Thanks Stella

Hi Raul, hope you do manage to make it! That's the thing about being scattered all over the world, its complicated to find a time when everyone is available :)

If anyone else would like to join, please let us know.

Mary

Hi all,
I'm afriad I can't make a chat this weekend, but can the content please be put up on this site so others can read over it afterwards ?
Thanks.

Hi Barry

Sorry to hear that, but thanks for letting us know.

Yes, I will definitely post details of what we talk about so that others can read and comment.

Mary

Dear all,
Also I will not be able to join the chat. Furtheron I think that the plan Barry has posted, deserves a compliment. And I feel that it gives a good outline of the steps we have to take. Maybe you can talk about it tomorrow and let us know, afterwards, how we can help.
Regards,
Nico

I will be in the chat 99% sure.

Raul

Hi everyone

tella, Raul and I had a chat this morning. This was a good constructive session which helped us all to understand each other better. This, and the information Stella will provide, should give us a good starting point.

The people in Omiito don't just have ideas, several groups have also been taking some practical actions to get things moving.

We talked about some of these actions but I won't attempt to describe them now as Stella is going to post a complete list with much more specific information on exactly what they have done as soon as she is able to.

Raul suggested a way for Stella to describe what they have done, which he called the news reporting technique. This describes things in a way that is clear to people like us who are not familiar with the situation on the ground, in a similar way to what a news reporter would do.

He gave an example

WHO: Who is involved (women head of families in Omiito)
WHAT: What have they done? (they got together and visited X number of houses)
WHERE: Where are the actions taking place (they are meeting in the community hall
WHEN: When and how often (they are getting together once a week )
WHAT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED: The result of the action (they have managed to secure at least 30 hosting homes for potential tourists)

(note the numbers and places are just examples)

Stella is going to use this format for listing what has been done so far, for both the tourism project and for the groups that wish to receive volunteers.

A school in Omiito have also started to produce a plan for part of the project. We did not have time to talk about exactly what they are doing, but Stella is going to provide details of that too.

Having this level of information will make it much easier for us all to understand what has been done so far, and will make it possible to work out what still needs to be done, and how we on Nabuur can best assist with the process.

So... I good positive session - thanks guys!

Mary

Hey Mary,

Glad to hear that it was a good, constructive chat. Looking forward to reading from Stella.

Sonja

Hello everyone,

I agree with Mary, I also felt it was a very positive meeting and I think we an improved communication we will be able to move forward in a smooth and effective way.

Raul

Hi everyone!

Stella sent me a text to say that she hopes to post the information by the end of the week.

Once we have it, I will set up a separate task for further discussion of the best way forward.

Mary

Hi everyone

Stella has emailed me a list of the actions that have been carried out so far in Omiito, and asked me to post it to the Nabuur site. It is attached to this post. Thanks Stella!

I have not had a chance to read it in detail yet (hope to do that tomorrow). I would welcome comments from others.

Mary

OMIITO LIST OF ACTIVITIES as at 22 November 2008.doc

Hi Stella

I have been reading your document. It is good to see that ou have many people involved, also that they appear to have done quite a lot of work for themselves.

A few questions/comments:

1. You use the initials MDD and IEC - what do these stand for?

2. "6 key district authorities mobilized to be part of the project".
Please can you explain exactly what assistance the local authorities will be able to provide e.g. training to community members, financial support, publicity etc?

3. Do the campsites already exist, or is this something you are hoping to create?

4. You have identified a lot of groups wanting volunteers. Assuming you can find them, where will these volunteers live while working in Omiito?

5. You have also identified a lot of volunteer support required by IDA. Is this all focused on setting up the tourism project? If so, are you hoping this can all be done by volunteers who actually visit Omiito, or can some of it be done via Nabuur e.g. with the assistance of people like Barry who have practical experience?

6. It seems to me that it should be possible to start this project in stages, building gradually over time as people develop their skills, and more contacts are made.
For example:
You have contact with local hotels, lodges etc. Would they be interested in the services of the 5 guides, also the cultural displays and food?
Would people staying there like to spend a night in the village as part of their stay?
If so, the people involved may be able to start earning money while the more complicated planning for larger-scale things such as the campsites are going on.

7. In the chat, you also said that a local school in Omiito are doing some planning work. Please can you explain more about this

Would really appreciate thoughts from others!

Mary

Sorry I have not been able to reply with my comments on Stella's information.

I will try soon.

Raul

Hi Stella and Mary,

Stella: Thanks for putting all this info together. It really starts to make much more sense and I do not feel even near as confused to how I felt before our chat. Great that you decided to populate the info on the table as it also makes it a lot easier to understand.

Apart from Mary’s questions/comments, at this stage I do not feel I have too much to add to get a better idea of what’s happening.

As we have shared with you before, we feel there is more work needed before we undertake any task related with contacting travel agencies to send volunteers.

If you ask my opinion, I think a good project would be to write the operational plan which then we would have to divide into steps like, find similar operational plans, start identifying the different components in Omiito and similar things. What do everyone think?. Any other idea on the next steps to take from here?.

In my personal case, I would feel much more confident to start contacting travel agencies and organisation about sending volunteers. We al agree that will happen but with a well developed plan then it will be alto easier to get more people on board and we will be sure we have covered anything that is required before we take that step.

I look forward to hearing everyone’s comments.

Raul

Hi Raul

I would agree with you that creating an operational plan would be a good idea. Stella, what do you think?

Also, please can you explain how much detailed planning work has already been done by the community e.g. by the school you mentioned in chat, also let us have a copy of any plan documents they have produced.

As we already have a task about finding volunteers I will leave that open too as the information will be helpful in the future.

Mary

I have had a read through Stella’s submission. Thanks for the effort and the time Stella.
I’m still a little confused, so I hope you can help even more.
It seems clear that Stella’s work and aspirations go way beyond any tourism project. I had already figured that out, but this document makes it clearer. I think it’s fantastic that she does so much work in the community, but this is much more than tourism. I think this is the reason why we, the neighbours, are perhaps not able to get a clear focus on the tourism project.
Focus is critical. It is central to our hopes of success. If the focus needs to be changed away from a tourism project to something much wider, then I think we should all recognise this and accept it and then all our efforts can be channelled into the new focus, the pursuit of a new goal.
Stella’s work in the community is about the whole structure of the community, including finance, health, education and so on.
Looking through the document, I would like to point out what I see as directly relevant to the tourism project.
Of course, everything is in some way related, but not directly. When I say directly, I mean things that will actually come together to make a tourism package that can then be sold to tour operators or independent travellers and bring money into the community.
Direct things (from Stella’s document) :
1. 5 community guides in place.
I would like to know their names, ages, knowledge, where they got it from and if they can convey this knowledge to interested tourists.
2. 2 (“other” ?) kinds of accommodation identified.
I would like to know who owns and runs them, who owns the land, do they already exist, what exactly are they ? Tents with beds or no beds, water or no water, capacity, traditional earth and wooden huts, what are the lodges, food availability or not, etc. ?
3. Pictures on Omiito tourist sites.
I would like to know what exactly they show – the bush, people, lifestyles (accommodation, farming, etc.) mountain scenery, the rocks and rock paintings, etc. Can they be used electronically ?
4. Youth actively engaged in preserving the culture, etc.
In my opinion, cultural activities and traditions are very important for tourism in Africa. However, I also believe it is more important for local people to respect their own culture and to protect it from outsiders. So, in my opinion, things like birth rituals and death rituals should not be shared with outsider tourists. This is only my opinion, but these parts of life and death are sensitive and central to anybody’s culture and not for viewing or “displaying” to paying tourists. But the rest – dance and so on – is fabulous.
5. 4 family hosts.
Is this different to point 2 above ? I would like to know who the families are, what kind of accommodation they can offer, is it 10 tourists in total or 10 each, where do they live, how far from each other, how far from the rocks, from the village, etc. ?
6. Provide / hire out services based on demand.
Are some of these women the same as point 5 above ? I would like to know who they are and how this system would work, where would they source the food, how would they pay for it and so on ?

The local authorities are important, I know. The idea for the IDA to develop information on local conservation is brilliant. The clergy man’s help in the community is good also. Planting trees is good – but only if they are the correct species for your area. The involvement of teachers, mothers and others is very welcome. But none of these groups will actually bring in tourists.

The next point is that there are two types of tourists that are being discussed here.

One type is volunteers. There is a lot of discussion about getting volunteers to come and help and in much of the discussion, their help is being requested in areas not directly linked to tourism.
Examples given by Stella include :
Primary schools, to teach some English, etc.
Health, to help with family planning, etc.
Finance, to help with book keeping, etc.
IDA / Community, to help with environmental impact, etc.

Really only the last example is directly related to tourism. That is not to diminish any of the other ideas – they are excellent and would be lovely to achieve. I am sure there are volunteers out there who would help with actually going to Omiito and helping with these things.

The other type of tourist is the paying one. The volunteer will pay a little, but not a lot, relative to the second type. The second type is going to Uganda for a life experience and will pay more, just like a European going on holidays to Greece, or wherever.

So now I refer back to earlier posts from me and others. This second type of tourist wants the things I referred to in my post on Nov. 11th.

I agree with Raul. An Operational Plan is needed. As part of it, may I suggest that we divide the Plan between :
A. What Omiito wants to offer volunteer tourists (accommodation, transport, food, tourism and cultural activities, etc.), what the volunteer tourists will pay and do (build, teach, train, research, etc.) during their stay.
B. What Omiito wants to offer paying tourists (accommodation, transport, food, tourism and cultural activities, etc.), what the paying tourists will pay.

First : But most important now is to decide if this is a tourism project or a wider, more fundamental community development project.
Second : If it is a tourism project, do we want just volunteer tourists, or also paying vacation tourists ?

Does anybody else agree we need this focus ?

Wow, sorry about such a crazy long post again. This can be a great project, so stay positive. Neighbours ! Stay involved and keep your posts coming. All the best.