Last year I killed my wife (and other grammatical mistakes)

Rainbow agama I saw sunning on a rock

The tricky thing about Swahili is the surprisingly small number of phonemes and syllables that are used to construct a fairly complex language. This does mean of course, that tone and musicality are important to make ones meaning clear, but these are not as formalized as a language like Thai. What it means for those of us who are novices, is that we quite easily make often hilarious mistakes as our mispronounciations will almost always have an entirely different meaning, rather than sound like nonsense. Mwaka uliopita, nilimua mke wangu. The sentence, in an attempt to say I got married last year, actually says 'I killed my wife last year.' because of mispronouncing one vowel as oo instead of a long o. Another student studying here was explaining to all her Tanzanian friends who cared to know that she was 'drunk in Kenya' --meaning to say that she was 'raised in Kenya' but slighly misconjugating the verb (Nililewa kwa Kenya, instead of nilililewa). Other times it seems that very contrary things are homonyms. If you said to me, Zamani, nilipanda miti elfu moja. I would not know if you had planted 1000 trees or climbed 1000 trees. Oren told us on several occasiong that he was pooping snakes, when he was trying to say 'there is a snake'.

front view of  banda

So for those of you who have been following our adventures regularly, you know that we spent the past 2 weeks in a language intensive offered outside of the town of Iringa, in Southern Tanzania. More precisely, the school rents out small 'bandas' with a chairs and a table in a campsite outside of town next to a river. It has the feeling of being quite remote, although there are a number of camps like it up the river nearby. One reason it feels so rustic, I suppose, is the lack of internet connectivity. That made posting a blog on our arrival difficult and we did not even attempt to do another one while we were there after that.

The isolation, however, was ideal for studying Swahili, and we spent every week day from 8:30 to 1:30 in class, then had at least an hour of assigned homework and another hour of flashcard review each day as well. This routine was very productive and we learned a ton of Swahili, particulaly to fill in the gaps in the things we have been studying the past 6 months. The kids were in their own Swahili class while we were in lessons. They were not assigned homework because the long morning hours were already quite a lot for them. Oren, however did have to keep up with his school work as being in Iringa meant he missed 4 days of school. His teachers gave him assignments and he had to do about an hour of work every night to keep up. He was not happy about that at all. Fortunately one of the weeks we were there was a holiday week for the school, so he did not miss too much.

We usually spent some part of the afternoon playing games with the kids like badminton, volleyball or frisbee. There was also a playground with some swings and odd merry-go-rounds that we could ride together. None of it would be legal
in the US, but it was fun! David also really liked to climb the many huge boulders that were around. There was an abundance of them in the camp and offered opportunities to test out one's climbing skills. Some were actually too high to do without a rope.

We did climb to several vantage points above the camp and had some great views of the camp and the river. I admit it was a bit unerving to climb around through the tall grass and up the rocky crags because we were told that the place was full of spitting cobras, puff adders, mambas, and pythons. These were sighted frequently. On one of our last days, in fact, as she approached her front stoop, another guest was met by a spitting cobra that reared up and blocked her way into her house. (The staff dispatched with it -- sorry herpatologist friends!) We, fortunately had no encounters with snakes during our forays onto the rocks.

The river also had some very nice places to hike to including an area where a huge number of boulders had created a kind of long waterfall. It was a place David really loved to climb boulders. It was fun, but definitely felt risky in terms of slipping and breaking a bone and not being anywhere near good medical care.

We were not the only people here during our 2 weeks, although the demographics changed quite a bit each week. The first week, we were with a Mennonite missionary family who were working in Zanzibar. She was a physician he was an IT person. They had 2 young kids. We would see them at meals, which we would eat together at the cafeteria. In the 'small world' way that Mennonites have, we found that we had some common friends, notably her cousin Michael S. who we supported as a service worker when he was in Eastern DRC. I have mentioned before that he was killed while working with a UN group of experts in Congo last year. She asked us one evening to share some stories about him from his time with us in MCC. We enjoyed hearing about his visits to family in the US and how he is remembered by them.

David with stoneage slingshot

They left after the first week and a new crew of people came in. Over the weekend though, we took the opportunity to explore some of the sights around Iringa outside the camp. The one place that was quite close was called 'Isimila' named after the river that runs by it. It is a sight where artifacts from a stoneage civilization have been found. It is also near a geological feature called 'natural pillars' which are found in only one or two places in the world. We were curious about this place and took a drive out to it on a Saturday morning. It was not easy to find as there is a single small sign pointing it out. It was several kilometers off the main road and offered a small museum with a curator who also did guided tours of the site.

After seeing some of the tools, dated back 200,000--400,000 years in the museum, we went out to the site. I was quite surprised to find it so undeveloped and yet so abundantly full of artifacts. It felt like we were one of the first people there. We saw hundreds of stone ax heads, scraping tools, spear heads, and round sling projectiles just lying around. That is because this is in a dry river bed that floods regularly and continues to unearth more and more layers of artifacts. It was pretty cool to be able to just pick them up, examine them and imagine someone making and using them at some point in the ancient past.

We continued to walk up the river bed and eventually got to the natural pillars. These are some really strange features and look at first glance like giant termite or ant hills. They even look quite fragile, but are like cement. They are made from a top layer of some kind of mineral that resists erosion while the bottom clay layer erodes away. What is left after millenia of erosion are these pillars that were once the edges of the river that ran through there. The kids actually seemed to enjoy seeing these sights eventhough it was a fair amount of walking during the day.

On Sunday we went to an English speaking church in town and met up with some relatives of friends from our church in Arusha. They had kids just a bit younger than ours and we went over to their house for lunch with them. They are Danish and it was really fun to talk with them. It reminded me a bit of talking with our friends the Spanners in Burundi. It was interesting to talk to them about culture and they seemed utterly perplexed (as most of the world is) about America's complete fetishization of guns. We had a good time with them and made a plan to meet them the next week at Mama Iringa, an authentic Italian restaurant with an imported pizze oven that made the most Italian pizza in  East Africa (according to them).

The second week felt quite different in the camp. There was a different couple with a young child and grandmother who were working in Dar. There was also a young Swiss couple working in Zanzibar, and there were 2 women from Washington DC who work as policy analysts for an NGO, and a nurse from Moshi. It was a full house so to speak so meal hours were much more lively with conversation. We all studied language during the day as we had the first week, but we all had individual teachers, except for Rebecca and I who shared a teacher. That is one nice thing about the study here, it is tailored to your level. The director of the program would check in daily to be sure that we were satisfied with the quality of the teacher.

We continued to go on outings every day in the afternoon, either to the falls near the river, or bouldering. We also visited another set of natural pillars that was within walking distance of the campsite. They were a bit different and some of them actually created a kind of labyrinth that you could walk into and feel like you would get lost.

We kept up our study as well and created hundreds of flashcards which we did our best commit to memory. This was a great help in increasing our Swahili knowledge. We also learned how to conjugate every way we needed including conditional, subjunctive, past and future perfect and continuous. As well as the negative of all of these. We learned the 7 noun classes and ways to remember the agreements with a table we constructed.

Most evenings, after studying, we played a game in our banda with the kids like 7 Wonders, or King Domino, or San Juan. We also had a flashdrive of movies we used to watch in Burundi and watched some of our old favorites, like Rango & Wallace and Grommit.

Among the really surprising things we found here was how cold it was at night. Iringa is on a high plateau, but we were really unprepared for how cool it was when the sun went down. We needed a heavy blanket to sleep under.

We decided to make the trip back in one day so we packed the Landrover on Friday night and planned to leave at 6am the next morning. It was hard to get up that early but we did it and made the 12 hour trip back listening to The Return of the King from Lord of the Rings, and various music albums. The kids were pretty good considering how long a trip it was. Unfortunatelty the AC quit blowing cool air about an hour into the trip, so we drove across the hot savanah with our windows open and it was hot! We got to Arusha at around 6pm.

We got up and went to church today and then had a treat of watching Black Panther at the theater near our house. It was a good end to 2 weeks away from our normal routine, but now I am ready to get back into it.

Language intensive in Iringa

I’m writing this blog from our campsite near Iringa, a location with very spotty and slow internet. Thus, we will probably not be able to include photos in this blog – it’s hard to upload them. But I’ve managed to post a few photos on Facebook, so if you’re interested look there.

And why are we in Iringa, a town in the south of Tanzania along the TanZam highway (connecting our country with Zambia)? We are spending 2 weeks here, doing intensive Swahili language study at the Iringa Swahili School. True, we have been studying Swahili since September. But we were only ever able to study 4 – 6 hours a week at most, and our classes were inconsistent, due to our own travel and our tutor’s frequent family emergencies. We had gotten through our designated grammar book and were reading short stories in Kiswahili, but we are far from conversant. We just don’t have enough vocabulary, we get the noun classes wrong all the time, and we can’t understand what other people are saying half the time. In my past experience of language learning, it’s good to start at a steady pace and then, once you have enough grammar under your belt, go on to some intensive learning. So, here we are!

Oh, and yes, we have taken the kids out of school to come with us for these two weeks. But, because they are due for a half-term break next week, they are only missing 4 days of regular school. And each of them has brought some work along to complete while we are here.

Iringa is a solid 12-hour drive south from Arusha, and so we elected to drive down in two stages. We’ve lived in Africa long enough to know that it is unwise to drive after dark, and especially perilous to try to find a place at night, when you have never gone there before. Google maps works, kinda sorta, but it tends to become deceptive and misleading off the main roads. Thus, we left by 9 am on Saturday with a fully loaded Land Rover. We knew we would be staying in a cottage (banda) with electricity and bathroom, but beyond that we weren’t sure. We included mosquito nets, lots of sports toys, games, study materials, sheets and towels. I was so proud of myself for thinking of how to bring all that we would need to filter water in-house and make our own fresh coffee in our coffee press, with milk, sugar and tea for good measure. Knowing that the campsite was beside a river, I threw David’s fishing rod on top. 

The first day’s drive was uneventful. We stopped for lunch at one of the road side bus pull-offs, with Swahili food ready-made and laid out in buffet-style (and decent toilets). Paul had made reservations for our family at a renovated old railroad hotel in Dodoma, the official in-process-of-development capital of Tanzania. I’m still trying to figure out the rationale for such a big city in that spot – it is roughly in the center of the country, and that may be its highest recommendation. The hotel was a pretty nice place to stay, with a large paved courtyard garden and fountain, framed on 4 sides by two stories of rooms. We enjoyed a quirky continental dinner and probably the only 30 minutes of the Winter Olympics that we will see this time around on the hotel TV. In the morning, we didn’t need to rush off (the drive to Iringa was less that 5 hours) so we enjoyed a good swim together before getting back into the car.

As we left the hotel, we started looking for a gas station so that we could top up our fuel. We had half a tank of diesel and could easily drive the 300 km on that. But still, it’s better safe than sorry. Strangely, we had quickly left the outer limits of Dodomaand were heading down the road south without seeing a single place to fill up. I checked google maps and saw 3 small towns along our route; we noticed lots of big trucks passing us going north; and we decided to stop sweating and just trust that we would find a gas station down the road. 

The scenery along this road, which bisects the country north to south, was lovely and varied. At certain points, we passed rice paddies. At other places, strange hills cropped up, perhaps moraines from long-melted glaciers. In many areas, green fields stretched away infinitely, dotted with strikingly elegant baobabtrees. At one point, we came to a restricted area where photography was forbidden. It turned out to be a dam and hydroelectric plant below a gorgeous reservoir. Through the drive, we alternated between listening to favorite old children’s music albums and following Frodo and Sam in their miserable journey towards Mordor in the Two Towers. Oh, there was some fighting, too. Some whining about hunger…

…because we had planned to maybe stop for a snack when we got gas. We passed the first town on google maps. It would be kind to call it more than a settlement. We passed the second settlement. We could have probably found kerosene for sale in recycled spring water bottles. But no gas station. Still, we had a quarter tank and only 100 km to go. The road was good and smooth. There were no rest stops, but that was not a problem since we found plenty of deserted bush at hand to use in case of need. And then we realized that we were about to climb up over a hill. The hill turned into spectacular forested mountains. We climbed up and went around switchbacks, admiring the indigenous trees in canopies above the varied undergrowth. We looked down on seemingly endless vistas across the plains to the west. It was truly beautiful and worth driving through…until Paul pointed out that we had burned up an eighth of a tank on the steep ascent. 

And then we had to face the various unpleasant scenarios if we were to run out of gas. Who would go alone to Iringa to get diesel? Who would remain, vulnerable, with the kids and vehicle? Could we plan to pull the vehicle off somewhere more secure? Running out of gas in Tanzania can be a serious problem in terms of security, not merely an inconvenience. We couldn’t believe we had gotten into this situation. Well… you’re reading this now, so you can breathe again. We made it to Iringa and filled up at the first station we reached, with probably a few liters of diesel to spare in the tank. But, that was a lesson learned: there is no source of fuel between Dodoma and Iringa whatsoever. 

On Sunday afternoon, we simply continued through Iringa, a town perched on a rocky escarpment, and it seemed like a pleasant place. We will be back to explore next weekend. But that day, we were eager to arrive at River Valley campsite and get settled. As we heard from missionaries who have come here before us, it’s a nice place and great for kids. The campsite is situated along a narrow stretch of flat land between a river and a line of rocky hills. Many simple stone cottages and outbuildings are interspersed with lawns and places for camping. There’s a great playground, built with local materials and appropriate technology, which our kids have really been enjoying. Even better, quite a few huge boulders have come down the hill long ago and are great for climbing and pretending. 

As we unpacked, I discovered two very sad oversights on my part. I had all the supplies for hot beverages – except the electric kettle! Sadness! So, we will be drinking Africafe (powdered instant coffee) while we are here. And while we had David’s fishing rod, I had forgotten to throw in his little tackle box. He tried to make a hook out of a bent, rusty safety pin, but so far, has not had any bites. For want of a nail…

The language school rents little tiny pavilions at this campsite. Teachers come in from town (20 minutes away) every morning. Right after breakfast (meals are provided by the campground), we just walk a few meters to class. The kids have their own teacher, who has practiced using more play-oriented methods of teaching. All the students and teachers meet up for a tea break at 10:30, we have a chance to check in with our kids. Then we all continue with lessons until 1:30 in the afternoon. Another family (EMM missionaries in Zanzibar) and a single woman are currently studying here, but we all have our own teachers. Paul and I are taught by the same woman, which is fine because it allows for more conversation. We are similar in learning style and level and that has worked well for us so far. In the afternoons, we have time to do our homework and drillflashcards of the vocabulary we have learned for that day. One can’t sit and study indefinitely, so we’ve been taking turns playing with the kids, walking and exploring. So far, after just two days, I can say that this round of intensive study is well worth it. We are returning to ground we’ve covered but didn’t internalize very well, and it’s finally sinking in this time. We can just focus on this learning process and have a predictable schedule to follow. Someone else is making the meals and dealing with practical stuff. We are very, very thankful for this opportunity to concentrate and learn and we hope that it will bear fruit over the next two and a half years here.

Advocacy for Albinos and the Long Road Home

Elia (5) getting a skin screening from Dr. Nelson

 I was writing last week’s blog from a town in Northwestern Tanzania called Tarime where I spent several days observing a training for rural health professionals on caring for people with albinism. The training focused on providing basic information about the genetic causes of the condition (to share with parents especially), prevention of skin cancer, and identification of suspicious skin lesions. The curriculum, which is very thorough, was created by my predecessor and very ably taught by 2 dermatologists here—Dr. Simba and Dr. Nelson. Other presenters included Sister Martha, a woman with albinism, who has been a lifelong advocate for people with albinism.

I was able to hear some of Sister Martha’s story, which she shared in a time of testimony. It was shocking to hear about the level of stigmatization she experienced in her own family—beaten by family members and even sold off, barely a teenager, into a polygamous marriage. She ran away to avoid that fate and was looking for a solution in suicide before she had a life-changing encounter with the love of God. She was eventually able to forgive her family and has been reconciled for many years since.

Dr. Nelson with Sr. Martha showing protective eyewear

It is not unusual for PWAs to be abandoned, especially by fathers who usually assume the birth is a result of infidelity. The training we gave teaches medical professionals how to counsel parents that albinism—a recessive genetic phenotype—can only result with a genetic contribution from both parents. No one is to blame.

Other modules focused on proper training on skin protection, as well as addressing visual problems albino children encounter in school, problems not easily corrected with glasses, which require other accomodations.

I was asked to teach a module on advocacy which I was happy to do and reminded them that advocacy begins with them. They are trusted, educated community members with authority to enforce rights granted by the govt. to people with disabilities, particularly children in school. (Often children with albinism are perceived to be of lower intelligence because their poor vision prevents them from reading the board properly and participating in activities.) I reminded them of their capacity as medical professionals to instruct school administrators to make necessary accomodations for children with albinism. 

Skin screening participants

I also reminded them of the old adage that the primary provider of health care in a family is the mother! It is not someone in a clinic or hospital. “If you educate the mother, she will protect the child from sun exposure and teach him/her to protect themselves.” (It seems strange to have to say that, but often medical treatment will include little or no education or advice.)

Medical professionals practicing
skin screening on Makorere

The training culminated in a free clinic for people with albinism in the area to get a skin exam. More importantly, it was an opportunity for the dermatologists to teach the participants how to do a primary exam of the skin on a person with albinism. We had about a half dozen people show up and were very happy to be ‘guinea pigs’ for the participants to practice on. Dr. Nelson did a demonstration at first, then the participants broke up in groups and examined some of the patients themselves. It seemed to be a very valuable part of the training. Personally, I was very happy to see that the people coming to the clinic were well-covered and generally had very well-cared-for skin. They had been trained on proper care, which is evidence that the effort to educate throughout the nation is having an impact. I am hoping that the 90% fatality rate of people with albinism by age 30 has been substantially reduced in the past decade.

Overview of medical training participants

The practical screening was the last thing we did on the third day of training, after which we packed up and headed back to the town of Musoma, where I would catch the bus back to Arusha. Sister Martha and I stayed at the Mara Paradise Hotel again. This time I was put in a room with ‘airconditioning’. It was a window unit sitting on a desk. When I turned it on, cool air came out the front, but very hot air came out the back because it was not venting out a window. Within about 15 minutes the room was baking hot. I shut it off and decided I was better off without it.

I had to get up about 4 in the morning to get a 5am cab to the bus stop. I had a momentary scare because a different bus company came than the one I had a ticket for. Fortunately they had a ticket for me, as they had switched routes with the other company that day.

The ride was as bad as, if not worse than the ride up. This time it was much more crowded. Every seat was sold, but then they refilled the bus at least once over with standing room passengers in the aisles. So, it was packed to the gills for the 14-hour ride. (I did see a cheetah walking in the distance and multiple hippos as we past through the Serengeti, but that was small consolation for the discomfort.) I was glad to be back, although arriving at Arusha’s main bus stop Stendi Kubwa, is somewhat intimidating as you face an onslaught of cabbies, porters, conmen, and pick-pockets, who are dying to do something for you until you finally get into a cab and drive away, hopefully with all your belongings intact.

Oren helping with dinner during my absence

It was good to be home on Thursday evening. Rebecca and the kids were at a dinner at another house in the compound. There is a monthly ‘team dinner’ for the members of the compound who work with the Joshua Foundation. They are happy to have us join in though. The kids were very happy to have me back as well, although I fell asleep quite early on Thursday and we all went to work and school early on Friday morning. 

Friday, Rebecca and I switched roles with her heading up to the town of Longido to look in on MCC’s SALTer Zoe for the day while I stayed at the office, and was there to meet the kids when they got back from school. Rebecca went with our country director Sharon and was planning to be back by the end of the work day. Her report is here:

The drive to Longido is strikingly beautiful, as you leave Arusha heading north past the western slopes of Mt. Meru. On your right, folds of hills rise up to the mountain. To the left, the land drops off into increasing barrenness. People somehow still live out there to west, but water is scarce and the soil is infertile. In fact, this land was never meant to be lived in. According to a long-time missionary, just 50 years ago, it was only ever visited by roaming herds of wildebeest and zebras, once the rains had fallen and grass shot up. Those animals came, ate the grass, dropped their manure, and left. There were no lasting water sources and so no long-term residents. But then, a well-meaning development organization decided to drill wells. Families settled in the area, bringing their cattle. The cattle ate the new grass, but then they didn’t leave. They stayed, overgrazed and trampled the topsoil. In the dry season, this good soil just blew away, leaving the ground infertile. And what’s more, the fluoride levels in the new wells were incredibly high, causing health problems in the children who drank from them (a common problem around Mt. Meru). When drought struck a few years ago, many families lost their cattle and their livelihoods. Now malnutrition is a huge problem in that area just 30 minutes from Arusha. And it’s hard to see a long-term solution for people who are living in an area where really no one should live.

As we drew near that area, we began to see a strange haze and cloud ahead of us. And then suddenly the wind picked up and we found that we were driving through something of a sand storm. The wind was ferocious coming down from Mt. Meru blowing west and we could just see all the soil that was being picked up and blown away. It was a surprising and sobering reminder of the reality of life there.

Our visit to Longido was primarily to see how our SALT volunteer was adjusting to her assignment. We had a good chance to talk with her and her two supervisors at TEMBO Trust, first over tea and then continuing through the rest of the morning. Along with the work aspects, we were able to meet the director Paulina’s new baby; share some jokes with Mary the community organizer; enjoy lunch at the best (and only) restaurant in Longido; and drop off some healthy groceries for Zoe. It was a lot to do in a fairly short time, so we ended up being a bit late in getting back to Arusha.

Rebecca and Sharon got back a bit after 5pm and the kids were already dropped off at the office. We had a plan for a small Birthday Party for Sharon. Rebecca had made her famous secret chocolate (beets) cake. We had a small gathering at the office at the end of the day. I was also given a cake as my Birthday is this month as well and oddly, as a team we will hardly be together this month because we are all going in different directions over the next 4 weeks. (Including our family).

We had a fairly normal weekend with a low-key day on Saturday. We did get together with some friends for Indian food for dinner. On Sunday Rebecca led music and I taught Sunday school, so we were both quite engaged. The service that day was followed by an annual general meeting of the congregation, which went on several hours. Rebecca was voted onto the church council during the meeting which she is excited about.

We have a single ‘normal’ week, then we will be heading out of town to Iringa (about 8 hours away) for a two week Swahili intensive. The whole family is going so the next entry will be coming from there. (Hopefully we will have an internet connection.)