Paul and Rebecca Mosley in Tanzania: On Fishing and Home Decorating

Hanging out around firepit at cookout at our compound.

After a week of being back in Arusha, I am back on the road again, so to speak. This time in Dodoma. I have come down with Sharon, our MCC Rep, and Chrispin, the Agriculture Coordinator. There were a number of things on the agenda during this trip only one of which directly concerned me: a visit to our partner Dodoma School for the Deaf, to check in on one of the projects I oversee in my role as health and education coordinator. Another reason we are here is to follow up on some changes to our NGO registration status, a thankless job which took us into the bowels of the Ministry of Community Development, Gender, and Children. (It sounds better than it is.)

Dodoma is the new capital of Tanzania, selected to decongest Dar Es Salaam and to find a more centrally located city from which to govern. It sounded good in 1973 when it was officially decreed. The movement of all govt. entities to the city has been in process for the past 45 years and is about half way there from what I can tell. The current President is committed to finish it by 2022. I am skeptical, judging by the size of the airfield.

As a city, it is hard to imagine a place with less character in which to locate the capital (except maybe Abuja, Nigeria, which was decreed along the same ideological lines). It kind of reminds me of somewhere like El Paso, Texas, without any good Mexican restaurants. It is very flat. The one rocky hill that rises in the center looks like a good vantage point from which to look down, but the prime minister's house was built there so no one is allowed to climb it. In this season it is windy, dry and dusty, like the plains states in the US.

We left Monday morning and drove about 7 hours, arriving in the afternoon. We had dinner on Monday evening at an Italian restaurant and went to bed early at our hotel, The Johannic, which sounded promising as its front sign claimed that it was "The next level in Jesus name". I assume they were talking about the service. (Ironically it had no running water, living or otherwise, most of the time we were there.)

Tuesday we made our foray into the Ministry mentioned above. We eventually found the cramped NGO office which was stacked with documents on every surface, having waited about an hour for the arrival of the officer that worked there. Not surprisingly, the mission to 'complete' the process of changing a sentence in our constitution (in process for a year) was no closer to being completed after being there an hour. We were told the original constitution was still in Dar as all paperwork had not been moved over. (They have only had 45 years to make the transition). They did not accept our old copy to show the change. Anyway, my experience with these things is that nothing is ever completed, you just push the process along until eventually you retire and someone else pushes it along for you. Franz Kafka couldn't make this stuff up.

The field visit to Dodoma School for the Deaf (DSD) was far more rewarding! The school looks great and we got to see Chrispin in action as he did a training in fish farming. It was very practical as they needed to move fish from one pond to another in a new location. Kids spent several hours lowering the water level with buckets, then catching fish in a big net and putting them in the new pond.

In the afternoon I was able to see some of the other classrooms including the preschool (modelled on the Montessori method) and the new computer lab that MCC helped equip. There are about 10 computers and most of the children in the school do a class about once per week. Both the fish farming and the computer training are part of what makes the school so amazing. The deaf children do well at the school academically, but they also get many vocational training opportunities to help them develop skills to enter into mainstream society. There are really no accomodations for disability in the adult world of Tanzania. Being at a disadvantage in any way can make working or finding a job extremely difficult. Deaf children in most schools would be presumed to be mentally deficient and often remain a burden on families. These kids by contrast are definitely above average, and are learning skills as well as creativity.

My favorite sight on the field visit was 7th grader Simon Eliabi's windmill he invented from plastic bottles (since it is so windy) when it turns, a small turbine inside another bottle behind it pushes water out and waters a nearby tree sapling that he planted. The invention is a small vignette of everything that is right about this school.

That is what has happened so far this week. It is Wednesday and Sharon and I will watch another training that Chrispin is doing, this time with an agricultural partner. He will be teaching lead farmers how to manage various issues as they in their communities to promote adoption of low-tillage agricultural techniques. It will be in Swahili, which is always a good work-out for me.

Rebecca stocked first aid kits at work this week.

I need to fill in the space between the last blog and this one, as the week between field visits to Musoma and Dodoma was very full of activities on the homefront, particularly over the weekend. It was very good to get back into the normal routine of school, swimming and work during the week I was back. The kids have been doing great in school and had relaxing evenings together, culminating in family move night on Friday to watch another chapter of the Avengers movies.

Satuday was a day packed with fun as we decided to return to Lake Duluti, about 45 minutes from our house. This has become one of David's favorite places (even though we have only been once before) because it is one of the few large bodies of water near Arusha, and you can fish! He spent the morning catching crickets and was hoping to catch some tilapia or catfish when we went. As it turned out, he caught about 2 dozen crayfish--nice sized red ones. They would just grab the crickets and ride up on the line. We weren't prepared to keep them, but next time, I think we will plan to bring a bucket and make some cajun food with them.

Rebecca and I enjoyed walking around and seeing the many birds. I also counted 4 monitor lizards hanging out on the banks sunning themselves on logs. (The Swahili word for them is Kenge, which also is used to describe a lazy person.)

When we returned, the team at the Joshua Foundation where live was having a huge cookout on a firepit in the back yard of the team leader. It was a goodbye for one of the team that was leaving, but was also a very nice time of fellowship and eating very tasty 'nyama choma' (roasted meat).

During the day, Rebecca and I had talked about taking more 'ownership' of the house. That is, personalizing it. Granted it has taken us a full year to really feel like it is a home. It has very nice features but the walls are pretty bare and uninteresting and we don't have much in the way of artwork. Oren has been particularly bothered by this since our return from the USA in August, and he was eager to make it feel more homey.

I decided on Saturday night to paint a large white circle on the wall that would double as a place to project movies. I drew the circle with a pencil on a string then painted it. Because of the size and texture of the brush stokes, I was surprised to see that it really looked like a huge full moon.

We got inspired to add trees and began by looking on Amazon for tree decals for walls. The ones we like best were very simple designs of birch trees. (But they were $99, and we would only every receive them in December with visiting family. And we were eager for some instant gratification. And there are no birches in Tanzania anyway, so why not go for jacarandas?) So we decided that we could probably paint them ourselves.

The next day after church (Rebecca and I both had Sunday school classes to teach), we had pizza at Georges then went home and began mixing paint for the trees. We made a very dark grey and she tried one on a side wall. (I did the tops because I am taller and the ceilings are 9 feet.). We like the results and did one on the front wall next to the moon. It turned out far better than we had imagined. The room has been transformed! And it is really feeling like our home.

I have a plan for one more tree/moon project on the main kitchen wall. Hopefully for this weeked.

Another little art project that I (Rebecca) and David have been working on for a few weeks was also completed this weekend. We'd made paper beads out of an old MCC calendar, bought a few glass beads from Shanga, gathered up some other random unused jewelry and old copper wire, and created a crazy wall hanging for our kitchen in the meantime.

While Paul is away, we are having quiet evenings. I've had good walks with Oren each late afternoon, good time cooking with David, and we've been playing monopoly when homework is done. At dinner, we've been having those on-going conversations about respect and the rule of touching ("always ask first.") The funniest moment was when I brought up the issue of whether that rule changes when one is angry. The boys both chuckled and thought about a scenario in which they asked someone, "I'm really angry. Please, may I punch you in the face?" They could see the real potential for de-escalation there. And they also recognized that when we ask first, we always remember that the other person is a human being, who deserves dignity. Obviously, I'm not advocating punching, ever, but it's been a good thought exercise and good time of sharing.