Bad 'Car'-ma During Grandma Jean's Visit

Grandma Jean arrived this week.

The weeks of November seem to have fled. I try to get 3 entries per month and sometimes I can't tell if the problem is we are too busy or if the routine doesn't vary enough to warrant a report every 10 days. This seems to be the latter in terms of work. For the most part, our routine did not change much this month. We were not traveling anywhere for work or recreation, but even our normal weekly routine stretches into long hours of the day and leaves little time to just sit down and write.

It is usually on Wednesday that the daily 5am wake-up really begins to take it toll. The way I feel dragging myself out of bed, it seems unimaginable that I will be fully mobile by the time my swim is over at 8am. But those three hours in between are packed with activity from making breakfast and getting bags packed for school, to getting kids up, dressed in uniform, snacks, kits, and driving to meet the bus by 6:40. The swim is the last thing before the workday begins, but it feels like I have already done a half-day by the time I finish, shower and dress.

Returning home is always after 5 and sometimes later if we have any activity scheduled like choir practice. The evening is filled by the time we drive home, prepare and eat dinner, do dishes and finish homework (which still takes parental oversight). I am ready to sleep by 9:30pm, only to begin again, until Saturday. Fortunately, Oren and I have finally both recovered from our illness I mentioned in the last entry, but I did require a course of antibiotics. I still feel very tired and ready for bed early in the evening.

The work routine was broken slightly by our Annual General Meeting last week. It is a chance for us to sit together with our advisors and reflect on the year as well as plan the way forward. There was a lot to talk about this time with changes in the way the govt. is treating NGOs (and expat. workers). We now need to regularly involve lawyers in our discussions to help us navigate the new ever-changing political landscape. I am happy to say that our advisors are ever wise, experienced, and supportive.

On the home front, we seem to be saying a lot of goodbyes these days on the Joshua Foundation compound. Our next-door neighbors are leaving Tanzania to move to New Zealand. (They have been here for 8 years). It is sad because Josiah, their oldest (of 3) has become a good friend of David. The Thompson's, another family on the compound, are leaving for NZ as well (after a year). They have 4 kids who are also playmates from time to time as well. We had a going-away picnic for them on Saturday, then a last ultimate frisbee game afterward. It was a particularly good game this time (in that we were not rained out), very competitive, and everyone has improved significantly over the last 8 months of practice.

The short rainy season kind of restarted after being done for about 2 weeks. I suppose extra water is always welcome here, but it has meant a lot more mud. We had a notable downpour this past Sunday while we were in church. Rebecca was preaching, and fortunately, she was done by the time it began. She did a good sermon for Christ the King Sunday including a participatory time for the children who answered questions about what a real king is like followed by a dramatic reading of the crucifixion by some of the older kids.

It rained hard for the last hour of the service on the tin roof in the sanctuary. We could hardly hear a thing through a baptism, the offering, and prayer time. At the end of the service people just hung out in the sanctuary waiting for it to slow down before leaving.

Our family, on the other hand, ran out to the parking lot in the downpour because we had several appointments scheduled after church including lunch with our friends the Taylors (who led music that day at church), and then going to Arusha airport to pick up Grandma Jean! She decided to accompany David Sack on his work trip to Cameroon, Uganda, and Tanzania. She split off from him after a stop in Zanzibar to arriver here Sunday. (Papa Dave will join us on Thursday for Thanksgiving). We are thrilled they can be here this winter because they will not be joining us for Christmas as they have for the past 2 years.

Fortunately, the rain had cleared enough for air traffic and we found Jean waiting at the airport, laden with suitcases full of Christmas gifts as well as books for several worthy causes here. We had a nice Sunday evening meal with her before starting the morning routine on Monday, this time with her in tow. Jean had made arrangements to do some training for one of our former partners here on using a medical research platform (She is a medical librarian). I dropped her off at a rented office at our church to have a day-long meeting with Mr. Magiri, then went off to work myself.

I am glad she was in town Tuesday because there was a special event at St. Constantine's (kids school) that day. The primary school was having its end-of-term music recital and David was singing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'. Rebecca and I went with Jean and Oren and endured the 50 odd acts that preceded David. Truthfully he was one of the best and I am putting a link to his performance here (link to David performance). I was relieved he was able to perform because during an earlier rehearsal he had had his finger smashed between 2 tables and spent a part of the day in the nurse's office.

The kids have enjoyed having their grandmother here despite the fact that they are somewhat mired in homework as they approach the end of the term.

Wednesday was a harder day than expected, beginning with driving the kids to school and witnessing a horrific motorcycle vs. car accident right in front of us. The driver actually came to rest right in front of our car, (we were not the ones who hit his motorcycle), he had swerved in front of the car ahead of us as it was passing him. Somehow he survived and we left him with a crowd afer looking for a way to be of service, he was lifting up his head but clearly in shock. Fortunately, there were several there who knew what to do in that situation.

The bad car-ma did not end there that day. We finished work and then went together with Jessica and the kids to choir practice where Jean met us. After a decent rehearsal for our December Christmas program, we went to dinner at Khan's (nearby) with our friends Neil and Christie. From there we headed home with a full car (6 people) and planned to drop Jessica at her house on the way back.

Unfortunately, because of rain and work on a sewer pipe, Jessica's road was quite muddy and we could only get within 100 meters of her gate. We let her off but when we tried to turn around, the front tire went deep into a recently filled in trench which had turned into a mud hole. The wheel sunk down about a foot almost immediately. We got out and tried to push it while rocking, but it was basically sitting on the frame of the car it was so deep in the mud. I spent about 20 minutes digging under the wheel and frame in mud soup to try to get some rocks under the tire but it did not help. It was about 9pm and we were trying to decide what to do. We were not that close to home and could not leave the car.

We decided to call Andrew Thompson, one of the New Zealand volunteers who lives on our compound has a Landcruiser with 4WD. I asked him if he could come and tow us out, and he was happy to. Getting him to find the place was not easy. Rebecca and Oren had to walk out to the main road while Jean, David and I stayed with car. By this time I was caked in mud from bending under the car and digging.

Andrew arrived in about 15 minutes and said he had a lot of experience pulling cars out of mud, both at home, and in TZ. He hooked a tow line to the back of the car first and tried to pull it backwards to no avail. We switched to the front, and we were able to free the car. I backed cautiously down the road we had come in on and found a safe place to turn around, then everyone got back in and we made our way home. Got back about 9:15 pm. I was covered in mud and had made the inside of the car quite muddy as well. I showered off, Oren did some homework, Rebecca started preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. Then we all went to bed fairly late.

Today is Thanksgiving morning, although US Thanksgiving is not a holiday here so I went to work and the kids went to school. To add insult to injury to the last 24 hours of bad driving experiences, the police stopped me on the way to the school bus. One cop worked hard to find a violation and finally after much searching found I only had 1 reflector triangle in the back of the car. (We need to have 2). She gleefully wrote me a ticket. If bad luck comes in 3's then I hope it is done.

Looking forward to a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Lucia (MCC accountant) and her family, Jessica and her host family, and Pappa Dave and Grandma Jean Sack without further incident.