A visit to Kigali #ICFP2018

Kigali Convention Center by night. 

Time flies when you are busy it seems. I am happy to have a day off this week. The nice thing about Tanzania is that we celebrate all Christian and Muslim holidays, so there are a fair number of public holidays to enjoy. I am currently at a mall where David is playing in a kind of Kids Zone, and Oren is visiting a friend. Rebecca is having a sabbath away from all of us for at least part of the day. She really needs it as I was away all last week and she had to do the morning routine with the kids from Monday through Friday. It is a real challenge as it requires a 5am wake-up when we are together to be ready to drive them to the bus by 6:35.

I felt bad for leaving for that reason, but I was excited about going to Kigali (Rwanda) for the bi-annual International Conference on Family Planning sponsored by the Gates Institute. I have been interested in finding ways of integrating some family planning programs into some of our existing projects. Tanzania still has a very high fertility rate and has missed Millenial Development Goals targets on reducing maternal and infant mortality. Knowledge and access to contraception is a very cost-effective way to reduce these sad statistics. MCC is not a large player in the global health sphere, but in many places we have a reputation, as a faith based NGO of engaging church leaders. I was hoping to get more information about successful programs which engage faith leaders as advocates for family planning in their communities, especially since the church is a highly influential institution in our context here and in Sub-Saharan African generally.

I left town on a Sunday afternoon. I had booked a ticket on Rwanda Air and was very happy to see there was a direct 1 hour 20 minute flight to Kigali. (The next shortest was 9 hours on Kenya Air because it stopped in Nairobi). The flight was very full, and I realized, when talking to my seat mate, that many were heading to the conference. The importance of the conference in Kigali was evident as soon as we arrived. The airport was full of posters and there was even a tent outside the terminal for check in to the conference as well as shuttle buses to various hotels.

I had made arrangements to stay with Matt G., a friend and former MCCer that we worked with when we were Country Reps for MCC Rwanda Burundi. I was happy to see him waiting at the gate, and after buying a sim card, we went to his house and had a chance to catch up that evening. He was not going to be in town the rest of the week, but said I could still stay at his house as his staff, wife, and son were all there. It was great to see them all, as well as his 2 dogs who I remembered from our time together in MCC. He drove me to the convention center the next morning.

My father who is also a person of note in the global health world, was also at the conference and had arrived in Kigali a day early to be one of the keynote speakers at the young adult pre-conference. He had said I might be able to stay with him at the hotel connected to the convention center, and as it turned out, that was not a problem to share his room. I was certainly pleased with this development as it meant I was right next to the convention center where the conference was, and the Radisson Blue hotel is probably one of the nicest hotels in Kigali.

Entering the convention center area was not a minor process. Security was extremely tight and I had to go through a thorough security check and get a conference ID that I had to wear at all times. Once inside the facility, it was not difficult to get around, and the hotel was inside the secure perimeter. As I saw the personalities that were invited, including many heads of ministries and state, I understood the need for the level of securty that was there. In addition, there were about 4000 people in attendance.

The opening ceremony was so huge that I had to sit in one of the overflow halls which was also full. I think it would be hard to describe the amount of enthusiasm I witnessed for the notion of contraceptive choice. But those in attendance were strong advocates for the right to access to contraception. Within the whole, though there were a number of divergent views on what access means, from a purely rights-based approach, to other more participatory and culturally sensitive implementation philosophies.

The tracks one could choose from included, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy, best practices, procurement and supply chain, men's engagement, faith and family planning, youth and adolescent rights, community development, health system strengthening, and several others I can't remember at the moment. I was personally interested in workshops and discussions that focused on men's engagement and faith leader engagement. I was happy to see that there were many opportunities to hear form organizations that had implemented programs using these strategies and was inspired by what I heard.

My interest in engaging men was particularly keen as a result of spending time in the field in our maternal and child health project in TZ and talking to health professionals there about contraception availability. They said they were and that women preferred injectables for birth spacing because it could easily be concealed from their husbands who did not necessarily approve of limiting family size. I was sad to hear that men were not well informed about the health reasons for spacing, and was concerned about women having to take the risk of concealing this.

There were also many very exciting plenary sessions and special events. I enjoyed a session in which the first ladies of Rwanda, Haiti, and the Princess of Jordan discusses FP advocacy in their countries. I also enjoyed evenings of entertainment including a stunning young Sri Lankan rapper, who produced pro-FP music based on telling stories (through rap) of girls who had been harmed by lack of access. (Actually that is not a good desciption-- think of Madonna's Papa Don't Preach.) I wish I could understand the words, but she was amazing. There were other entertainers. One morning plenary was a real-life recreation of the 'Vagina Monologues' which you may be familiar with. It is a series of stories told by women about their life experiences around adolescence, menstruation, pregnancy, FGM, etc. It was extremely powerful and the youth who performed it were very talented. It was funny, tragic, though provoking all at once.

It was good to be there with my dad, and although we had to share a king size bed. (There were no rooms left in hotels anywhere in Kigali, much less the Radisson). I loved being able to take a morning swim, in a really beautiful pool. We also had a chance to go to the breakfast buffet that had over 100 different dishes to choose from. I was reminded how good Rwandan food and the amazing fusion of African and French culture.

It was good to listen to French again, as many of the speakers were from French Africa. Headphones offered simoultaneous translation of everything, but I really did not need it.

I had the chance to do a little visiting outside the conference, but not as much sight seeing as I might have liked given my past in Kigali. The city looks beautiful and remains pristinely clean. I did get a burrito at one of my favorite haunts Mezze Fresh, which has better Tex-Mex than anywhere in the US. I also went over to the new mall to meet  former colleague, Richard who I hired as a program assistant when I worked with MCC here. It was very nice to catch up with him.

One of the visiting highlights was Thursday night, when I went over to the current Country Reps'. house, Scott and Anne-Marie. They had replaced us when we left and were now in their fifth year. It was good to see them, and to see how their kids had grown. I had dinner with them and the new Area Directors for the Central West Africa region. It was a really great time together to catch up on the evolution of the program here. I am very pleased to see how much the program had grown and changed since our departure.

Rebecca's interjection: While Paul was away, I had the task of keeping the home front going without him. I am normally a pretty high functioning person, but that's after 7 am. So, the early morning wake up, make breakfast, get uniforms together, load the car, get out the door by 6:40 -- it was a challenge. Fortunately, our road is open again, with the construction having left us a nice new circle to drive through, so I didn't have to take the extra long detour to meet the bus. We had a pretty quiet week (a few fraternal fights and tantrums notwithstanding), coming home, doing homework, going to bed. The highlight of my week was having more time to talk with Oren one-on-one, mostly at dinner. He is growing and maturing so much and somehow, by a miracle, still willing to talk to his mom at age 13, nay, even asking me about things! Topics included gerrymandering and the 2020 census, the end times and symbolism in Revelation, the current state of politics in Tanzania, and what it means to be a conscientious objector. He covered it all: theology, politics, ethics, philosophy. I'm grateful. And meanwhile, I had a number of quiet and productive days in the office, getting more involved in developing the peace-building side of our program in Tanzania. I'll give the mic back to Paul.

My dad and I left Friday morning. He planned to visit us for 2 days on his way out of Africa, and we were on the same flight back to Arusha. It was short and sweet. We also enjoyed taking the new road home from the airport. The kids were thrilled to see grandpa and he had many gifts for them (and us.) There were some late birthday presents for David, a new computer for Oren, and and upgraded camera for me. There were also other beloved items such as Cheerios, and Nestles Chocolate chips.

We watched a movie together Friday then had an outing to the Cultural Heritage Center on Saturday, and a stop by Gymkhana. On Sunday we all went to church together. I had a very hard morning as I was subbing for Oren's confirmation class and had a huge Sunday school group after that. It all went off well though and we had a good lunch with one of my dad's former students/colleagues who lives here, and then our small group met at our house in the afternoon.

My dad left on Sunday evening by cab. It was a very interesting week, and I am glad to have something a little lower key this week, as I will be going away again the week after that.

Bonus Photo: Rebecca and I taken with my new camera.

The Anti-Beatitudes

Rickshaw and taxi-motos under a jacaranda.

MATTHEW 5:  ¹Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them. He said:
³ ‘Blessed are the rich,
    for they will dwell in kingdoms on earth.
⁴ Blessed are those who have never suffered loss,
    they will live in comfort.
⁵ Blessed are the mighty,

    for they will conquer the world.

⁶ Blessed are those who are pragmatic and willing to make a deal for their own sake,
    for they will always come out ahead in the end.
⁷ Blessed are the ruthless,
    for they will show no mercy to their enemies.
⁸ Blessed are the cynics at heart
    for they will see good times.
⁹ Blessed are the warriors,
    for they will be called children of kings.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who can stand up for their own opinions and beliefs,
    for their homes will be their kingdoms. 

¹¹ ‘Blessed are you when people fear you, respect you and never question anything you say. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in your nation, for in the same way they feared the great leaders who were before you.

I taught Sunday School last week. It is something I enjoy doing and I was teaching the 10-12 year olds this past Sunday. We were about 20 altogether, including David and about a dozen other kids from his school, most of whom are Tanzanian. Teaching the radical message of the Beatitudes is a challenge to that young age group, so I wrote a series of ‘anti-beatitudes’ for them to compare to the original and asked them honestly to tell me which sounded more ‘true’. Most had to agree that the Beatitudes of the world fit better with their experience. I don’t know if I completely got them to appreciate just how subversive the message is, but we did have a lively discussion.

It has been over 10 days since the last blog, and I partially blame the US elections for not getting one up earlier this week. It is not that work was particularly busy, but it seemed we were caught up in the excitement of the build up and election results. It is interesting that we are so far away and yet, thanks to communications technology, able to keep up with minute to minute results, and all the hype surrounding the elections.

Rebecca and I generally try to avoid using this blog as a forum to espouse political views, not because we don’t have them, but because we want this platform to serve a different purpose. It is interesting, living in a country where there is quite a bit of restriction on content one can put on social media. There is even a law now to require bloggers to pay a $900 annual tax to write about Tanzania. I am not sure when or how that will be enforced, but I have no interest in creating controversy and making us a target of enforcement.

But I digress… The other exciting thing that happened last Sunday was the second meeting of our newly formed small group!! It might be hard for those who are not used to being part of a small group to appreciate what an important and exciting thing this is. But for Rebecca and I, it has been a much-missed and needed part of our experience here in Arusha. For us, a small prayer and share group is a place to process our joys and challenges, successes and failures, and to have spiritually mature people pray for and with us. It has been a vital part of our lives since marriage and we still have life-long friends from groups we were part of in Poughkeepsie, NY, Burundi, Baltimore, and now Arusha. The problem is, it usually takes about a year of being in a place to find people who have the time and interest to commit to this kind of activity. We have been yearning for and tried to find such friends for a long time. It has been an answer prayer to finally find others who are like-minded about this. We began 2 weeks ago with our friends the Taylors who have 4 kids about the same age as our own, which means that when the adults meet, our kids have friends to play with. Two other families joined us this past Sunday and it was such a blessing to pray and share together.

Other things that happened in the past week included our tiny celebration of Halloween—this is very much a US holiday, and most people around here think of it as devil worship. But we did, as last year, let the kids make their own costumes then have them go from door to door in to all the bedrooms, bathrooms and closets on our second floor. Rebecca and I hid behind each door in turn and had candy ready. They managed to get treats from about 4 ‘neighbors’ hiding in the bedrooms. No jack o lanterns, which was a disappointment, but then again there is nothing remotely fall-like about this season. In fact, we are in late spring and expecting the rains to come back again very soon.

The weather has been mixed, in an interesting way; some days it is overcast and cloudy. We had several straight days of rain about two weeks ago, but it has been dry since then. The pool is generally warmer but last Monday it was very cold again and I thought nothing could be worse that day—until I went to the dentist and had a root canal. That is worse. I was hoping to avoid this after they repaired a cracked tooth last month, but it was too far gone and started hurting again. I am grateful that it can be done here by a good dentist. But there is no such thing as a painless root canal.

The last two work weeks have not been very eventful, in a blog-worthy way. We do have our small successes and failures, but they are hard to describe in a way that makes it interesting. But this past Tuesday, Rebecca and I actually made a field visit together for the second time! Although we work in the same office, our assignments are quite different, so they do not often overlap. But we both needed to visit one of our partners—about two hours out of Arusha in Longido—a town close to the Kenya border.

We’ve written about this partner, TEMBO trust, in the past. In general, they seek to empower Maasai girls and women in education and income generation. MCC supports their work to educate communities about the dangers and risks of female genital mutilation. We arrived Tuesday mid-morning after dropping the kids at the bus and taking a swim. We were met by Pauline, Mary and Simon, the three principle staff members and had a chance to see the new construction they are doing- a dormitory, to support their summer camp they do for girls between 7^th and 8^th grade. This is the time girls are most vulnerable to circumcision—between primary and lower secondary school. We had a long meeting with them and got updates on their activities and future plans. In the afternoon we were able to watch a training of their community animators—traditional Maasai women, all of whom have been circumcised who are now staunch advocates against the practice. One of the most outspoken was Mwalimu, a former circumcizor herself. She talked about her transformation as she learned about the harm it did to girls and gave her own daughters an ‘alternative rite of passage’ that did not include cutting.

It is inspiring to see their passion and dedication to transform this harmful cultural practice. When we talked to them they had many questions for us including questions about what kind of rites of passage existed for girls in our culture. I described a senior prom and debutante ball, which fascinated them. They also wanted to know about how and if we circumcised boys. I said it was usually done at birth. (Maasai do it around age 13.) The women thought it would probably be better to have it done earlier so they did not suffer as much. I don’t have an opinion on this, but it was interesting to exchange views.

Rebecca and I returned by midafternoon, in time to get the kids off the bus. I had a long internet conference call that evening so I did not go home with the family.

It is Saturday already and we had a divide and conquer day with the kids. I took David to Lake Diluti in the morning, then we took Oren to visit a friend in the afternoon. David was thrilled to have a morning alone with Dad at the lake fishing and caught about 20 crayfish and 4 small tilapia. He was dead set on eating them so we boiled the crayfish in old bay and water, and cleaned and fried the tilapia. They were all quite small so it was not much of a meal, but for David it was the principle that counted.

I leave for Kigali tomorrow (Sunday evening) for a week-long family planning conference. I am excited that my Dad will be there and will be returning to Arusha with me next Friday for the weekend. More on that next time.

PS> We saw the Nutcracker movie this week. As a former dancer that performed it in many versions multiple times, it was great to see this cleverly ‘inverted’ version. (Spoiler alert—the SPF is the villain!)