A Series of Unfortunate (and fortunate) Events

David with giant red-spiky caterpillar

At the risk of dating myself to the distant past, I can recall, as a boy, watching a show called 'Hee Haw'. It was a country-themed variety show that featured country singers like Roy Clark and Glenn Campbell, as well as a cast of rubes who did corny skits--usually repeating certain well-loved (and well-worn) gimmicks.

One such routine was a dialogue where a barber would be telling a customer (Roy Clark) a story, and when he finished a sentence the customer would say "That's good" to which the barber would reply "No that's bad" then elaborate on why things took a turn for the worse, to which the customer would then say, "That's bad!" to which the barber would reply "No that's good", and explain why things again took a turn for the better. This would go on for several minutes before resolving in some punchline (which usually was an unflattering poke at the barber's wife.) sample here.

I think, living here has given me a new perspective on this kind of story, particularly when it comes to advancing a processs through a bureaucracy, such as immigration. In reality, we learn to lower our expectations, the skits in Hee Haw end with a positive punchline, ours, not so much. We get used to disappointment when it doesn't work out. This week we are nearing the end of such a process that will either end well or not so well, and you (like us) will be left in suspense until the next blog entry. But it starts something like this;

We have a 6 day weekend coming up and have decided to visit our old stomping ground Burundi. 

That's Good

No that's bad, we need a visa to travel to Burundi.

That's bad.

No that's good, because there is an embassy in Tanzania.

That good.

No that's bad, the embassy is in Dar which is a 14 hour drive from Arusha.

That's bad.

No that good, because we have connections to an MCC partner in Burundi who can get us an authorization letter to get a visa when we arrive at the Bujumbura airport

Oh thats good.

No that's bad. They went to the immigration office and the guy who signs those letters is not in town.

Oh that's bad,

No that 's good. They did approve our visas and all we need to do is go to the embassy and get the stamps.

Well that's good.

No thats bad, it took so long to get this news that we don't have time to send our passports to the embassy in Dar and get them back in time.

Oh that's bad.

No that's good, because our agent we have worked with here just happened to be in Arusha on his way to Dar and we gave him our passports to take down to the embassy personally. 

Oh that's good. 

No that's bad, when he got there he found that Burundi immigration had only sent my name down to the Tanzanian embassy as approved for a visa. 

Oh that's bad. 

No that's good. I contacted our Burundi and they were able to go to immigration and get the other visas approvals released and sent to Tanzania immediately.

Oh that's good. 

No, that's bad. The embassy had already closed for the day and we were leaving in 2 days.

Oh that's bad. 

No that's good. Our agent went back early the next morning and the names were on the list and he was able to give them our passports to be stamped. 

Oh that's good. 

No that's bad. He spent 7 hours waiting for them to put the appproved visas in the passports.

Oh that's bad.

No that's good, he was able to get to DHL before it closed and sent us the passports with a guarantee from the clerk that they would in Arusha tomorrow.

That's good. 

No that's bad. When I checked the tracking number it said they would arrive by Friday, which is a day too late.

Oh that's bad...

Actually the story is not over yet. I think the passports will arrive in Arusha tomorrow, and we may well get them and get on the plane to Burundi on Thursday morning. But we may fail despite Herculean efforts to make this work. I will say that in my experience, despite much stress, things often do work out for the best, but I have also had ample opportunity to 'get used to disappointment'.

For readers of this blog though, you will find out next week when I either write a report of our 6 days in Burundi, or a long weekend in Arusha. 

The week prior could be characterized as a series of unfortunate (and fortunate) events as well, in some ways related to the stress around getting our visas for Burundi. It included misplacing numerous items including keys, and my work bag, (bad) all of which eventually turned-up--so that's good.

We also enjoyed the final week of cousin Julie's visit. Rebecca was able to take Julie out to a few other sites in town during the week on her days off. They went to a glass blowing factory at a crafts market and coffee lodge near the kids' school. Julie even cooked us a Greek meal one day during the week as well.

Julie went on a safari to Ngorongoro on Friday and Saturday and had a rare day of good weather on the first day. Her bike trip on day 2 at Lake Manyara was not as good and ended when everyone found themselves in deep mud about 30 minutes up the bike path. She also reported the car getting a wheel stuck in a muddy ditch and having to be pushed out. She was happy to be back in Arusha on Sunday.

Oren with African nachos

Despite all of this, she said it was worth the visit to Ngorongoro where she saw many animals. We met her after church in town and had a lunch at a Mexican restaurant we had not tried before. I can't say the food was bad, but I think Afro-Mex can be added to the styles of Mexican food alongside Tex-Mex and Cali-Mex.

Before the weekend, Julie treated us to a date night last Thursday by babysitting the kids. We found out that there were swing dance lessons being taught at a restaurant by some friends of ours and decided to check it out. That's good. ---No that's bad. That was the night we had to drop off the passports with our agent and we arrived an hour late to the restaurant. But we did get in on the last dance and did have fun and ended the evening having very nice 'adult' conversation with Vance and Beth-Marie. (Our dance teaching friends.) They are also school teachers at one of the international schools in town. Interestingly, Vance was also the person who preached the sermon for Earth day this past Sunday.

Rebecca and I both had church responsibilities during the week as we are both on various committees and each had 2 meetings during the week. I think you really know you are not 'the new guys' anymore when you are on a committee or two. Truthfully the church has opportunities and challenges as one of the only international English medium churches with a lay led congregation. It really does require sharing around a lot of work and having to work together on the problems. 

Despite the challenges of the week, I did enjoy the return to 'normalcy' that came with the kids back in school for nearly two full weeks before their next break. It has meant swimming regularly and going into the office with Rebecca. The pool water temp has not dropped much in the past week, but we do regularly swim in a downpour.

Work was not excessively busy, as we are between reporting periods, and we did enjoy on one afternoon, watching a large earth mover get stuck in a ditch across the street from our office window. After trying to lift and grind his way out, they finally brought another even larger earth mover over to haul him out. I am sure they were having a "That's good--No that's bad" day.

Stay tuned for the next installment: Our Burundi adventure..or not.

Dueling Sermons and Adventures in Preaching

Crocodile and Hippo at Cultural Heritage Center.

Rebecca will be recounting most of the events of the past week because she spent the most time doing interesting things. One of the unusual confluences though was that both Rebecca and I were asked to preach this week at different churches-- I at ACC where we attend regularly, and Rebecca at a Mennonite church near the town of Moshe. In short we had quite different experiences, but you can hear all about it below. Oh, we also still have 2nd Cousin Julie visiting this week, and she spent her first week here in the St. Elizabeth hospital pediatric ward rounding with a Rumanian physician. She had interesting stories to tell about her experiences when we were together in the evenings. She has been a welcome addition to our family and enjoys playing board games, entertaining the kids, and even washing dishes!

So without further ado, here is Rebecca:

This past week, Paul had a normal week of work, but it was still an unusual week for me, since the kids didn’t return to school until Thursday morning. On Tuesday, the kids and I drove out to visit some friends who live about 45 minutes away. I really enjoyed spending hours talking with and getting to know Katie better – she’s been a missionary here in Tanzania since 2010. They have four kids and my kids also enjoyed interacting with them for hours on end. David concentrated on catching all varieties of crickets, together with the younger three kids. Oren played the game of “Life” with their 12-year-old. The sun had come out and it was so wonderful to just share lunch and relaxed time with this family on the rural Bible college campus where they teach future Anglican priests.

On Wednesday afternoon, the kids and I met my cousin Julie at the Natural History Museum in the center of Arusha. We had never visited this site before, so it was a good opportunity for us to explore a touristic corner of town. The museum featured exhibits on the origins of humans, being so near the Olduvai gorge with all its archeological finds, as well as exhibits on different animals from the region. But the live animals were of most interest to the kids. We hunted down an acquaintance of my mom’s there at the museum, and she was very friendly and gracious. She also let us know about the opportunity to hold live snakes: David was all in!

So, we went and found the guy with the snakes. He brought out a little African tiger snake (Telescopus semiannulatus), which apparently lived in a 1.5 L water bottle. That seemed quite sad to me. Then he started trying to get the snake out of the bottle, and obviously, the snake had no interest in complying. I’m not sure exactly how he got the snake out, but it was not happy with the process. The museum officer held the snake for a few moments and then started putting it into David’s hands. Unfortunately, David was holding the snake’s front end too gently (he is used to relaxed snakes), and this little snake twisted around and planted his needlelike teeth into David’s hand. David just said, “Ow, ow, ow,” but didn’t drop the snake (brave kid!), while the guide pried the teeth loose. They kept telling us, “It’s not venomous, it’s not venomous!” I did believe them, but I think Julie was quite horrified. There was a bit of blood, but the bite was just on the surface of the skin, so we decided to wash it, put on a band aid and not worry. When we got home, I looked up the snake and found that it is in fact mildly venomous, but not dangerous to humans. Interesting. Oren really regretted afterwards that he hadn’t held the snake, saying, “I wish I could go back to school tomorrow and when people asked me what I did on my holiday, I could say, ‘I got bitten by a snake!’” We finished our afternoon outing with some treats at Africafe in town, and then picked up Paul to go home for dinner.

Church council members

Paul and I also had completely different experiences this past weekend. On Saturday, I rose early to go join the other newly elected elders of our local church council for an all-day retreat. The morning was drizzly, and we were doubtful as we drove up the long slippery hill to Erwin’s place. As we arrived, Erwin, our council chair and master gardener took us on a tour to admire the beauties of his garden: secretive orchids blooming quietly in the branches of a cactus, tree tomatoes and passion fruits ripe for picking, beds of fragrant herbs and even an apple tree blossoming. And then we sat down together around scripture, reading thoughtfully through John 15:1-12. We spent the day, talking about the community, the changes over the years, the things we are currently celebrating and the areas of church life that perhaps need pruning or tending. We learned from each other and listened to God for our community. It was a good day and good to get to know one another better. It was also a long Saturday of intense concentration.

Paul's interjection>> While Rebecca was at the church council retreat, I had a day with the kids and Julie. We had a normal, relaxed Saturday morning (we have a tradition of making pancakes). I spent some of the morning working on finalizing my sermon for the next day, but after lunch I took Julie and the kids to the Cultural Heritage Center to see the art and handicrafts of local artists and artisans. I have talked about this before and it is probably the most prominent tourist attraction in Arusha itself. (Most tourist attractions around here are in the surrounding game parks.) Shaped like a giant african drum, it has spiraling layers of galleries not unlike the Guggenheim museum. In an adjacent mall-like complex where one can buy many handicrafts and souvenirs of Tanzania, including a very impressive jewelry store where one can purchase the extremely rare gem 'Tanzanite'. Tanzanite is native to the area around Mt. Kilamanjaro and nowhere else in the world. It is about 200 times more rare than diamonds and is deep blue in color. 

Outside these buildings are a huge array of iron sculptures of Tanzania wildlife. Some are much bigger than life. It is like a heavy metal safari.

We spent about 2 hours walking around the galleries, then went into the stores. Julie did end up getting a beautiful tanzanite ring. Definitely an excellent souvenir to take back from here. 

Back to Rebecca:

On Sunday morning, I rose even earlier to be ready to leave the house with Julie at 6:30 am. Our mission was to visit a Tanzanian Mennonite Church, where I had been invited to preach. I had warned Julie thoroughly that it would be a long day with many unknowns, and she was still game to join me; I was honestly very glad for the company. We met Pastor Nzela in town, together with his adult son, and then started out together for the community of Merarani, about 75 km from Arusha. This village is unusual, in that it is located right outside the one and only Tanzanite mine in the world. There is a large industrial mine, owned by South Africans, which is doing it’s best to wall off and regulate the mining of this gemstone. This has put them in conflict with the many small-scale / artisanal miners and traders in the community. Apparently, many of the church members are Tanzanians from various other parts of the country who came for the mining opportunities and stayed in Mererani, but now are really struggling to make ends meet. They all came from places where the Mennonite church was more established, and so a Mennonite church was built in 2016 in this community.

We arrived at about 8:40 in the morning, just as the drizzle was picking up into a proper rain. So, we took shelter in a neighboring house, and Pastor Nzela had his sister in-law serve us all chai tea and bites: vitumbua and mandazi (fried rice cakes and fried dough) along with a huge platter of bread. We were told that we needed to eat a lot, because you never know what’s coming in the next few hours, and if you don’t eat a lot, you’ll be banished from the men’s table to the women’s table (!). Church normally starts at about 9 am, but we were experiencing a rain delay – people who need to walk to church usually wait a bit to see if the rain will slow down before they head over. By about 9:30, Pastor Nzela decided it was time to make our move and so we entered the sanctuary to continue waiting there. A bit later, the associate minister began to lead a bible study for those who had already gathered. He told me later that he is really trying to help people open their bibles and discover scripture for themselves, so that they own the truths they find there. He gave me an interesting analogy, comparing the church to chickens. “The church today is like broiler chickens. They just sit inside their shed and wait to be fed. They have no idea how to fend for themselves. I want our church to be like local chickens, which can go out and search and find the food they need for each day, and then have enough to sustain them while they sit inside on their eggs for up to three weeks.”

After about another hour, the service itself really got going and I was led up to the chairs on the dais, leaving Julie behind, together with the three male service leaders, so that we faced the congregation. They sang Swahili hymns together from their hymnbook with tunes I know, and I was glad I had remembered two copies of Tenzi za Rohoni (the skinny little hymnbook) so that both Julie and I could sing the texts. Then the choirs started leading worship: the young women’s choir, the youth choir, the joint choir. The time of worship was very lively and very loud!

The congregation included many, many children. Pastor Nzela had been lamenting with me that he has no building in which the children can meet and have a separate Sunday school (and he was quietly asking for support for that endeavor). However, I really noted the way that the children of the church felt at home and part of the body. They knew all the words of all the hymns and contemporary songs, without any hymnbooks. They knew exactly how to participate in the prayers. They danced their hearts out and with great skill when it came time for the children’s choir to perform. And yes, they did get fidgety during my sermon, but they are children! For heaven’s sakes, it was a four-hour service! To my eyes, they looked like people who were fully integrated into the body of Christ and felt comfortable and needed there, far more than most western kids look and feel integrated into the Christian community.

Starting at about 12:30, I was invited up to preach a Mennonite sermon to Mennonites, on the heart and character of a peacemaker, drawing especially from James 3. However, I found as I went along that I needed to simplify a lot of things to make them relevant to the community and translatable. (I could understand at least 75% of the service in Swahili, but I’m still not ready to preach in that language). I really felt the gap in my understanding of this community, of their needs and struggles, and of their level of biblical knowledge. Honestly, I’m not the best preacher for a group like that. Maybe next time, I will have a better idea of how to prepare.

But the fact is, my preaching to the community was in some sense a pretext. Really, the community wanted a visit. They wanted to share their needs and struggles with people whom they perceive to have access to resources. They truly want to develop their church, in terms of buildings. They want to help develop income-generating opportunities for their congregants. They want to support the evangelists and church-planters in the neighboring villages, who are presently just volunteering their time. They want their church to grow. Somehow, they hope that the presence of a missionary might help in those endeavors. They even asked me, in the presence of the whole congregation if I would be able to return once a month! I know about making promises in Africa, so I had to respond that I would try to return at some point, but that I would not be able to come once a month, since I am a leader in my own congregation.

Once the service was over, I needed to sit with the (male) leaders of the congregation and hear their list of requests for support. I did my best to point them towards the Mennonite mission in East Africa and to gently let them know that MCC doesn’t support the kinds of projects they want to do. Those are hard moments for missionaries, when we need to tell people “no.” I also find myself very frustrated by the kinds of superpowers imputed to me, simply by the fact of my racial and national identity. I wish there were ways that Tanzanian church leaders could feel more confident in their own judgement about how to solve the problems of their churches. But I also intensely feel the inequity in our access to resources. Yet how can we be more generous without fostering dependence, and especially the sense of white cultural dominance?

Following this meeting, we were graciously invited back into the sanctuary to share lunch with the (male) leaders of the church. Julie had been hoping to try ugali (stiff cornmeal porridge) during her visit, and this lunch was an answer to prayer. She learned to roll little balls of ugali in her palm and dip them in the meat and sauce. Then we found the women who had cooked and thanked them, took lots of photos with just about everyone, and finally headed back towards Arusha. We made it home at about 5:30 pm, nearly 11 hours later. Now that’s a day at church!

Paul finishing off:

My day at church was quite a bit less dramatic (and shorter). I did end up having the kids alone and had some concern that they might need parenting during my sermon, but they did very well. I don't think I can do the topic justice in a synopsis, but I did move through scripture from our natural and righteous anger at injustice--(especially when we or someone we know is a victim)-- to a point where we realize that while it is easy to point fingers at others, we may avoid seeing our own culpability. Sometimes in systemic ways, other times very deliberately, many of us find we quite literally have 'blood on our hands'. The recognition that we need to be forgiven greatly--to the point of someone dying for us, should lead to profound gratitude. "Those who are forgiven much love much." I talked a bit as well about my experience of sharing this hope with incarcerated men through the Kairos prison ministry. The message was well received and I had a number of people approach me and talk about how it impacted them personally. 

I spent the rest of the day with the kids having pizza for lunch then going home and relaxing, waiting for Rebecca. I have had the experience of preaching at a church where I am perceived as 'the great white missionary; I knew her day would be long and rife with awkward moments. It was good to see Julie and Rebecca finally back around 5. I was very happy to hear about the cultural experiences Julie had there, and nodded in sympathy to Rebecca's negotiating the minefield of cross-cultural ministry. 

Cancelled Plans, A Special Birthday, and a Visitor

Produce from the market

'Torrential downpour' is rapidly becoming the most common expression in my daily lexicon. While I know this is the rainy season, I did not realize the extent to which everything we do is defined by it during the 4 months between March and June. Rain and mud. It has already taken its toll in the first 2 weeks of this month at MCC, forcing us to cancel 2 trips. (We had planned to visit partners in Dodoma and  later, several places in Serengeti region.)

The Dodoma trip cancellation was particularly unfortunate because the rain was not a factor on the roads per se. But on the weekend before we left, the Area Reps. (who have been in town last week to see our projects) were out on a hike. Laura slipt on some rocks because of mud and broke her wrist. She had to have it surgically set at KCMC in Moshe. We cancelled our trip with them that week and they headed home after some recuperation. Sadly, upon being X-rayed in Kenya, it was determined she would have to have it surgically redone because it was not set properly in Tanzania. (Another cautionary tale about the medical system here.) I have heard that the second time went well and she is recuperating nicely.

The second trip was one we were planning to leave for next week, but given the amount of rain we contacted our partners in the Serengeti region which has virtually no paved roads and asked about our chances of getting around without major delay. They told us the roads were very bad, and we have decided to reschedule for some time in the dry season.

The rain and the tilt of the earth are making it feel cooler here, and apparently temperatures will continue to drop through July. Swimming is already getting quite cold even though we are more acclimatized. It is often raining when we go and last week I swam in one such torrential downpour that made it even hard to tell if I had tilted my head out of the water to breathe or not.

The kids have been on their two and a half week term break and Rebecca and I cannot wait for them to go back to school. She has been doing most of the childcare during the day, although I took a turn on Monday this past week so she could do some work.

We have also had some exciting adventures worth chronicling as well, so I am handing the computer over to Rebecca to tell about a special Birthday and the arrival of a visitor.

This is Rebecca:  

We have probably mentioned that we have a woman who comes to clean our house twice a week. She is a very cheerful and sweet person, as well as a very efficient worker, who doesn’t need a lot of direction. And that’s good, because most of the time, she comes and goes while we are at work, and so we don’t see each other that much.

She has long wanted to invite us to come to her house, but I must confess, we didn’t immediately snap up the opportunity. I guess after six years in Burundi, we found that we were reticent to jump into patronage relationships too quickly. If you’ve lived in Africa, you probably know what I’m talking about. This time around, I wanted to build the relationship more slowly, make sure we were staying in this neighborhood, keeping her on as an employee, etc. In any case, we have really grown to appreciate Nai, and always breathe a sigh of relief on Mondays and Fridays when we come home to a clean, orderly, spotless home. I enjoy sharing conversation in Swahili with her on the few days when we have some overlap. She has a very positive attitude towards life and I’m grateful for how she helps us.

In any case, a few weeks ago, she invited us to come help celebrate her oldest daughter’s 8^th birthday at her home. It was a great arrangement for us since it fell on a weekday evening during our school break. Nai asked if I would bring a cake, since she doesn’t have an oven in which to bake one. So, on Wednesday, David and I baked a layer cake out of Betty Crocker. Oren helped with sugar cookies. And on Thursday, Oren helped me to decorate my very first pink birthday cake (being a boy mamma), with pink icing and pastel colored Mentos. In fact, David had been invited to a schoolmate’s party for the early afternoon, so he and Paul met us at Nai’s house separately after work.

Nai’s husband, Abraham, is a gardener on the base where we live, so he met us at our house and we drove all through the compound, across the private bridge, up the hill, through a gate, along the dirt road past the Joshua Foundation school and then along another dirt road about 1.5 km. We arrived at their house at the most glorious hour of the early evening, and they were very happy to show us around. Nai and Abraham built their house together after they got married and they have taken a lot of initiative to make it a nice place. They have two large rainwater collection tanks, as well as a tank in the ground – very wise for dry season. They are raising chickens and rabbits to sell and have a variety of fruit trees in their yard. They tend maize fields just outside their compound. Their house is built of cinder blocks and pretty big for a village house, with a good strong tin roof – they are just saving up to put in ceiling boards. Their three kids (8, 5 and 2) were happy to run around with the neighbor kids and David, looking at everything and poking the rabbits.

These kinds of cross-cultural visits are much more challenging for our older son, but he has become more mature and polite about it, and just quietly sits and observes and tries not to be too awkward. Nai cooked some very delicious pilau (rice cooked with meat and spices) and a meat stew. Then we sang for Lidya and shared cake and sugar cookies. Everyone seemed to really enjoy having special sweets, and Lidya was happy about receiving some gifts.

Later we took a little stroll through this village area in the perfect late afternoon light. First, we went to visit the neighbor cow, belonging to Mama Jackie, who supplies our fresh milk (we only met Mama Jackie later on our return journey, a widow and mother of four, who is doing her best to make ends meet). The sun was gleaming across the river on the hillside, Mt. Meru was perfectly clear and glorious, and we couldn’t stop walking. It has been raining torrentially and often, and so a clear afternoon was a real treat. So we visited another neighboring farm, and accidently met the owners, a much more well-off family, investing in roaster chickens and lots of other kitchen garden stuff. They also have cows who produce 10L of milk per milking, but I feel better supporting Mama Jackie.

We headed back to Nai’s house and the cars as the sun was setting, and Oren was saying, “Come on, mom! We need to go!” But, being relational has its own sense of timing, and it was almost dark as we got in the cars. We drove back the way we had come…and found the gate to the Joshua foundation locked.

Now, this was a problem because we had come across the river on the private bridge. And we weren’t sure where the next bridge was. I knew there was a nearby bridge suitable for motorcycles, but not for cars. Google maps pointed us down the road farther, assuring us we would be home in 6 minutes. We drove on and looked down the narrow, dark slope heading to the river – with no car tire tracks marking it. I sent Oren down to do reconnaissance (and to get his complaining voice, saying “I told you so!!!” out of my ears), and meanwhile I asked some passing children about the way forward. They told me, “well, there’s a way, but you’ll never find it without someone showing you!” And just at that moment a man came strolling up, learned of our problem and said, “Let me show you.”

So he got in the car and we drove another 20 minutes through very muddy slippery roads, across the muddy foundation of the new East Africa highway that’s being built near us, down and around, fishtailing here and there. And finally, FINALLY, he led us back out to the tarmac main road that we knew. And then we drove him all the way back down the other side of the river to nearer our neighborhood. As he got out of the car, Oren said, “That was a really nice man.” And I replied, “He was more like an angel helping us out of a really tough spot!” (and I had told the man as much in Swahili when he left us). We were back home five minutes later and as we entered our house, I had to confess to Paul, “I enjoyed EVERY MINUTE of that experience!!” That was an afternoon of really living in Tanzania.

On Friday, the boys and I had our first dental visit in Arusha with Dr. Tanya, who is apparently trained in Macedonia. She seems very good to me and has good equipment. She talked quite a lot about how she needs to treat teeth differently in this context because of the problems of excess fluoride. In fact, the water that comes out of our resident volcanic mountain, Mt. Meru, contains extremely high levels of fluoride. Even the fruits and vegetables that are grown here contain a lot of fluoride, so filtering one’s drinking water is not the only solution. In the US, we often add fluoride to our water to help prevent cavitites. But here, there is a public health problem called fluorosis. Many people who grow up in the Arusha area have badly stained teeth, and children often experience stunting, when they are exposed to too much fluoride at a young age. Our kids are old enough that it shouldn’t be a problem, and most of our drinking water is rainwater, harvested from our roof. But we won’t be putting any sealants on their teeth.

Later in the afternoon, we joined a group of expat families at TGT, a club on the other end of town. It was the first time we had ever visited the place, which has a pool, exercise facilities, restaurant, playground, a series of big fields where people gather to play soccer and rugby on Friday evenings. It was another lovely evening free of rain, and our purpose for gathering was to help welcome the Cameron family who have just arrived in Arusha. They will be working to restart Young Life clubs in the international schools (and here is more about the teen ministry of Young Life). Our kids are younger than the ones they will be intentionally reaching out to, but we still want to be part of supporting their new life and ministry here.

We didn’t stay for dinner with others there, because we needed to be home to welcome a special guest later that evening. Julie, my cousin Colette’s daughter, is nearly finished with Med School in New York City and had a few months free before graduation. She decided that she would like to broaden her experience of medicine and the world and come to visit us. She found an opportunity to observe/volunteer at a local hospital in Arusha and will just be living life alongside us for the next two weeks. It’s been very fun to have her here and to get to know her better as an adult (in the past, we just spent time with her at big family gatherings where there wasn’t as much time to really talk and get to know one another).

On her first afternoon, I decided to take Julie to the central market area of town. We worked on getting some extra keys cut for her and then headed into the market proper to see the sights. It’s always wonderful and intimidating to walk between rows of beautiful fresh avocados and bananas, on into the wonderful aromas of cardamom and pepper in the spice aisles, past grain sacks full of tiny dried fish (which don’t smell quite as appetizing) and back into the area of stalls selling household goods. We were able to find string for a Sunday school craft Paul wanted to do the next day. And then we found a smaller wooden spoon for kitchen use (the one we had was about 2 feet long, for making ugali). And finally we started shopping for produce. I was really happy with the beautiful broccoli and Chinese cabbage, as well as red peppers, carrots and other things.

In the process, a young teenager came up and was very assertively poking me and taking my bag to help me carry it and guide me around. I didn’t much appreciate the way in which he completely glommed on to us, but there was really nothing for it: you pretty much have to take on someone as your porter, so he was as good as the next kid. He led us further on in our search of tasty tiny bananas, mangoes, papaya and other fruit. I just said out loud, “Now, the last thing we need is tomatoes…” and some other kid was thrusting tomatoes into my face. It was quite funny! There were some less pretty moments as we headed out of the market. At one point, it looked like our teenage porter was about to bolt across the street with all our produce; in fact he was just running into traffic in order to look at a wedding procession passing by. When we got to the car, he started asking for a lot more money to pay for all the plastic bags he had (unnecessarily) added to hold my veggies. I gave him a tip 4 times what he had first asked for, but he was still not happy and was trying to block my way into the car. Anyway, we were able to leave eventually without a fight. So it was all the good and bad of the market: wonderful fresh produce to take home, a good workout for my Swahili, and complete mental exhaustion at the end! Julie really enjoyed the experience I think, and I will keep taking visitors there to have the experience with me. But I don’t think I’m quite ready to make it a weekly trip.

Another wonderful part of Julie’s visit has been the ways she has reminded us of family traditions we share. She brought along a couple of decks of cards and taught us how to play “Spite and Malice,” a game I now clearly remember playing with the Sack grandparents. I’m so glad to know the rules again now, and David can play it just as well as any of us at this point. Our kids are really enjoying have her around, and it’s also a blessing that she’s eager to help us cook, wash dishes and do other things around the house.

Bonus Photo:  This is something amazing that the rain did to a pile of constuction sand in the parking lot at church. If you read the entry last month about our trip to Iringa and the gigantic amazing natural pillars we saw, you'll appreciate this. These are miniature natural pillars formed in exactly the same way!! The rain washed away the sand under the small rocks and left little pillars. They are about 2-3 inches tall compared to the ones that were several hundred feet in Iringa, but the landscape of them looks the same!

Holy Week: Field visits, Footwashing, and a Baptism

Spotted eagle owl roosting in a tree next to our house.

It has been about 10 days since my last entry, and that is partly because it is sometimes hard to find a good 'break point' between different sets of events to group into one entry. The end of Holy week is a good catch up point.

MCC Tanzania has been, since the East Africa regional meetings last week, hosting the East Africa Area Directors-- Ken and Laura Litwiller. They are here for an extended annual administrative visit and to see some of our projects.

This past Wednesday we took them to Step-by-Step Learning Center, a partner we support who runs a school for severly mentally handicapped children in Arusha. It is always inspiring to visit Margaret and her team of teachers and see the work they do to help these children develop to their potential in such a resource poor setting. Mental disability is considered both shameful and a terrible burden on the family in TZ, particulalry the mother who is often blamed. These children can be severely neglected and hidden in the home away from any social contact. Everything from cerebral palsy to autism are treated the same by many Tanzanians, and are presumed to be unteachable and useless (even if they are of normal intelligence).

Laura and Sharon talking to Margaret

Margaret's school not only works to provide remedial academic education, but also social education, work therapy--including helping with simple chores, gardening, feeding chickens, collecting eggs, and even reflexology and massage for those with physical challenges. Childern also learn to make simple handicrafts  like beads and weaving which is therapeutic, educational, and generates some income as well. Many of the children are coming from a rural setting so the work skills they develop help them find a way to be more accepted in their home environment. (Sadly, Margaret reports that many students who 'graduate' end up regressing considerably once they leave the school environment because they cease to receive the intensive attention they get at the school.)

Laura asking William about chicken coop and fish pond

The day we visited it had rained heavily the night before and the road into the school was extremely muddy. Mud here in the rainy season is a serious road hazard and it is not uncommon for cars to get stuck. We (Sharon our CR, the Area Directors, and me) drove as close as we could but had to walk the last 100 meters to the school. Despite this, the visit was very satisfactory and Ken and Laura appreciated hearing Margaret's vision (which came out of raising a severly mentally disabled daughter herself and leaving a career in Chemistry). The ADs also got to see the way MCC has supported the school including building a fish pond, purchasing therapy toys and supporting some of the teaching staff. We spent several hours there and visited some of the classrooms to watch the kids working with their teachers as well.

The office has been busy with 2 extra people around this week, although Rebecca has not been around at all. This is because the kids have been out of school for term break. (It lasts more than 2 full weeks.) Having them home from school at a time when we cannot take a vacation is quite challenging. She has been trying to do some work at home as well as entertain kids. Last Tuesday she went to parent-teacher day at the school with the kids. It took the whole day to visit all of their teachers and discuss their grades.

Generally we were quite happy with their grades, Oren is getting As and Bs in math, science, history, and English, and Cs in Swahili and French. (no surprise there) He has Cs in art, drama, and phys ed. as well, but I will say that there is a lot of focus on achievement and even in art there is a high expectation that they will develop a high level of technique. (They have been doing figure drawing this quarter.). I think I was most impressed with his A+ in math and a note that said he was the top student in the class. It is becoming more and more clear that Oren has a good mind for abstract reasoning. He was very happy to have his mom talk to his teachers in math and science who sang his praises.

David is not exactly graded in year 4, but did receive a good report card on his conduct, effort and achievement in various subjects. His teacher said he is a very nice kid, but could raise his hand more in class.

The visit to all classes took at least one of their holidays. Other days Rebecca has had some friends over, baked cookies, played games and done her best to find activities that are not oriented around screens. This is not always easy.

We have also been heavily involved in Holy Week activities at our church. Beginning Wednesday night, we had our last choir practice for our special music on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Sadly our pianist had to have emergencys surgery just days before Good Friday so the choir director has had to jump in and learn all of the music on the piano and try to conduct from the keyboard. Despite this, we learned some beautiful anthems for Sunday and more somber selections for Good Friday.

Rebecca and I were also in charge of the Maundy Thursday service. She was in charge of the music and I was the worship leader. We did a service of Taize music and Rebecca was able to recruit a trombonist and flute to join the guitar and piano on the music team. The songs were quite beautiful. Particularly memorable for me was the footwashing ceremony. After a sermon by our friend Mike Taylor about the last supper, we invited people to come up and wash each other's feet. It ended up being very moving in this ethnically diverse group. I especially was impressed by the children who participated and happily washed the feet of their grandmothers.

We got home late but since Good Friday was a holiday, we watched part of the The Return of the King with the kids on the computer. (We just finished listening to it on audibook.) It was good to sleep in a bit on Good Friday, but the service was at 10:30 am, led by some other Mennonites (Neal and Christy Miller). They did a very nice contemplative service in which our choir sung 2 songs that sounded very good.

After the service on Friday, we went out of town about 45 minutes to visit our friends the Taylor's--Mike, Katie, and their 4 kids. We have been hoping our kids would make a connection with them because their oldest is the same age as Oren. We have worked very hard to find kids his age he can interact with. He craves social interaction, but is extremely introverted and shy when it comes to meeting people. David makes friends with everyone and really liked the other 3 who are all closer to his age. We had a very good time talking with Mike and Katie. (Mike teaches at an Anglican seminary in the compound where they live.) We also had a fabulous lunch with a leg of lamb, taziki, hummus, pita, tabouli, finishing off with cake and icecream. This ended up being our Easter celebration meal because we knew we had so much to do on Sunday for church that we would not be able to host anyone on that day.

Saturday was another social day where we got together at our club, Gymkhana with some other church friends, Lindsey and Jeremy, and a new family who will be working with Young Life here who just arrived from Texas. It was nice to not be the newest people around for a change! We were even able to give them some good advice about schools, transportation, and different neighborhoods around town.

We also dyed Easter eggs on Saturday afternoon. We made some really exceptional ones using oil pastels (high quality crayons) then dipping in food coloring and vinegar water. Since the eggs were brown  they all came out looking very Victorian, the oil pastels created a stained glass effect that was much better than crayon. I highly recommend it.

Sunday finally arrived and it was busy for us as far as Easter services go. We had 2 choir pieces, but Rebecca also had a baptism. It was her first one to officiate at here in Arusha. They have a kind of pit style font just outside the church for immersion. Rebecca led Malvery, a peace corps volunteer who has been here for several years, through the vows and then immersed her. They then changed quickly and joined the choir for the 2 anthems we sung.

We took Sunday afternoon easy having felt that we had done our Easter feast on Good Friday with the Taylors. Honestly, it was nice to have the afternoon off. The internet even ran out so the kids played games inside and outside. We finished The Return of the King and I finally have been able to get something written for this blog.