A Toothache, A Birthday, A Wedding, Killer bees, and More!

Hanging out at coffee lodge.

I actually have a few anecdotes to start this entry, but one that explains the delay in posting also has the happy result that I found there is an excellent dentist here in Arusha. Sometime over the weekend I began to get a pain in a tooth. Although if anyone out there has had a bad toothache you know that the radiating pain can be so excruciating that it is hard to tell even what part of the mouth it originates from. I knew Rebecca had taken the kids for a cleaning to a dentist last spring so I got the number and made an appointment for the next day.

Dr. Tanya, as she is called, is from Macecdonia. (I am still not sure of all the countries that made up former Yugoslavia) but the sign at her gate says she is a 'dental surgeon', and I will say that she was able to figure out which tooth had cracked under an old filling, and painlessly repaired it. I was especially impressed by how modern the office was, particulalry a 'digital X-ray' machine which was amazing. She did a lot of her work with the help of a large screen monitor just above the chair. But with the digital X-ray, she could put a small wand by a tooth and get an instant X-ray on the screen with 1/10th radiation of a normal X-ray! More technologically advanced than my dentist in the US!

I now have a temporary filling in case a root canal needs to follow (depending on whether I relapse into severe pain again.) But so far so good. Of course coming from the US, what is most surprising  is how much cheaper medical and dentral care is here. The repair of the tooth, filling, Xray, etc. was under $50. A root canal will run me about $250. I can't really say enough about how great it feels to be pain-free again. (Something we don't appreciate when we have not been in pain.)

The last week has offered a number of opportunities to do things we have not done before here, and to repeat things that we did a year ago that are returning with the season--only now we are not the 'new guys'. One event was the Birthday of one of David's classmates last Saturday. Samwel was the first kid in David's school to invite him to a Birthday when we arrived. I remember taking David out to Tembo club to play. As I recall, being the new kid was not entirely comfortable and he got into several fist fights and did not make a great impression.

After a year, though, Samwel is one of David's very good friends at school and David has a large cadre of friends in his class. Going to the birthday this year was quite different. Almost all the same kids, but David seemed much more at home. I went with Oren to the outdoor restaurant (Tembo Club) and he worked on homework-- a large poster detailing the causes of WWI while David played with his friends and ate kuku na chipsi (chicken and french fries) and Birthday cake.

Rebecca was not with us because she had agreed to be the family representative at a local wedding of for the brother of Nai, our housekeeper. Rebecca is here to give an account:

In this culture, the family of the groom is responsible for hosting the wedding reception, so I made my way to Nai's parents' home in the village over the hill south of our compound. Luckily I was able to follow Nai's husband on his motorbike along wandering dirt roads to reach the place. I had been told that many weddings actually begin hours after the scheduled reporting time for guests. In this case, I found them in full swing at 3 pm. Two huge tents had been set up in the field beside the house, and probably 500 people were gathered to watch the proceedings. After greetings and prayers, the couple began to hand out ceremonial wedding cakes to honor first their respective parents, then the pastors, and then a few other guests...including me! I was very suprised to be receiving a cake thanking Paul and I, but then I guess we had given a substantial gift to Nai to help with expenses. Next, various couples were called forward to feed each other big bites of cake, some gracefully, and some with quite a bit of humorous awkwardness. Then various categories of people collected cash from their fellows, processing in a long dancing line forward towards the bridal dias, and placing bills in the hands of those responsible. Later, they presented the totals proudly to the couple: The parents raised 372,000! the sisters raised... the aunties raised... Some gifts were physical, too: big cooking pots, blankets, a rope to tie up the gift goat from a brother (goat wasn't present). And finally, we were all invited in order of rank to partake of a big buffet meal. It was fun and interesting and Nai was very happy to introduce me to her family. I drove back home just as the sun was getting low in the sky.

Paul again: So that was last Saturday, but Sunday had its adventures as well. Because our home is on the far side of town from many people we know, we packed to be out for the day on Sunday and went to church so we could do some things afterwards without having to come home. After church we had lunch at a Tanzanian self-proclaimed Mexican restaurant, which does not quite 'get' Mexican food. The fried tortilla chips for nachos were hard as a rock, and the soft taco tortillas were basically porridge that had to be eaten with a fork. Afterwards, we stopped by the Shanga handicrafts cottage industry where people with disabilities make various things out of fabric, beads, and glass. It is always fascinating watching someone operating a hand loom, or blowing glass. Rebecca tried her hand at glass blowing when offered the chance. You can see her results in the photo.

Later in the afternoon we went to the compound of some Norwegian missionaries who host volleyball on Sundays. I don't think I have done this kind of thing since highschool, and brought back memories of the 'Family Singers' of my youth (shout out to Jo, Charlene, Louise, Jean, etc.). It was great to have Oren join the adults in the game, several of whom were quite accomplished. Oren had been doing volleyball in school last year, and really distinguished himself by scoring over 20 points in 3 games when he was serving! He is actually getting really tall. David played with some of the kids in the compound but did join in one game as well. It was a great time, however the distance will limit the number of times in a month we can come to these games.

The week was eventful at work as I have heard back from the board granting ethical approval for my research who have asked for some major revisions. A bit disappointing but it is good to be able to plod ahead again. I am also getting ready for a trip to the Lake region next week to visit a partner so those preparations took a lot of time as well.

We had three events at school this past week. One was the secondary school 'meet the teachers and faculty' on Tuesday evening. We went as a family after work to hear about the secondary school programs this year. I was a bit shocked that despite being well publicized there were only about 3 sets of parents for a school of about 400 students. Granted, a fair number are boarders. The presentation itself was well done and we could certainly ask many specific questions. It is interesting to hear them talk about goals mostly in relation to preparing for O and A levels which is really the main interest of parents here as most are paying to go to a British school for the opportunity to study abroad. Getting top marks is the only ticket out--and an expensive one at that for most people here.

This past Friday, we had two more school events, one was an assembly to which we were invited, (Rebecca went), presented to the school by David's class. It was about diversity, a major focus of the school. The kids introduced the different ethnic groups represented by children in Tanzania, as well as South Asians, and other foreigners. David, the only American in his class was asked to do the Star Spangled Banner. It was kind of funny because he did not even know the words at the beginning of the week. Our family sung it daily at meals, in the car, etc. until he memorized it. He did an excellent job with it at the assembly and got alot of applause. He does have a beautiful voice and it was impressive to see him do a solo. (It is posted on Rebecca's facebook page.)

Oren had an event on Friday evening. It was a 'disco' at the school. Rebecca and I remembering middle school 'mixers' as fairly innocuous social events really encouraged him to go. He found out his friend Abraham was going so he agreed. When we picked him up afterwards though, both he and Abraham were quite scandalized by the amount of 'twerking' the kids were doing at the disco. They were not excited about going to something like this in the future.

snake we caught in our backyard.

While Oren was at the disco, Rebecca, David, and I went to Gymkhana and had another 'African' adventure. Apparently a gardener had tried to spray a bees nest in the roof of a building and had really stirred them up. African bees are 'killer bees' which is really about how aggresive they are, not how venomous. When we arrived, we had to park in a far off lot and go in a back way to the club house. There were dead bees everywhere and tons of people had been stung. One bee started chasing me and I see what they mean by aggressive I ran very, very, far and finally was able to escape into a room. The bee absolutely refused to quit chasing me. Apparently it was sheer chaos several hours before when the swarm started and many people around the club, wait staff, caddies, golfers, swimmers, etc. were stung and forced to flee. Our waiter's eye was completely swollen shut when he came to take our order. I can affirm that you should not mess with bees here.

Many more smaller adventures but I need to stop here. I will end by mentioning that we caught a green snake in our back yard. It is 99% likely to be a harmless water snake and 1% chance it is a juvenile green mamba. Sent a photo to the snake park here and they say it is a green water snake.