelming day. In the back of the car we bring two men and four 50l bottles of water back to Marias village

Community meeting in Ngaruka

2010-10-02T05:53:00.001+02:00

After the welcome ceremonies in Marias home village we travel to Ngaruka town, where Marias has his office, bar and campground. Marias sent out a message yesterday that we will make a presentation of something special and now we gather to start the conversation. Around 15 men are gathered and we are waiting for some women to come and attend.

The welcoming and friendliness is amazing. But it is hard to give the situation justice, as words used to describe the feelings become cliché-like.

As we wait for the women Marias start to tell about the product. The people gathered here are important people from the area, council representatives of the local authority, council leaders.

One of them is Samuel Laizer, a representative from the village government who was the one billing us 8,000 TZS each to enter the area. This fee is one way to get income to the community.

The women has now arrived and the meeting can start. Rafael starts the conversation.

-People we are now gathered, and I think we will start to explain what brings us here.

Rafael grabs the leadership sticks, raises up and starts an introduction in the Maasai language. We hear words like HiLight, HiNation, Kristina, Linda, Leif, solar…. Now 40 men and women are here under the tree listening with high attention. Rafael introduces the HiLight, demonstrating the light and the charging functionality. He also shows how the HiLight can be positioned in different ways.

After Rafael, Marias stands up and continues the introduction. Both Rafael and Marias are interrupted by questions, both by the men and the women.

I is a bit amazining sitting here under a tree in Ngaruka having a conversation around a hitech product like HiLight. We are now very interested to hear a translation of the two speeches as we don't understand anything. As the conversation gets free we only hear one question:

-When can we get this product? we all need it!

Rafael translates to us what happened

-I made an introduction of the HiLight, the story behind, what it can do, how it works, and then what we could do to get it work properly. We got some questions about how many phones we could charge. But you want light you need to balance between light and charging.

-One man asked when we can have it. We just want to know when this is possible. When we know it is available, we can pay for it and then get it.

Linda thinks…..

-Testing is made now and then we could make the order within 2-3 months. Delivery could be made in the first quarter of 2011.

Rafael concludes.

-When the product is ready to be delivered to be ready, Marias would be the one that brings the information about orders and delivery. There is also a good business here. A telephone charge in this area is about 1000 TZS which means that the HiLight could bring in 5000 TZS per day. Nomadic charging stations, that would be something!

Marias now concludes the meeting. Kristina and Linda writes down the information about the test users, and we continue to the next place, the village school of Ngaruka.

Leaving ol Mesera for Ngaruka

2010-10-02T04:59:00.000+02:00

We are now leaving our host Barbara for a day trip to the Maasai settlement of Ngaruka. There is no contact with networks there, so you might have to wait a day for a report.

Visiting the Kirurumu Tented luxury camp – And we almost get an order!

2010-10-01T15:45:00.002+02:00

After a dusty afternoon drive passing Lake Manyara climbing the wall of the Great Rift Valley. Our first visit is the Kirurumu Tented Luxury camp. This is a highend camp with 23 tents and up to 43 guests.

See their website here

Joseph Moshi is assistant manager for the Kirurumo Tented camp. The camp is fully electrified, so each tent has light. However they often operate mobile tent camps where they have solar powered lamps.

-This is a very interesting product. Especially for mobile use. You should talk to tour operators. This could be a component in any safari car. There are hundreds of tour operator in this area. This is a big business here.

-There are many different types of Safari. Some use small tents, some stay in luxury lodges. We could also sell this to our guest. Many are suffering a lot from lack of charge.

Now Gerald enters, the lodge manager. The incredibly friendly welcome is consistent. We have not booked here at this camp where a night costs over $500, but immediately both the manager and assistant manager make themselves available.

-Wow what a product. I get interested to buy one myself. I am always in need of charging. But it could be used both in our business, and to sell to the tourists.

-Yes we could buy for this lodge, and have in the reception when there are blackouts. Where can I get contact with you, and when can I get the HiLights?

So our conclusion is that we have yet another good meeting, with an enthusiastic reception of our product. No Nay-sayers here.

Welcome to Lake Manyara viewpont

2010-10-01T14:22:00.001+02:00

A splendid view. Now off for some luxury lodges to present HiLight

Morning conversations in Ol Mesera

2010-10-01T13:41:00.001+02:00

We are gathered under the roof to talk about the project sorting out practical matters. Marias came early to be with us, and will remain with us and to guide us for the rest of our time here.

We will be staying here for a total of three nights, waking up each morning with the view of the Great Rift valley.

We are talking about the way the Maasai live, trying to sort out what a settlement is and about migration of the people along with the seasons.

We are given an introduction to the use of milk in the community. The Maasai do not make cheese, but a special type of butter called ghee.

Now we ask about how the HiLight could be of use in the community. Marias tells us...
-I have never sen... It is light portable and easy to use. We all have phones. It is to much use. I want to test it and see how it works and after that I will give a statement. It is very light and handy.
- I would charge it strapped on my back, or put it on my stick when I am walking.
-Our family have 300 cows, 300 sheep and goats, and about 40 donkeys.
-A cow is worth around 100000 tzs, a goat around 50,000 tsz. We don't sell donkeys.

We calculate.. Maria has a capital in livestock of around 45000 EUR!! So 120 EUR for a HiLight is hardly out of reach.

And people at home has told Linds that this is not a market because people are too poor......

Habari ya asubuhi wote - Good morning all from Ol Mesera

2010-10-01T08:42:00.001+02:00

We arrived to Ol Mesera at 22:30 after what felt as an endless drive at the final stretch of road from the village of Mto Wa Mbu where we met our dear friend, chief Marias ole Pello who had been waiting for us the whole day.

Marias came in his own car together with his driver and the local councellor of Selela. Rafael had previously been telling us about the incredibly dusty roads here. Following Marias car we realized how true this was.

Earlier, at the dark roadside we found new and good use for the HiLight. It is a great reading lamp, we had very good use of the charging. And when the repairman came after 3 hours it also made an excellent work lamp to be used under the car. The flat shape makes it perfect, providing really sharp and clear uplight.

We were extremely happy to be on our way again. As we arrived to the meeting point we were overwhelmed by the warm welcome of Marias. Some of you who read this remember Marias from a network meeting in Stockholm in February 2009.

Today we will go to his village for a welcome ceremony and a discussion about the testing of HiLight. By the way, the councellor wanted to buy one HiLight immediately!

Rafael, any comments?
-The owner of this place, Barbara, is a good host. She was waiting for us and kept the food warm until we arrived.
Ol Mesera is a quiet place, beautifully situated on top of the hill, which makes it an ideal place for contemplation and reflections. In the reception you meet one of the biggest ol Meseras in the region. Ol Mesera is the Maasai name for the bao bao tree. The name of the lodge is truly synonynous with the place.

Hakuna matata. Lost the driveshaft again.

2010-09-30T17:18:00.000+02:00

Well, the repair we made in Arusha only lasted about 40 km. So here we are again with the Maasai under the car and the Mzungos helplessly wandering around. Within minute another car stops that has the 14 mm spanner we need to loose the deiveshaft and get going again.

Recharging our internet account at Zantel, Arusha.

2010-09-30T10:10:00.001+02:00

With the friendly help from Debora at Zantel, we are now online again.

Memories from Nanyogie

2010-09-29T21:46:00.002+02:00

We have left 6 HiLights with the people of Nanyogie.

Four with families, one to the school and one to the mobile health clinic. But in this post, please allow the slideshow to tell it's own story.

The journey did not end in Moshi.

2010-09-29T19:16:00.002+02:00

Badang!!! Klonk klonk klonk klonk!!!! Noices no driver wants to hear when on a long journey. This happened in Moshi, only 70 km from our days goal in Arusha.
-No problems, the maasai says
-Things like this we fix all the time in the bush. It's only the front driveshaft. We will disconnect it and drive to Arusha so we can ger it fixed.
I allow myself to doubt.
-After all he's a bushman. What does he know about cars.
He dissapears, but returns within minutes and directs us to a repairshop around the corner.
20 minutes later we have a 2WD instead of 4WD. We drive to Arusha, and tomorrow Rafael will find a repairshop that will fix the car in a magical way.
-Rafael, I am blogging about that you are always right. What is your view about that?
-My God, that comment scares me. Please don't put it that way.
We will soon propose for a new reality TV show: "The Maasai and the Mzungo traveling Africa"

Now time for a good Ethiopian meal at Spice&Herbs im Arusha.

The school of Nanyogie.

2010-09-29T08:15:00.002+02:00

Our next stop is the village school to meet the staff here to hand over one HiLight for testing.
Rafael introduced.
-We are testing this new product, developed by these mamas. So what brings to yor school is this process of testing

-Thank you. My name is Marias Micheto. I am assistant head teacher. We would be proud to be your testers.

Rafael is now going through the functionality of the HiLight. He tells that it is important to close the lid over the USB connector, and that it is important for charging not to shadow any part of it.

Daunstan, one of the teachers, is made responsible for the test. Kristina takes notes of unit number, and contact information. We go through the questions in the test form.
We ask for a comment from them before we leave.

-This would help us charging phones because we are far from electricity. We need phones to communicate with our leaders, and to communicate. For example, to tell about this project.

-HiLight would also make replacement for kerosene. It would make it easier to plan and to study. We have to buy kerosene with our own money, about 3600 tzs. The average salary for a school teacher is 140000 tzs per month. (Appr $100).

So the cost of charging phones and buying kerosene is a substantial cost. Up to 10% of the teachers salary must be used for these purposes.

Daniel and Maria

2010-09-29T06:39:00.001+02:00

Meet Daniel and Maria. I remember this couple since I was here the last time. There is something special with this couple. Maria is the only wife of Daniel. They have 5 children together.

Maria and her oldest daughter Petina Abrahahm will travel with us to Arusha where Peina is going to secondary school.
Yesterday I decided to sponsor Maria with one HiLight. In 10 days we will be back to collect feedback and stories, but at least one HiLight will remain here.

You can contribute to bring light and energy to someone here too. Read more at http://www.hination.org - Check under "Donate".

Nanyogie. Returning to friends, not forgotten.

2010-09-28T16:45:00.001+02:00

I am a happy man. The incredibly warm welcome of Nanyogie can warm a frozen heart.
-Hey, mr Leif. We have met before! Isak is here, you are his extra father.
The boma has improved. There is now a toilet here. But the termite mound is here still.
After a while Rafael says it is time to start dwmonstrate the HiLights. If the HiLigt works properly this mean that a 30 km bicycle ride to charge the phone can be saved.
Two testers are appointed, Daniel and Esaias. It is now aproaching darkness. We will be testers ourselves tonight as we settle into the traditional enkans, the huts that have been built here to host guests

Subi Mzuze and her staff at Maweni Farm

2010-09-28T11:03:00.002+02:00

We are meeting with Subirieu Mzuze who is the local manager of Maweni Farm. Rafael introduces Linda and Kristina as the partners who are operating HiNation, and he also give an introduction to the HiLight itself.

- HiLight is a collection of technologies that makes use of solar energy that goes into a very small battery. Once you put it into the sun for 10 hours it can give light for 10 or 20 hours and it can also charge 3 mobile telephones. Here at the side of it you can see two sockets. One is a standard USB socket that can charge all types of phones. The other one is a micro USB socket that can be used to charge the HiLight.

- When it comes to light there are two modes. On the less bright mode it can work for 20 hours. In mode 2 which is more brighter it can last for 10 hours. This is a test product that we are bringing to users for the first time. We need people who will use it and will help us give feedback on the use.

- The HiLight is intended for rural communities, far out in the bush – where there is not light and electricity.

Subi listens.

- Yes it is interesting to have it here in the lodge. But also for me personally. I don’t have electricity in my own house! This is what I will do. When we have guests here I will offer the HiLight to a guest, and when there is no guests I will bring it home.

Maweni Farm is a paradise spot up in the mountains. If you have the chance to go here, take it. Stay here for a week to write on a project, get inspiration for the book you are planning. Or go here with a group of colleagues to dream about the future. You get the best food I have had in Tanzania, and wonderful low key hospitality.

Emma Pmganga is your hospitality manager and Anjelina Kabelwa is the mama making the great food. See you here, sometime!

Introducing HiLight at Maweni Farm in the Usambara mountains

2010-09-27T17:12:00.001+02:00

We have arrived to Maweni Farm, a lodge and conference center in the Usambara mountains. You drive toward Moshi, and at Mombo you turn right and drive up onto the mountains. A tropical paradise awaits you.

Maweni lodge has four luxury tents, equipped with a tent bathroom. The guests of these tents gets equipped with kerosene lamps for the night, which is both a risk and a cost, apart from the poor light.

Emma Pmganga is greeting us welcome and we sit down to talk.
The guests here often come from Germany and Sweden. Very few come here from Africa. Yesterday we had 17 guest from Germany, and tomorrow another 20 guests are coming.

We are preparing Emma to become a tester and to manage the HiLight when we are gone.

As we sit and talk, the sun sets in the mountains, and we are entertained by a bird serenade.

Soon we will be served dinner, and tonight we will become testers ourselves as we settle into our tents.

Images and memories from Tanga

2010-09-27T09:55:00.002+02:00

As we are leaving Tanga in a couple of hours, just waiting for the tires of the Land Rover being balanced, we like to share our visual memories from these days. We arrived here in Tanga on Thursday, and today, Monday, it is time to move on.

The conversations and meetings here in Tanga has been truly interesting and rewarding. The feedback is really positive to the product. People don't even react negatively to the price even though it is quite expensive with Tanzanian measures. This is a country where $100/month in wage is not considered very low...

We have explored the following groups that is of interest

Village schools
Health Centers and dispensaries and district nurses
Hunters
Safari lodges and Safari customers
Fishermen (night fishing with kerosene lamps is common)
Village families
Rural communities

Enjoy the pictures..

Our latest test family.

2010-09-26T18:35:00.002+02:00

The Makami family became our latest tester. They are 23 and 20 years old and have to children. We found out that the family spends 1 liter of kerosene each week to light up the house. The keep the lamp burning during the night so they can easily attend the children when they wake up. The family owns one mobile phone which needs charge twice weekly. The cost per week for kerosene and charging is around 2 EUR.

The enthusiasm for HiLight was great. With the capacity of HiLight they could probably also charge at least one extra phone per day which would make a possible income of 1 EUR per week. 3 EUR per week is around 150EUR per year, which would mean that after a year with a HiLight the family would have the HiLight for free.

Now, if you find this interesting you can become a sponsor for this family. If you are willing to pay half the cost of a HiLight we will be able to leave HiLights with a tester. READ MORE HERE ABOUT BECOMING A DONOR

A sandbank day...

2010-09-26T08:44:00.001+02:00

We are on our way out to the sandbank, a paradise spot outside Tanga. At high tide this i a tiny island maybe 100 m across. At low tide it becomes an island landscape with coral reefs surrounding it. A perfect place to relax and explore the life under water.

Unfortunately there is also the issue of dynamite fishing, the illegal fishing method that is destroying the corals and killing the fish.

Our boat is a traditional dhaw, owned by TICC. Saidi is captain, Aiwadhi is his sailor. Life is good.

Sent with my Samsung Galaxy from Tanzania

Looking for partners in Tanga

2010-09-25T17:58:00.003+02:00

-Just come down, and we will sort it out. It will no be the way you planned, but if you stay in touch with the goal you´re OK

Those were the words of Ruth Nesje before we came here. Ruth is the founder of Tanga International Conference Centre (TICC) together with her husband Odd Isaksson. After a couple of days here the truth in these words have been proved. Today we have met with our second tester here in Tanga, the improbable Sture Teir from Fagersta, Sweden who has been living here now for 6 years and is married to an Tanzania women. In Sweden he was on permanent sick leave for serious disk problems in his back, but here in Tanzania he is fine, and can live a good life with his pension. We showed the HiLight to Sture at the Yacht Club.

. This is great! I could sell this to my hunting partners, and I will show it to my Indian friends here in Tanga. I know a couple who are distributors. I will call them on Monday!

So Sture is sharing one HiLight with Ellen Gjelstad and David Kimea who runs Ilya tours – a tourism and safari company in Tanga. Check out their website and don´t hesitate to contact them if you want to travel this part of Tanzania, including the Serengeti and Kilimanjaro.

A second visit at the store selling Solar Panels was also very rewarding. The shop is owned by a family of Indian descent. Linda and Kristina talked to one brother yesterday but was asked to come back today. After a somewhat slow start the conversation got going with some interesting information.

-You have a unique product with some very distinct possible market segments: Safari camps, hunters are the most obvious. But we also believ that fishermen would be very interested in this product. They fish often at night using kerosene light to find octopussy and attract fish. This light would be perfect for their use. It could increase the catch (income) and save money on kerosene.

So far we have not been discouraged by one single person we have presented with the HiLight! And we have found uses we never thought of before.

Tomorrow is Sunday. At 07:30 we will leave here and get into the TICC Dhaw (traditional boat) to go out to a sandbank to relax, and do some diving. Life can be good.

Good Night from Tanga

18 HiLights waiting in the sun to bring light and regeneration of energy.

2010-09-24T15:55:00.001+02:00

Today we can start testing more seriously. So Linda places the HiLights on the grass outside her bungalow to give each HiLight the 10-20 hours of light it can return or alternarively charge 3 phones.
We have now placed HiLights with 3 testers: Ernest and Regina in Dar es Salaam, and Zainad here in Tanga. Tomorrow we will probably place one unit with a local family that Ruth thinks is suitable.

As I am writing this on my phone, from our LandRover we are in downtown Tanga where we have visited the largest dealer of Solar equipment. An interesting conversation started that will continue tomorrow.

We are now on our way to the Tanga Yacht Club in our search for better 3G connections.

This is a mobile posting.

Zainab Nayaro, study manager at TICC, former nursing school director

2010-09-24T11:58:00.002+02:00

We are meeting under the mango tree to have a conversation with Zainab Nayaro and to tap into her knowledge around the issue of access to the grid. Zainab formerly head of a nursing school in Tanga. Now she has just assumed the position as a Study manager here at Tanga International Conference Center.

We start to ask Zainab about how people get light if they don't have access to electricity.

People use kerosene lamps This is a cost, but also a risk. Lots of people die because of fires caused by kerosene lamps or candles. Kerosene is really expensive. That is why people are using small lamps, because it is too expensive to run the larger lamps. We have many dispensaries (health clinics) around Tanga without access to electricity. They also have to rely on kerosene lamps.

Tell us about your work

I was head of a nursing school in Tanga. When I started as principal there was a lot of nurses working without training. We changed this so they could become nurses, and now we train nurses on a regular basis. The vision has become to a bachelors degree. The nursing training is 3 years, both practical and theoretical. In this the students go out to the communities to understand the situation of the people and for practical learning.

We understand many health clinics does not have electricity, how do the nurses handle that??

Of course, the school is giving them the lamps, because they can't work without light. As a nurse, you have to know the environment, and you have to bring the torch with you. But if the battery is out, then the torch wont work. And the torch also only gives a concentrated light, when you need to light up a room. There is solar light, but we cannot afford it. We even have schools in town that does not have electricity because they cannot afford to connect to the network.
Having access to light also would make it possibly for schools to have evening classes. This would mean that people who are working could have a possibility to increase their knowledge.

The HiLight brings light and charges phones. How important is charging?

Oh many have phones. But they have to go to town to charge, or send the phone with someone going there. Some are even considering generators. But they are very noisy and it is costly with gasoline.

If you had electricity, what would be the priority?

Well, I actually have electricity in my house, that I use for TV, light, for a fridge, and for cooking. But electricity is expensive and I try to use a pressure cooker to save energy when cooking. When people here get access to electricity, I see the main priorities like this:

Light
Fridge
Television

Power shortages are a real problem here. Sometimes it can go on for a day. But we have power shortages every day. As for the school I was managing, we are poor and sometimes it is not possible to pay. Then they power company might just cut off the electrity.
I imagine, if this can work, and if this is not too expensive, this would be very interesting.

Would you like to become a HiLight Tester?

Yes, I would like to. Very much so.

Well, here is your HiLight. We will meet you in your home on Sunday. Asante sana for your time!

HiNation arrives in Dar es Salaam. The journey starts.

2010-09-22T15:52:00.012+02:00

This blog has not been updated for a couple of days as the notetaker has been in bed in a mysterious flu. But as Linda Krondahl & Kristina Linhardt arrived today it seemed that it had an influence on my wellbeing.

Looking back at the day I think it is like I told Linda and Kristina before: Don't expect anything to be according to plan, only different and better.

We are in Tanzania.

In the morning we were to get our car for the next three week - the LandRover that is used as public transportation between the Maasai community of Handeni and the town itself. The driver got lost in the district of Kariakoo, but eventually we could get together and go to the airport where Kristina & Linda was already outside.

Our first meeting was with Milou Fuglesang, a Norwegian woman who is a long time resident of Tanzania and founder of Femina HIP - a development platform that through publications and TV shows reaches over 10 million people in Tanzania, mainly at secondary schools.

We learned that 87% of Tanzania's population lives outside the grid and that the need for solar solutions is immense, but that there are many challenges where ways of distribution might be the biggest.

Later today we met with Ernest Mtaya and Regina Mchau. Ernest you have met before here. Regina is a Maasai woman from the Ngorongoro area who has for long lived in Dar es Salaam. She is an entrepreneur, owning a taxi business, a single mother of two children who is also working as an office manager for a law firm and is building her own house outside of Dar es Salaam. In our discussion we realized that the need for light and charging also exists in the city. The instability of the network means that households needs back up light. And when building a new house it can take a long time before you are connected to the power grid.

Both Ernest and Regina had very valuable views on marketing and distribuion. So we agreed that both would be our first testers of HiLight. We handed over the product together with test protocols, and will meet them again in three weeks.

Karibu Sana, Ernest and Regina!

A Maasai perspective on the Swedish election.

2010-09-19T20:13:00.010+02:00

Today is election day in Sweden and we realize that the last time we traveled together there was another election, when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, and we were staying in Himo, Kilimanjaro.

I tell Rafael that there is a chance a xenophic party will gather over 4% of the votes and therefore be represented in the parliament, and might even come into a positition where none of the two main blocks will have their own majority, with the risk of the new parting getting even more power

-Rafael, we have gone through the Immigration program of the Sweden Democrats. What do you think about their message?

-I want to say that there might be some details or grievancies where xenophobic feeling can arise, and I don't know the details of the situation. But, times are not in the seventies, and current development is not in the favour of winding the clock back when it comes to the issue of integration and multiculturalism. It is very wrong to put a plug on migrants.

Otherwise Sweden will loose the respect it has earned over the years of extending a hand to those who have ever needed help.

-As a Tanzanian and Maasai, how do you look upon the idea of "national identity"?

-Swedes should be proud of being Swedes. I wonder if ever any migrant has tempted to turn Swedes away from their culture. Here we are all Tanzanians, but the idea of one national identity is not relevant when we have more than 200 active tribes, cultures and languages. We have Swahili as a common language but each tribe has their own. We all accept each other as Tanzanians.

I wonder about the issue of having this idea or feeling that migrants are a threat.

Xenophic movements happened in South Africa where immigrants were rejected, expelled, killed because of the idea that they were taking jobs and space from local people. This was happening through slow policy changes that accelerated to violent actions. Closing ears, closing eyes and finally closing the human feelings of kindness and compassion. The risk is that Sweden could follow in the same trend, in a very slow process.

Under the current migrant policy Sweden has earned respect over the world for showing a human side of a developed nation. There is a saying here: "The more the richer, the more the miser". Sweden has rather showed "The more the richer, the more the generous"

What is your idea of multiculturalism?

-It is when everybody are free to practice whatever culture they have, but not causing problems or being critical of others.

Becoming enlightened about electricity and the needs of people

2010-09-18T11:25:00.003+02:00

Rafael got up early this morning to go home and pick up his traditional Maasai clothing. Leif slept in trying to fight a creeping feeling of flu. Our first target was a workshop for a group of science and geography teachers at Tanzania Academic International Primary School, invited by Ernest Mtaya – an artist and teacher. The school is private with children coming from all ethnical groups of Tanzania.

We introduced ourselves and then Rafael and I told the story of our improbable partnership. How discussions around how to present a website in Sweden for a public organization led to the idea of "the web site as a waterhole".

This led to interesting discussions around the meaning of a waterhole, which in its turn led to an idea of the possibility to arrange "Metaphor Safaris", leadership journeys using strong natural objects as waterholes, termite mounds, coral reefs etc as a base for deep conversations. Leif met Ruth Nesje, a Norwegian consultant at a network meeting in Netherlands, and told about the idea.

-It's a great idea! I am building a conference center in Tanzania. Let's do this together.

After doing a first Metafari in November 2007 we realized the project needed a local partner. I traveled to Tanzania in March 2008 to meet with Rafael, who Ruth said was the best Maasai in Tanzania for this purpose. Rafael and I sat under a tree for almost four days, and made foundations for the partnership we now have.

During our first Metafari together, in October 2008 we made the observation that the mobile phone is seen in most people's hands, including the Maasai. The telephone networks cover almost the whole country but access to electricity is very limitited. The Maasais in Nanyogie needs to ride the bicycle 15 km to charge their phone to a cost of up to 0,3EUR. This also accounts to the headmaster in the school of Nanyogie.

With this in account, Rafael and I was starting a conversation around "off grid community development" and in this process we met Linda Krondahl, founder of HiNation. Thanks to a government program in Sweden, "Demo Environment" we can now undertake this journey with the first 30 HiLight product, testing the feasibility and usability of the product, and discuss marketing models.

We also showed the product and how it worked. The reception was very positive, and we learned that the issue of power accessability is not only valid to the far countryside, but also to many people in Dar es Salaam. We also showed the Solvatten water purifier and was actually surprised by the positive reception for this product even here. People quickly started to calculate the price for water bottles and what it would save in the long run to have a Solvatten.

Being inspired by this visit we went to the Mediterannean Lodge at the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. We found a very good 3G connection there and could work connected to the Internet with a speed that was very good.

In the evening we met again with Regina Mchao, a Maasai women, taxi owner, single mother of two children, with a full time work at a lawyers office. She is building a new house for herself in a suburb of Dar es Salaam. After a year of living there she still does not have electricity in the house, so she has to take her Iphone and Blackberry to the office to charge them daily together with the battery powered lamps for the house.

We talked about the possibility of a network marketing model for products like HiLight and Solvatten, and possibly she will invite some friends for a home party when Linda and Kristina returns to Dar es Salaam again around Oct 15.

Meeting, connecting, exchanging in Dar es Salaam

2010-09-16T20:44:00.004+02:00

I interview Rafel about today. Rafael, what do you want to say..

-First of all it was the Day 1 of our presence around here. For you, Leif, to be aquainted with the city, the surroundings, temparuture, chaos and congestion.

-Also, well on the road to meet, exchange, and connect. Today we first went to the Vodacom head office for communication connectivity. We met a nice woman who assisted us and was eternally helpful to get us connected. Her name is Dora. She had all the patience to share, assist and direct us. The result was that we are now able to connect to Internet with all the gadgets we are bringing along.

-After a lunch at the City Garden we went for an appointment to meet Ernest Mtanga, whose name we got thrugh a friend of Leif. Ernest is an art teacher at Tanzania Academy School. He brought lots of energy to assist us in our thoughts, and with him we went to a Solar Power store and to a lawyer he knew.

-One of the peculiar thing with Ernest is that he lives in Dar es Salaam, but in a place where there is no electricity. From this he took us to a lawyer with whom we had a very interesting exchange, because of his enthusiasm and his interest in the HiLight. So it seems that charging power and light, off the grid, captures every level of Tanzanians, be it in the capitol city or the rural areas. Showing the HiLight brings people to awareness that there could be alternatives to the traditional power grid.

-This man asked interesting questions around the feasibility of the lamp. It almost felt as if he was willing to buy a couple of HiLights for his home area in Shinyanga. He was interested in meeting up with Linda and Kristina when they return to Dar.

Now, Rafael, for some Metareflections from today.

-To me, it wonderful to meet again, and to be in Dar. We have tried to exchange and to get into each other. But the first day is always to arrange and to get into things. Now we are exhausted, and ready to go to bed, to continue as soon as we are able to continue….

Transfer in Addis Ababa – Happiness is in diversity

2010-09-15T07:47:00.001+02:00

A little while ago, I was 30,000 feet up in the air. It strikes me that the position up there literally is the Metaspace. From the air you could see how lush and green the country is right now, with an abundance of water. Now I have landed in Addis, waiting to be forwarded to Dar es Salaam in about an hour. I step out from the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 757 and is greeted by fresh cool air. We enter the quite new terminal and I become filled of joy that I am now in Ethiopia for the first time, and about the diversity of the people. Coming to a new country here in Africa, however short the visit is, is like getting a new piece for a colorful puzzle.

I am imagining how it would look like with an election boot here with the "Sverigedemokraterna" – a political party with a distinct xenophobic message that might come into the parliament after the election Sept 19.

They think that Sweden is in deep trouble, and that the main reason is because of mass immigration. I can see the sign saying "Everybody should go home to their own country".

In the inflight magazine I read about Ethiopia, sending a message of pride around all the ethnic groups, languages and people that form this large country.

The airport is a wonderful space, and a new airport is always exciting. For some people this is the starting point. They head out for a journey into the unknown. For some this is the end point. They come back, bringing memories, new contacts. Maybe new insights. Or in worst case diseases. For others this is just a place to hang around for a while, waiting to move on to their final destination. And for the people working here, it's a daily transfer to another world.

We are all here waiting. I am trying to imagine the stories of all these people. These four guys with backpacks. Are they tourists, doctors, aid workers. Or maybe mercenaries? Why are there no Africans in this café? Could it be that the cappuccino cost $3?

So what are my questions here? I try to listen in to the space, to hear what it suggest.

Why do I like to travel so much?
What are my hopes for this journey?
How can I open myself up more to this space, and what would I be able to find then?
What is it with this continent that always makes me so happy arriving?
If I look at my life from 30,000 feet, what would I see then? How does it differ from being on the ground?

Tanzania, here we come!

2010-09-14T07:23:00.004+02:00

Today I am traveling to Tanzania with Ethiopian Airlines. This is what the journey is about.You can also read about it here at Meetingpoint Tanga

The Swedish Company HiNation is a new enterprize committed to produce rugged & mobile solar products for portable energy, to be used "Off Grid", in areas where there is no electricity.

The first product from HiNation is the HiLight - a Solar charged combined lamp and mobile device charger - 10 hours of charging in the sun will provide 20 hours of light or charge three mobile phones.

HiNation has been looking for ways to test the product, and to explore usability and business models.

Previously the Metafari project, developed by Rafael ole Moono and Leif Josefsson had been starting to explore the issues around Off Grid. Today many people in Tanzania have access to mobile phones, and the coverage for the networks extend far beyond where there is electricity. Hence, charging of phones is costly both in time and money for many people in Tanzania. We were looking for opportunities to bring cutting edge Off Grid technology to practical use in the areas we had be working in.

In early 2009 the current group met up in Sweden and started a discussion around how we could create a project to test the product in Tanzania. Earlier this year we learned about the "Demo Environment" program from the Swedish Agency for Sustainable Growth. HiNation decided apply for a grant, which we created in collaboration with TICC, and we were happy to learn that the application was approved in June 2010.

The Market and Feasability Study will be take place mainly in the Tanga Region in September and October 2010.

Our project group will seek contact with different user communities

* Lodges - currently offering Kerosene lamps to guests.
* Maasai settlements - possible micro business opportunities
* Health services and schools outside the grid.

There will be 6-8 test sites along the route Tanga - Lake Manyara who will each get 3-4 HiLights to use, test and evaluate during a period of 4 days - 2 weeks.

For more information please contact
HiNation
Linda Krondahl: linda@hination.se
Kristina Linhardt: kristina@hination.se

Metafari
Rafael Ole Moono: olemoono@gmail.com
Leif Josefsson: leif.josefsson@gmail.com

TICC
Ruth Nesje: r.nesje@online.no

Link: www.hination.org

Metaphors of Mathematics

2010-09-12T17:57:00.002+02:00

My son Emil and I discuss the consequences of the book "Where mathematics come from" by George Lakoff. We test an idea on the plexiglass board.

The Y axis shows value of cos x. The X axis shows degrees. We illustrate with the metaphor of a wave and/or a clock (circle).

Emil becomes incredibly proud when he finds this illustration at page 392 after he made the illustration on the board. So we have now added Metamatics to our concept.

A Metaspace exploration at Drottningholm

2010-09-02T17:14:00.004+02:00

Exploring the concept of Metaspace in Drottningholm and Ekerö, just outside Stockholm

Johanna Nordström & Leif Josefsson elaborating around the idea in two locations, using the new invention plexiglass drawing board.

If you want to see the slideshow on full page, just click on the image.

The Fårö Metaspace of Langhammars, with the spirit of Bergman

2010-08-29T07:25:00.006+02:00

I finally get to explore a part of Fårö with the ideas of Metafari, or Metaspace as it presents itself with. Barbara Sjogren visits me on her way back to her home in Cairo. We go to the Rauk area of Langhammars first in the afternoon of one day, and then in the early morning next day.

Just before whe leaves I ask here these questions:

Who are you?

-Barbara Sjogren, I am an artist and a teacher, a tree that lives by the sea. I was born in Tanzania and raised in the Midwest. As an adult I moved to California and later Maine and New York. After 11 years of teaching High School art in New York City I moved to Sheik Zayed City, close to Cairo to learn about Pharaonic and Islamic art, while teaching.

-The end of August is very hot in Egypt and I needed a place to cool down. This was a revisit to my fatherland Sweden where I last was in 1966. At that time I was a young teenager in Europe for the first time. After 44 years, I still feel the same way.

-I chose to visit you, my dear friend Leif who I have known since 1972 when you were a teenager/exchange student in my parents home in Omaha, Nebraska

Describe the place we explored

-We went to Langhammar, Fårö. - A space by the sea where the earth and the sea meets. The formations are of limestone, where the hard parts of the rock has been staying in place while the softer parts have been eroded away by wind and water as the land has risen out of the water.

-There is an incredible feeling of the place, as you are walking on the bottom of a very ancient,

tropical, seabed that has now been lifted to become the beach.

What thoughts or questions did the place evoke in you?

-I noticed that the feeling of grandure and the feeling of intimacy was two opposite feelings, yet both very positive. The very same place gave me both feelings.

-The next was the return to a belief that every individual is it’s own seed of personality that develops in a unique way. There is a kernel that unique to each individual personality, with traits that need to be nurtured differently from every other kernel. Each individual spirit is determined in a genetic way but nurtured by the cultural and social environment

-And then the familiarity of the space the second time I visited created a feeling of comfort in me. The first time you are in a place, you are trying to figuring out the place to find the landmarks. The first time I went here, the day before, was as a tourist. I did not even realize I was back in the same place!. The strangers at the place, the tourists, kept me from the feelings of this place. I was not able to reflect when I went to the place as a tourist. But the second time I could.

After Langhammar we pass by the small fishing village of Helgumannen, we stop by the rauk area of Digerhuvud and we step into the small shelter and former office of the Lauterhorn pilots and customs official. Finally we visit the grave of Ingmar Bergman who lived at Fårö for the later part of his life.

And I say goodbye to Barbara, and we decide that next time we meet will be in Cairo to explore the Metaspace idea there. Tanzania, Shetland, Orkney, Scotland, Western Isles, Fårö, Cairo. Where will this idea bring us in the future?

Metaspace - The Collaboratory

2010-08-27T09:58:00.005+02:00

Johanna Norström and I decide to meet and continue the conversation we started before the summer.

-Where can we meet?

I think. A hotel lobby? A café?

-Why don't we meet in the forest?

-Great idea

So we meet at the parking lot of Hammarbybacken, at the entrance of a wilderness area very close to central Stockholm.

And suddenly we are on a Metafari/Metasaga... But actually we realize that what the place offers us it a Metaspace. So we get a new word. We realize that what we have found is the most wonderful conference facility imaginable.

I try to explain the idea of Metafari/Metasaga. We struggle around it, but then I see the Lusthus/Gazebo of Sickla gård and I ask Johanna if she would like to do a Meta... on the space. It becomes the Metaspace, and evokes a conversation that triggers us both.

Real life connection in Kirkwall with Kate Coutts

2010-08-07T15:57:00.011+02:00

"Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far into the future,you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way in to the answer?"
Rainer Maria Rilke 1903

I am to meet Kate Coutts outside the St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall at 10:00. The sun is shining, and it's a little windy.

When we shake hands it is the first time we have met, or even talked although we have been collaborating for two years.

Kate starts to tell me that the Cathedral is owned by nobody but belonging to the people of Orkney. I struggle with the idea. Is there no ownership? I go to the website of the Cathedral and find: "The Cathedral belongs to the people of Orkney and its doors are open to all".

This week the Flower Festival is going on in the church. Different Flower arrangment clubs from Orkney have each made a flower arrangement on the theme: "Once upon a time". The purpose is to raise funds for the keeping of the church, and you are asked to make a donation on entering.

A Space, welcoming everybody. Kate thinks the Cathedral is a good metaphor for the Metasaga.

The Metasaga of Orkney started here in Kirkwall with teachers from all islands of Orkney gathering in the Town Hall. Each island around one table.

The groups were asked to identify a number of places in their environment that could be a Metasaga place, and for each place think about Values, Tasks, a Soundtrack and some questions.

Back home at their schools they would work with the children to identify Metasagas for their islands. Ideally a Metasaga should have 5 or 6 stops where one student would be the host to each stop. The places, information about them, and questions have been worked out by the students themselves. For each of the islands then a booklet was produced with selected Metasaga stops.

This booklet is sold at the Tourist information and in some shops for £1. You can also find them here!

So what is the Metasaga/Metafari idea, I ask Kate. "It's a learning journey, or just a modern pilgrimage. An ancient tradition that we re-package for today. When you are on a pilgrimage walk you are taking turns, walking together. The fluidity of conversation as you move forward.

As for my self, I sense happiness after my two hours with Kate. Maybe we could invite people from around Europe to do a Metasaga around Orkney, where also the journey here would be part of it.

I am already dreaming of coming back. Maybe to the Ba game.... See the film below

Lyness, Hoy

2010-08-06T22:49:00.007+02:00

The intention of this morning was to go to Westray, where the school has created another Metasaga. With a ferry from Kirkwall at 11:10 it would give me morning time to sleep a little later, and to write in the morning. My host, Ida, took me to the harbour just to see the boat leaving. I had looked at the wrong day.

But there was a ferry from Houton to Lyness, Hoy, which would allow me to further explore the Hoy Metasaga.

I am discovering that being on a Metajourney is something very different from ordinary traveling. It takes time, and energy. You are exploring the landscape, and what happens, differently when you listen to what happens inside you, and what questions that come up out of what you experience. But you also learn a lot about what you are exploring, when you take the time to listen both to the place and what happens inside you.

Lyness was Britains main naval base in two world wars. Over 20,000 people worked and lived here at these times. This is evident wherever you go. Remains of piers, roads, houses are everywhere. There is a wonderful museum in Lyness, the Scapa Flow visitor Centre. Go there if you have a chance.

I start to walk south. The landscape is open, and the wind is almost warm. In my rucksack I have a beer and a sandwich, and I am getting ready for a lunch break. North Walls School offers me the refuge I need, the school that is one of the Metasaga schools of Orkney. I have traveled this far, and here in this empty school they have worked to produce a Metasaga guide for Hoy.

Later in the museum I buy the Hoy Metasaga booklet for £1.

My planning mistake from the morning led me to the best place to be.

A couple of questions get to me.

-Tell about a time when a mistake tead to something interesting and valuable

-What are you keeping to yourself that others might find useful, if they knew about it?

-What is important to keep and cherish, even though you have moved further?

Slide show from my whole Scottish Metasaga below.

Old Man of Hoy

2010-08-05T21:52:00.000+02:00

It was 36 years since a passed the Old Man of Hoy with the ferry from Scrabster to Stromness. Like no other piece of natural art the Old Man has stayed in my memory, and I have wanted to see him again.

Now, thanks to Lesley Wilson, Kate Coutts, and the schools of Orkney there is a natural reason to visit the Old Man.

He is a 150 meter high stone formation that was formed probably only 400 years back when the thin ridge leading out to him collapsed and left him standing there alone. Earlier there was an arch at the bottom giving him a look of a man with legs, thus the name.

To get there I took the bus to Stromness, and then the passenger ferry. Getting up on the pier I discovered a minibus service to Rackwick, which provided a good starting point for the walk to the Old Man. The beauty of this walk is extraordinary, and I was treated with blue skies and a warm sun. The man was in good mood. So what did we talk about?

Well, that's almost to private to bring up here. But I certainly found some very good ideas, and I believe I made an important decision about future directions.

He also inspired to some questions.

-Which is your chosen path? In what direction are you heading?

-What makes you stand out in the landscape around you?

-You have reached a goal. Now what?

-In what way do you feel proud of what you stand for?

-How can you carry the feeling of achievement with you for a longer time?

-Is bigger or more better? If so, why?

I was happy when I walked back on the trail to the ferry to Stromness. Looking through my pictures I wanted to see if I had managed to get an image from the same spot as the picture I have from 1974. And I had. It felt like a time machine.

Metasaga Destination # 4: Kirkwall

2010-08-04T10:54:00.000+02:00

It's been a strange day. I am not sure that Kirkwall likes me.

A lonely day.

Definitely.

I reached the goal, then so what?

On the other hand, this is a place with a visible human history more than 5000 years back.

Neolitic, Viking, Norwegian, Scottish.

Maybe the town wants to teach me patience.

I thought I had forgotten to bring the Orkney Schools Metasaga printout with me, but it was in my rucksack the whole time. I just did not look in the right place.

I read some questions from the Orkney School of Ambition Metasaga in Kirkwall

The questions has been created for primary school students.

Questions around the Royal Oak Memorial.

Warship that was sunk by a German submarine in 1939. 900 dead. Most of them very young

-What does belonging mean to you?

-What is your life motto?

Questions around John Rae's tomb in the cathedral

John Rae was a famous explorer

-In what ways have you explored something new?

-Have you ever had to stand your ground when people did not believe what you said?

Questions around Tankernes

s House Museum and Groatie Buckie House

paintings by the famous Orkney painter Stanley Cursiter

-How does it make you feel when you do something for your community?

-What do you think people will remember you for?

My own questions

-Why did I come here?

-What do I wish to find?

-What do I need to feel welcome?

-Do I fear to become obsolete and be thrown away?

-What would I like to be the text on my tomb?

-How does it make me feel, finding my ideas here, printed and practiced, in Orkney?

-What happens with the harbours I left behind?

-How does a small harbour town make me feel and behave differently?

-Where do I feel at home?

-Why did the cows welcome me so warmly?

I walk back to my wonderful Bed & Breakfast 2 miles outside Kirkwall. The owners, Ida and Balfour invites me and the other guest to

their living room. As night falls we fall into conversations, telling stories about island life, children, grandchildren language, dialects and journeys. At 1:30AM I fall into bed, prepared for next day. Meeting Old Man of Hoy

The journey from Aberdeen to Kirkwall

2010-08-03T23:30:00.000+02:00

The Ferry from Aberdeen to Kirkwall is quite new and comfortable.

It is smaller than the ferry between Gotland and the mainland.

But the waters it travels through are way rougher. I get filled of lust to come back a windy November journey....

I leave my computer and rucksack in the lounge to go out on deck to say goodbye to Aberdeen. When the ship leaves the harbour I get filled by a feeling of being at home.

Coming back to the lounge my rucksack is gone. Security has taken it and stored it in the luggage room. "No unattended luggage". I am puzzled. I left it and felt safe as there were people around. And I realize I am an islander by heart. Taking for granted that people are to be trusted.

Looking for information I get taken by surprize to find the Metasaga leaflet on display on the ship. My name is on the second page, as the initial inspirer for the concept!

I come to talk with the couple next to me. Audrey & Alan Findlay from Aberdeen left Orkney 40 years ago and are going back to visit family. They had been to Gotland! I realize again that one trait of being an islander is the relational conversations. Finding out how we are connected through different relationships.

I feel at home aboard a ship. After a couple of hours, time starts to dissolve. You enter a floating state where all ambitions to do something useful fades away. Suddenly we arrive to the harbour of Kirkwall, just when I thought I'd could continue for much longer.

Questions come up

When, or in what situations, do you feel really at home?
If you think of a harbour as metaphor for the place you feel at home, what kind of harbour would it be?
In what ways do you feel differently being on a sea voyage in comparison to other means of transportation? Going by car, train, bus or air? What does being on a sea voyage create in you?
How do you feel safe onboard

My personal Metasaga in Scotland & Orkney

2010-08-03T23:02:00.004+02:00

I am walking along the quays of Aberdeen. The road is on one side, and the supply and service ships for the oil and gas fields is on the other sides. There is a roar from the ships; A deep and almost threatening sound that would make conversations impossible if I was not alone.

This is real stuff, I think. Man made, and man constructed. Why did I not become one of the men who designed and built this?

Like yesterday, when I was at the Falkirk wheel, I am walking in the midst of the optimum of what we can achieve as humans.

The ships, designed to go out to the oil rigs, regardless of weather. The Diving Support Vessel (DSV) which is designed to support the deep sea divers impresses me even more. Men will climb into diving suits at those ships, and be lowered into the North Sea to dive down to 300 meters or more.

The harbor shakes me up. The very concrete functions of those purposefully built ships. The very extreme levels of knowledge and skills it takes to create such complex machinery, that is to fulfill it's work together with even more complex structures.

In Stockholm and other similar cities it’s about design, internet, café culture. Post modern. We are at the centre of the new world. We think. At the height of development. We believe. But what is that compared to an Oil rig, the pipelines and all the support structures around it. Bah!

What have I achieved in life? The first question pops up. Where do I want to be? In the safe harbor, or out at the sea? Another question. What sorts of achievements feel valuable for me? Questions start popping up.

I board the ship to Orkney and within minutes I get a response to my questions. In the brochure stand in the entrance deck, I see the leaflet about Metasaga!

“Orkney Schools Metasaga – Developing leadership skills at all levels” “Inspiration for developing …. Metasaga came from Kate Coutts, who was initially inspired by the work of Leif Jossefson in Tanzania…”

So ideas and conversations can spread over the world, and take new shapes. Maybe one does not have to be a physical builder to make an impact!

The Falkirk wheel

2010-08-02T23:12:00.004+02:00

The Falkirk wheel is a construction which lifts boats and barges 25 meters vertically through an ingenius and yet simple construction.

It is also a Metasaga station, and has been used by Lesley Wilson on a number of occations. I met Lesley at a network meeting in Tönsberg, Norway in April 2008. I told about the Metafari project. She liked the idea, went back to Scotland and told it to Kate Coutts. Kate is a school leader from Unst in the Shetland Islands. Kate liked it so much that she tested the idea on a beach in Unst in 2008. She reframed it to be Metasaga. Kate and I collaborated through this blog, and you find her initial Metasagas here: metafari.blogspot.com/search/label/Metasaga

To this date, Kate and I have not met or even talked to each other. Since I first got in touch with Kate I have wanted to go here to be inspired of the work that has been done with Metasaga in Scotland, Orkney and Shetlan.

And now the opportunity has come. So today I am meeting with Lesley Wilson here at the Falkirk wheel for a conversation and to do a Metasaga experience here in Falkirk.

I am now also starting a picture journey. You can see it grow here below as new images are added day for day.

Kate Coutts has described the Metasaga this way:

"Metasaga is a journey thorugh the culture, heritage and physical landscape. It is like a philosophical treasure hunt, but at the same time it helps you to discover yourself. It helps leaders at all levels reframe their thinking using metaphor, narrative, tradition and artifacts found in their own physical environment. It combines the business techniques of non-directive coaching, dialogue and appreciative inquiry with the traditional storytelling teaching of our culture, the Norse saga.

(if you click on the slideshow below you can enlarge the images and also control speed)

Some words on what is going on with Metafari

2009-11-01T13:09:00.005+01:00

It can seem as not much have happened lately with this project. But even though we have postponed the next Metafari in Tanzania for practical reasons the idea is living.

This is what has happened the last few months.

Metasaga /Metasgeul is a leadership concept that is now established in Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles. You can follow it on their wiki: http://metasaga.wikispaces.com
Kate Coutts is doing some really interesting work. She is also blogging her in the Metafari blog.

My Maasai partner from Tanzania, Rafael Ole Moono, is now using Twitter to share experiences from his life as a community mediator and activist.
Find him on www.Twitter.com/Olemoono or connect to him in Facebook: Rafael Ole Moono
For me, Leif Josefsson, the challenge is now to find a way to "package" and describe the ideas so that we can launch 2-4 Metafaris next year in Sept-Nov.
I am working with a couple of good friends and partners on this.
With Bengt Daniel Richardsson I will try to do some business development around the concept, and maybe also take it to the Swedish arctic area, and the stories there.
With Eva Wetterdal I want to drill down to describe the core of the ideas. Good ideas take time to develop.

I call the Metafari "Open Source Leadership development". Please join to think, post, develop, steal or just inspire. Let me know what you think!

Thank you!

The Story of the landcase between the Maasai and local farmers in Handeni, Tanzania

2009-09-21T21:40:00.002+02:00

This story might give you some ideas of the challenges to our life as Maasai people

Some guys came to our neighborhood village and sold to people living there land which is our pastures for small livestock for the past 30 years.

We have neighbors who are no Maasai who have been living on this land for many years but were later taken to villages in the villageisation process that took place in 1971.

In this process all Tanzanians were required to be in the villages so they can be reached by social services. Most people were brought to villages except the Maasai who escaped to be in villages because we are nomadic people.

But where we settled now is near to a village of cultivators because of permanent water sources nearby. So our immediate neighbors are cultivators with whom we for many years have agreed to share land use and accept to bordering of limits in their expansion when cultivating. So when you come to our villages you find these places which look empty or uninhabited but they are actually our small stock pasture which is our backyard.

One guy who knew that someone had money and needed land came and decided to sell the places that look empty and got some friends to sign as people who own and want to sell the land. The guys with money went on to buy.

So what happens is that we who live in the neighborhood suddenly find people busy working to cultivate these areas. When we ask what happened they say “We have bought this land”.

So we wonder about which village leader authorized this?

Then it became even more complicated because the ten cell leader who is the lowest in the government leadership is among the sellers of land which is not even neighboring him. He says his grandfather was cultivating this place in the 60s. So we Maasai pastoralists are newcomers to the place, therefore it is not our land.

I was asked at official capacity of Imusot e Purka to give help to this situation since my work is on making advocacy and awareness to the community and the government on various issues concerning pastoralists. It is also mediate on many land conflicts between pastoralist and cultivators.

I gave these people two choices..

First, which would be my own choice, is to go and throw away the intruders so they start to go away to complain at whatever level of government they choose. This would have given the local people an upper hand in running the whole issue. It is easier to tell someone he is an intruder when they are on the complaining side.
Second follow the government procedure of solving the land conflicts which is going from one office to another requesting for judgment that involves long processes which is a magnet for corrupt people and corruption to win.

My friends chose the second option which will take more time because they trusted that the village government will see the truth and give them justice quickly. Also it is peaceful. I told them “Welcome to the agony of follow ups money consumption until you are drained empty and exhausted before you reach the justice”. When they went there the case was decided in favor of the land sellers on the ground that it is true that the land was truly cultivated by the relatives of the land sellers. The inside of the matter was later mentioned as the fact that the ten cell leader who officiated the selling of the land is a relative of the village government chairman.

So the other fellow could not make a decision contrary to the relative at the lower level. They also knew that people from these places do not know where to go next.

The community came to me to ask for what next and I directed them to make an appeal at the higher level which is the ward level. At the ward level they should have a proper hearing of bringing the complaining party and the accused party together for face to face meeting and discussions.

Also the land committee should see what land is being disputed on the ground to establish the truth of the matter. These committees never made these parties meet and they never made a visit to see the areas of dispute. Finally they made a ruling to uphold the decision of the lower land committees. The main ground of losing being the tribal hatred that makes people in my area object to the selling of land. The government people think it is not right that there is a dispute caused by tribal differences. It was never explained how this was manifested in the proceedings.

So the plaintiff community lost the case and has 45 days to appeal at the higher level which then becomes the district house and land tribunal. This district tribunal is situated in Tanga, the regional headquarters. This means costs to go to Tanga for as long as the case is not finished. The village people can’t afford this and it is a good reason for them to loose their rights. We requested for the ruling document and in it there were many irregularities from which I drafted points for a rerun of the case because crucial points were not put into consideration when making the last ruling.

The ward committee refused to make the rerun saying that their ruling was final and the matter can only be appealed at the higher level because they were not in position to do this again. So we used the same points of appeal to get to the higher tribunal which are:-

There has never been a case because the sellers of the land and the plaintiff have never been brought together to meet face by face for each to argue their case so he truth is determined from their arguments.
It has never been made clear which statute of law was used to justify the ruling in favor of the defendants.
The plaintiffs have been living and using the land for the past 30 years and the sellers of land don’t live near to the land they sold.
They never used it for the past 30 years so what what gives them the right to claim possession of the land they sold.
Why is ruling always made only to uphold the erroneous procedure made by the lower level without questioning any bit in the whole procedure? This has made us feel that something is wrong with the people who are making this ruling on this procedure. Is there corruption??
The land which is being contested is being utilized by the ones who bought it when the law says when the land is in dispute then all activity should stop. How is this possible and why are these guys having all these favors before the land committees??

The point of difficulty which we brought as a reason for the miscarriage of justice the distance from Handeni to Tanga which many people cant afford.

These and many other issues were brought forward in our appeal as irregularities in the whole process. While waiting for the answer for the re run at the ward level we ran out of the deadline for appeal. They refused and gave this answer after the 45 days deadline and we had to first struggle to have our appeal to be accepted at the higher level. This we managed as we had all reasons as to why we could be in tanga on time to lodge our cases.

The process of district house and land tribunal involves sending court summons 3 times to the defendants and when they don’t appear the case is run with one side hearing because the other side has not appeared without any reasons known to the court.

The last date of our presence in court September 14, 2009 was to set the time to start the hearing without the plaintiffs. The next date is set for the October 15, 2009 to start the hearing.

Right now there is so much food shortage such that food is very expensive and no that much money for people to afford food let alone money to travel for a case hearing some more than 270 kilometers away.

We look forward to the hearing on the 15/10.

2009-09-05T09:08:00.002+02:00

Abstract

Metasaga is a journey through the culture, heritage and physical landscape. It allows leaders at all levels to engage in deep self- reflection by exploring their environment. It utilises a strengths-based, whole system approach to evaluate how they operate as leaders and the performance of the organisation they lead. It makes leaders at all levels reframe their thinking using metaphor, narrative, tradition and artefacts found in their own physical environment. It combines the business techniques of non-directive coaching, dialogue and appreciative inquiry with the traditional storytelling teaching of our culture,be that the Norse saga or Gaelic “sgeul”.

Metasaga has been used in both the private and public sector ,especially Education where pupils and staff have travelled together to create innovative courses on leadership development.

“ The Metasaga is a fantastic tool, as it encourages the young people involved to explore their local culture and understand their place in the wider world, while developing key skills such as team work and leadership.”

Adam Ingram ( Scottish Government minister for children and early years) following his participation in the Kirkwall Metasaga.

How perspective can change over a day through a contact across the Atlantic.

2009-06-01T23:02:00.003+02:00

This morning I was ready to scrap the idea of the Metafari. Although it had given myself so much, I felt serious doubt about the idea, and about the possibility of getting people to join.

But a mail from across the Atlantic changed it all in a few minutes. Some wise words gave a new light to the idea, and brought the passion out again. Yes this is something of value, and yes, we are looking for journey comrades!

We are, I think, moving into a time when organizational structures will be much less rigid and fixed than ever before, and they will keep changing with the participants.

I think perhaps the essence of networks, for the future, is in the relationships between people, and (as Harrison Owen says) "holding the space" for the relationships at those various levels. So I think what you are doing, what a number of us are doing, is pioneering a new way of being together in organizational structures, that is very creative and also very challenging.

We are having to imagine new relationships and new structures, without a lot of direction or pattern to go on.

It is like that wonderful image Margaret Wheatley offers, in one of her books, of how the old rusting machinery is sinking into the ground and the green grass is growing up all around it and soon covers over the machinery. That green grass is springing up everywhere, in no particular pattern, but it creates a pattern. The question is, "how do you organize grass?" :) And maybe that is a silly question - maybe the question is how do we make the space available for the grass to grow?

Best regards,
Rosemary Cairns
Internationa Association of Facilitators

Join us in Tanzania Sept 19 for Metafari YaTatu

2009-04-28T22:05:00.001+02:00

This is to invite anyone who would like to join the next Metafari, starting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on September 2009.

http://www.metafari.com

The Metafari is not a traditional course in any way, it's an experience journey. What it could give to you, I have no idea of. To me it has provided so much that even if nobody joins anymore I am happy enough for what I have invested through three trips and 7 weeks in Tanzania since Nov 2007

I have, on a much deeper level, understood about my competencies and about my skills. And about my capacity to use them in new environments
I have gained a new understanding of organisations as living systems in contrast of organisations as machinery.
The mangrove Tidal Swamp in Tanga also gave me some surprisingly effective personal tools to manage moods.

Rafael ole Moono has also become one of my very best friends, and a natural partner. Rafael is a Retired Warrior/Younger Elder born on the Maasai steppe north of Handeni Tanzania. He was one of the very few of his agegroup who got to go to school. After primary school and 8 years in the Benedectiner School close to Kilimanjaro the idea was for him to be a scholar of some kind, but he chose to return to his settlement to work as a mediator. He has a NGO called "Imusot e Purka" which in Ma means appr "Awareness to All"

The Metafari is not a Safari. And it is not a course where we visit a Maasai village and then give our reflections on "them". Rafael is my partner, and our local connection. Being a Maasai we can work directly with English and Maasai languge when we stay at the Nanyogie Maasai Settlement.

The Metafari has been made possible thanks to Ruth Nesje who is building the Tanga International Conference Center in Tanga, Tanzania. The http://www.MeetingPointTanga.net is built on the principles of Appreciative Inquiry and is a totally amazing effort.

Joining the Metafari will take your journey from Dar es Salaam, to the waterhole of Mikumi National Park, into the amazing story of Ruth's dreams and for a deep encounter with the Maasai people of Nanyogie Settlement.

After the Metafari you can stay at the Centre, or explore Zanzibar, the Usambara mountains or whatever you might want to do. Ruth and her staff will be able to arrange whatever you dream about to explore.

Finally.... People ask me about "selling" something like this in the big crisis. I have two personal answers...

From Rafael: Aha, so the economy has gone down 5%.... Well wait until it has gone down 90%... Then we will be in more equal positions.
Maybe it is just now that we desperately need new perspectives. And to look for new answers within ourselves with the help of new teachers. Like the Waterhole, the Termite mound, The Tidal Swamp. Or from each others

Welcome to join!

Please explore www.metafari.com for images, films. Join or create your own Meta[?]

ps. At the bottom you see. "Metafari - Open Source Leadership course" - Kate Coutts of Shetland Island took this as a challenge. So there is now a Metasaga which is an official part of the School Leadership Training of Shetland/Orkney/Western Isles
Kate is bloggin in the Metafari Blog: http://metafari.blogspot.com/search/label/Metasaga

What can the place teach us?
Leif Josefsson

Rafael connects from Tanzania

2009-04-21T12:10:00.004+02:00

Hi Leif,

It was just a moment to get lost where there is no mobile telefone coverage and it doesnt feel like very bad as such.

I felt a relief of what it is like without all the beeps and rings. I have been fine and was able to meet Ruth in one of the times I came to Dar. She mentioned coming to Barcelona. I am working on some conflict situation around my home and my village area so I am kind of less in Town.

I just got a working visitor, a Norwegian who is interested to work in a maasai village as a nurse volunteer. I admire the thought and the courage to live in this back end of maasai village life.

Getting permits has been like very hectic but it looks like it shall be possible in the soonest.

I am fine and going on well just yesterday I got time to read the metafari weblogg. Perhaps direct on any input you think we should work on otherwise how many people are there sofar???

How is the economic crisis in europe??In africa it is always economic crisis so no chocks as such. The bigest shock is very small rain which translates in the low harvest and therefore food shartage in Tanzania the whole coming year. It is a problem that arrives as you see and so we are looking forward to the scale of the situation.

It is great news about Linda. I admire her effort and vision to support and reach the off target direction of world underpriviledged people.

I have the phone working very well yesterday when i connect to Latitude I end up between the mainland and Zanizbar. Some satelites this phone and show totaly a wonderful fenomena of placing me in India and god knows where next.

How is Your end and the family??? I send all of you regards from this end and am relieved to know that it is summer probably otherwise it is sad for winter everyday around your life.

For now I send regards to you and lets communicate as I am available.

Bye for now.

The man in the bush

Rafael
Rafael ole Moono
p.o box 17 Handeni
Tanzania
tel: +255 784 499 332

On 4/8/09, Leif Josefsson <leif.josefsson@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Rafael!

It was a long time since. How are you? what's up? It feels empty without the lifesigns. And we need to move forward if we want something to happen around the next Metafari.

I hope to present some more ideas on our network meeting in Barcelona in two weeks, and would appreciate more frequent contact with you. One way is to see you more frequent in Facebook updating your status, with small stories about what you do.

I hope your Nokia phone works. Your story is so interesting, and it is very simple to use the tools.

Well, no more for now before I hear from you. Then hope to have closer contact.

Your friend

Leif

--
Leif Josefsson
Förenklare / Facilitator
LeanderLeander AB
Communicate & Change
Ölandsgatan 48 - 116 63 Stockholm - tel +46 (0)70-773 00 54

www.leanderleander.com

Fårö Metafari

2009-04-10T17:49:00.003+02:00

I have gone to the island of Fårö where our family has a summer house. The small island is also know to be the home of Ingmar Bergman, and here is also where he is buried. His modest grave is to the right.
Fårö gives you space to think. Coming here you calm down, become sleepy. After a couple of days you start to sleep longer in the mornings. In fact, already when you are on the 6 minute ferry that takes you to Fårö you start to feel sleepy.
Today I took a walk around "Alnäsa träsk", the small lake behind our house. It's a 7 km walk in a beautiful landscape of stone, colors of grey and green. And you are alone at this time of the year, before the tourists come.
I have been experimenting with Twitter for the last week or so, and now I am exploring the use to Twitpic which makes it possible to post pictures directly from the phone. So I look at the landscape with the eyes of a camera, sending images to Twitter with some words connected to them. You can follow my Twitter stream here
It is interesting to think how we could use this technology in a Metafari or a Metasaga.

sheer indulgence

2009-03-18T22:09:00.003+01:00

Although the day was dry and sunny there was a strong wind and the group were cold. ONly one way to finish off such a Metasaga was to head for the Highland Chocolatier.

Sheer Indulgence indeed!

How do you indulge yourself?

How do you treat your loved ones?

What brings sweetness to your life?

Before that we finished the walk off with a Celtic blessing.

The River roars by

2009-03-18T22:08:00.003+01:00

We crossed the road from the station yard and found ourselves on the banks of the very high river. Right on cue , a raft of teenagers came down the river. We could hear their excited shrieks above the noise of the river. WAW! The power of the river roaring over the rapids. The sheer excitement of the rafters. Both raw energy.

What does it for you? What excites you? How do you really let off steam?

A road less travelled

2009-03-18T22:06:00.004+01:00

At the far end of the station yard the road bridge crosses the footpath. It forms a gateway, a place of transition from the known to the unknown. Are you willing to take a risk and enter the wild woods? Is it frightening or is it an adventure? Are you standing on the threshold, doubting the way ahead?

"Our doubts are traitors,And make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt." Shakespeare

The f0lk taking part in this Metasaga were given the option of returning here to walk once the tour was over. Watch out for the Gruffalo!