Mud is the New Snow

Oren growing hair out. After school Friday.

We are definitely entering into the winter season here. It is always a bit odd to feel temperatures cooling off as we near the end of the school year and start thinking about summer vacation plans. Winter in Arusha is not freezing cold, but it does warrant sweaters or fleece jackets, and we have space heaters in our office. We also do not have snow at our altitude, although we have a good substitute in this season: mud. 

During the rainy season here, which has finally arrived in full force (better late than never) turns the savannah green, but turns the roads and the entrances to our houses brown. Arusha's main arteries are paved, which is great, but once you go off a main road, almost nothing is paved. The last 300 meters to our house from the main road turns into a sloppy mess in the rainy season and driving can be treacherous. Like a blizzard in the US, a good hard rain can make driving to parts of the city, nearly impossible, even with a four-wheel drive. We come in the house and shed our shoes in the anteroom at our entrance which becomes a repository for muddy shoes and socks. 

Our daily swim is the best metric for changing temperature. The rains usually start at night and end around 7:30 am, which means Rebecca and I are swimming in a cold misty fog (air temp around 60F). The water temp has not dropped below 68 yet and I can still dive in. But I expect that in the coming weeks I will need to make a slower transition and eventually start wearing a wet suit. 

I still contend, as I once told our country representative, "If you start your day by swimming a mile in an ice-cold pool, nothing worse is likely to happen to you the rest of the day." 

(Rebecca taking over here) Along with the changing seasons, we have moved into Term 3 at school. Oren will be completing Key Stage 3 and will be selecting his course of study for O-levels (ICGSE exams) within the next week. Starting in year 10, he needs to select 8-9 subjects which he will study for the following 2 years, and then take some pretty serious exams. The school hosted an “Options Evening” for his year group, and I was especially impressed with the way that Oren circulated to talk with almost every faculty teacher. I remember a recent time when he would have had trouble asking a single question of a teacher. Now he has confidence to inquire about his options and make a good choice. Math and English are compulsory, along with a computer science course and a foreign language. He is leaning towards taking History, Chemistry, Art and Geography as his electives. It has been really interesting to watch him become more and more comfortable studying in the Cambridge system, to the point that he would dearly love to complete his education at this current school.

In Third Term, David has decided to join the swimming elective and he has found it very interesting. He is back to voluntarily swimming laps during recreational swim time with our family. This is great to see.

We also have had a new start to our Bible Study group, after the departure of the Gingerich family. Another family with a bunch of kids will be getting more involved, along with a couple and a single woman. It was wonderful to meet together a week ago, and begin to study Philippians with a new group of people. Our kids continue to really value their friendships with the Taylor kids, as we value the times we have with their parents.

Some friends who came for games when
ultimate frisbee was rained out.

Yesterday, we had planned for another Ultimate Frisbee game with team members on our compound, as well as bible study friends. Right on the dot, at the scheduled hour of 4 pm, the heavens opened. There was absolutely no question of playing frisbee in that much rain – but thankfully we had told our friends to bring games. So, instead, we had an impromptu game afternoon/evening with a whole assortment of people of all ages. Many people got to learn Codenames, and some old favorites were enjoyed by various assortments of people who didn’t necessarily know each other (Settlers, Kingdomino, Bohnanza, Clue, Kingdomino, Sleeping Queens and Ticket to Ride.) We shared supper and good conversation with our friends and were glad to share that time. Maybe by June, we’ll have a dry enough afternoon for frisbee again!

One final note on developments in our church in this rainy season. We have started a series on a Theology of worship, the first time we have had a series of services and sermons in a theme. The preachers have been carefully selected to speak to their themes, the worship leaders are working extra hard to bring the services together as a whole, and it has been a real joy to be part of that energy. We are even trying a new thing: posting sermons (audio and print) on the church Facebook page! I know that’s not a big deal for most churches these days, but for a volunteer only, very transient congregation, it’s a big step.

Not many photos this week – the rain doesn’t lend itself to grabbing one’s camera to go out and snap photos. Maybe more next week…