A few weeks ago, Dave DeSario and Chris Beattie set out to climb Mount Kilimanjaro — to take on a challenge, to honor the memory of Dave's mom, and to raise money for UUSC's work in Tanzania on environmental justice. And they did it! Below, Dave reflects on the experience.

I like air conditioning, tap water, and cow's milk. I enjoy a hot shower, but honestly, even a warm one will do. Toilets are great. So is all the oxygen we have down here at sea level. Ahhh, it tastes so good! And I really have a thing for electricity. You might even say I'm addicted. I'm a young man from the suburbs that's traveled outside the United States only once (counting Montreal).

And yet, all of a sudden I heard, "Karibu Tanzania! Welcome to Tanzania! This way to Mt. Kilimanjaro." My thoughts: What have I gotten myself into? Send help.

I went to Tanzania with too many ideas about what I needed to accomplish. I went to visit my friend Chris while he was working abroad. I went to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. To learn about the world. To escape the first Thanksgiving without my mom. To get as far away from my responsibilities as I could. To experience a place so different from all that I know. To help UUSC fight for the human right to water. And to honor my mom, a UU preacher who was inspired by the work of UUSC. It was a lot to ask of one trip.

I often lay awake late into the night, too excited to sleep, my head filled with grand ambitions like these. But this time was different. I can't say that these ideas had ever come together so well.

On the trip, I was able to open my eyes for the first time to see a different way of living. What is so poor and foreign to me is familiar, everyday life to most people on the planet we share. As I traveled, I glanced on what brought UUSC to Tanzania: water for the people.  

I walked along a stream flowing down from Kilimanjaro in the direction of the town of Arusha, at the base of the mountain — a stream so cool and clear it called out for people to jump in and swim with their mouths open. I saw another stream, perhaps the same one, leave the boundary of Kilimanjaro National Park and flow alongside the main street of Arusha. Not quite as clear anymore. Further down the road, I think I caught sight of the same stream, rolling into the crowded city of Moshi and continuing to run behind the homes and businesses near the highway. I stared at it out the window on the beginning of the 10-hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam (Dar's no Montreal, let me tell you). Water that was once clear had quickly become a heavy reddish-brown that matched the color of the soil. There was trash all over the banks and caught in the current.

It was an eyesore, even for a drainage ditch on the side of the road. But people came and knelt down by the stream. Some filled up buckets, others reached in to wash their faces, and some quickly dropped their clothes to the ground, as crowded cars drove by, and walked right in, without the thought of how lovely it is to take a hot shower. In a bathroom. With a curtain. Or how good the tap water tastes in New York City. And this was Tanzania during one of the rainy seasons — what is it like trying to access water the rest of the year?

With the generosity and encouragement of so many friends, and the support of UUSC, we raised almost $4,000 together to help UUSC in their work with the Tanzania Gender Networking Program against water privatization.

I celebrated Thanksgiving on the beach in Zanzibar with homesick Americans over chicken curry (it's poultry — that's close enough) and mashed potatoes. We raised our bottles and toasted more Kilimanjaro brand beers than we could count "to the place second-best to home." And Chris and I hiked for a week, through rain forest, across a desert, and up to the glaciers at the highest point of Africa. My mind was clear and empty of every meaningful worry (except for the fear of heights). I took a once-in-a-lifetime experience from Tanzania: a vacation, an adventure, a broader view of the world. At the same time, I was able to stand with the UUSC for human rights and environmental justice. I hope people will read this and find a way to make something like this happen for them, too.

As I learned to say in Swahili, "Nina buhati." I am very fortunate.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Dave DeSario and Chris Beattie, who set out to climb Mount Kilimanjaro — to take on a challenge, to honor Dave's mom, and to raise money for UUSC's work in Tanzania on environmental justice. And they did it! I was really excited to check my e-mail Monday morning and find an e-mail from Dave — along with proof (see photos at right) that they made the summit.

The fact that they climbed the tallest freestanding mountain in the world is cool. But even cooler than that? Their project has raised more than $3,700 so far — almost 150 percent of their $2,500 goal — for UUSC. With one more day left in the fundraiser, it may be even more than that by the project's end; they're hoping to make it an even $4,000.

That support — fueled by their thousands of steps up the mountain and the memory of Dave's mom — will go to our work with the Tanzania Gender Network Program (TGNP). In the country that's home to Kilimanjaro, TGNP empowers women and marginalized communities while working against the effects of water privatization.

We're excited to hear more about how the trip went and what this project has meant to Dave and Chris — keep an eye out for a guest blog post from Dave soon! We all have mountains to climb and many are daunting, whether it's literally Mount Kilimanjaro or it's ensuring the right to clean water. We're happy that, in this case, the former will be part of making the latter possible.

Dave DeSario, 27, has a crippling fear of heights. So, you might be surprised to hear where he plans to be at sunrise next Sunday, November 21 — the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest freestanding mountain in the world. What will he be doing there? Among other things — including following an impulse and not backing down from a challenge from his longtime friend Chris Beattie — he will be honoring the memory of his mother and supporting UUSC's work on water with the Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP).

This afternoon, as he gets ready to depart for the trip tomorrow, Dave said, "I go back and forth between scared and extremely excited. I couldn't do this if people weren't supporting me. My friends are my family."

This adventurous endeavor, which has grown into a fundraiser for UUSC, honors the legacy of Laura DeSario, a dedicated Unitarian Universalist lay preacher and supporter of UUSC who lost her battle with cancer in July. Originally the trip was just a crazy idea to get out of town on Thanksgiving. Chris, a seasoned climber, jokingly offered, "Let's climb Kilimanjaro" — and the challenge was on.

Chris suggested that they turn the trip into a fundraiser and helped Dave organize the project through Crowdrise, an innovative and witty (their tagline is "If you don't give back, no one will like you") website that helps people create their own fundraising projects. While Dave, a private person when it comes to emotional matters, was hesitant at first about making the project about his mom, he ultimately decided that this was a great opportunity. "UUSC was important to her," Dave said; she encouraged others to support UUSC as she did.

And so the funds from this project will be supporting UUSC, specifically UUSC's work with TGNP, a grassroots organization in Tanzania — the home of Kilimanjaro — that works to help women and marginalized communities fight against the effects of water privatization and gain equal access to natural resources. "The beauty of Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro, the water resources it provides, and the symbolism of the mountains we all have to climb are wonderful analogies for the work of UUSC and TGNP," they write on the Crowdrise project page.

"I am extremely shocked by the response to the project," Dave said. "I thought we'd maybe be able to get $1,500, and we raised $1,000 in the first 24 hours." At last check, they're at $3,050 — 122 percent of their revised goal of $2,500! And the fundraiser doesn't end until November 30, so there's still time to make that goal a distant memory. I personally am incredibly moved and excited about the project, so I chipped in what I could. 

All of us at UUSC are cheering you on, Dave and Chris! Whether you make it to the top or not, we think you rock. And we can't wait to hear any updates, which we'll pass on when we get them. Climb on!

The Guardian reported last week that Tanzania, one of the poorest countries in the world, won a case against Biwater, a multinational water supplier, in a London tribunal. In 2003, under pressure from the World Bank, Tanzania privatized the water system in Dar Es Salaam, the capital city, in exchange for much needed debt relief. The contract was awarded to a U.K. water company named Biwater.

Within two years, the World Bank’s own findings showed that under City Water Services, the Biwater subsidiary, the city’s water and sewage services had worsened greatly. In 2005, Tanzania took back control of water services in the city. Biwater then sued for breach of contract under the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) within the World Bank and within the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

Forced or coerced privatizations by the World Bank have had negative impacts on public utilities across Africa. UUSC partner the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), which works on water and gender issues in Tanzania, has relayed to us their frustration and disappointment in the continuing trend of foreign aid and loans having strings attached, primarily in the form of privatizing public services.

In 2006, TGNP launched a water campaign with the goal of “returning resources to the people.” TGNP’s research exposed that lack of safe, sufficient, and affordable water had created gender-based violence around water accessibility and increased the rate of girls dropping out of school. This was because women and girls are largely deemed responsible for the provision of water in the home.

Seeing that water was such an integral issue in the lives of women in Tanzania, TGNP became involved in analyzing the national budget and funds for the water sector. They successfully campaigned to have a woman appointed as assistant water minister and an increase in the overall allocation for the water sector. Although access to water for all remains a pressing issue in Tanzania, the women of TGNP are satisfied that the power to decide how much water is provided no longer rests with the World Bank or private corporations.

Last week, a London tribunal threw out a case brought by Biwater against Tanzania under the rules of UNCITRAL and awarded Tanzania $7 million in damages and costs. This was a huge victory for Tanzania. It was an initial acknowledgment that water is an essential human need.

When a contract impedes a government in meeting their human-rights requirements to their people, it is essential that international bodies such as the United Nations and other intergovernmental bodies support human rights over corporate profit.

Tanzania still awaits the decision of ICSID, a World Bank body, which is expected in the next few months. Our partners at TGNP, skeptical about the impartiality and fairness of this embedded judicial body, have called for the courtrooms to be “open to the watchful eyes and cameras of the world so that the mayhem of plunder by profit hungry companies of the ‘global village’ can partly be revealed for all.”