Rain, Monkeys, Blind Snakes, Etc.

David and his new blind snake.

Prior to the weekend I had a great introduction to this week's entry comparing the weather here to one of two winters I spent in Seattle. For those who read regularly you have seen that rain has been mentioned at least 4 times in the first paragraph or title. I spent the winter of 1998 in Seattle when I was in grad school and it rained for 90 straight days! I had never seen anything like it. Granted Seattle rain is more like a mist, but it seemed that nothing ever dried. I remember one weather reporter saying toward the end of the winter that 'Next year may be worse." I could not imagine what that meant--- 90 straight days of tornadoes?

Anyway, I would say that this rainy season has nearly succeeding in surpassing that 90 day rainy winter. It has been raining almost constantly for months, and until the weekend, there was no day in recent memory where I saw the sun for more that 30 minutes in a day. Fortunately, it has been confirmed through several friends who have been here long term that this is the worst rainy season they have ever seen. (So we can hope for better next year.) This much wetness though that does not dry has led to a number of problems.
1) A slick of 'black ice' style moss all over our back porch and driveway. Walking to the car is absolutely treacherous when it is damp. It is also deceiptive because it does not look slippery, and the temp. never gets below 60 degrees fairenheit, so it is not cold. All of us have slipped and fallen on our driveway in the past month.
2) The inside of any vehicle that is not used daily turns into mildew. I don't know why, exactly, they are closed up, but the two MCC vehicles that are not used daily (the landrover and pick-up parked at our house) have had their interiors turned into a green fuzzy mess. Fortunately I can pay someone to clean and shampoo them thoroughly. But how long will it last?
3) All of our woven baskets in our house are covered in mildew and we have thrown most away.
4) My leather shoes that I do not wear daily are also covered in mildew. They have never been worn out in the rain so I don't know how that happened.
5) Swimming in the pool has become an act of pure machismo when we have to drive to it in the pouring rain. It is 62 degrees in both the air and water. Overcoming the initial shock of the first plunge is an act of pure mind over matter. (Am I a better person for doing this? Not that I can tell.)
6) Finally, getting up at 5:10 every school morning to get the kids breakfast ready and their bags packed and them ready for school is hard, but when it is dark and the sound of a steady drizzle on the tin roof is perpetual day after day, the task becomes nearly unbearable by the end of each week.

And just when it seemed we could not take another day, we were shocked to find the sun out in full glory this weekend--both Saturday and Sunday. It felt really different, like maybe something was going to change for good. It is still a bit early to tell, but if the rains could be winding down, it would be a very welcome change.

Rebecca has been working on a synopsis of the past weeks since our return from Burundi. Here are some of the highlights:

These past two weeks, since we returned from Burundi, have been relatively uneventful. Perhaps we can offer just a few vignettes of ordinary life on ordinary weeks.

Bureaucracy: We have been driving here in Tanzania using our international drivers’ licenses, but this month, it was time to apply for official Tanzanian licenses. We had asked around and learned that we needed to dedicate an entire day to this project, and that it needed to be completed, from start to finish, on the same day. We were a bit intimidated, and put off going a few times, hoping the timing would be better for our Tanzanian colleague to come with us and help. But the stars did not align, and so Paul and I finally decided that we just needed to go try.

We turned up at the Tanzania Revenue Authority office, a few minutes after they opened. We got started quickly and so we weren’t sure what was going to take so long. Here is a short review of the process, more as a PSA for others coming after us.

1.       Go through security and write your name in the book (and never go through again during all your subsequent trips in and out of the office).

2.       Enter Office #1, speak to receptionist, almost get refused.  When you insist that your papers are in order, get sent to the back office to the license controller, who gives you a form to fill out, after accepting copies of your immigration documents.

3.       Take your completed application to Office #6, desk 1. Biometric data is taken (fingerprints and photo).

4.       Wait. Go back to Office #6, desk 1, and receive two identical receipts each.

5.       Leave TRA and go next door to the bank where you stand in line to pay twice for the same thing. What you are paying for is unclear.

6.       Come back with your receipt and report to Office #6, desk 3. Information is entered. Two new receipts are issued, both for driving tests.

7.       Leave TRA and go next door to the bank where you stand in (a longer) line to pay twice for the same thing.

8.       Bring the receipts back to Office #6, desk 3. You are now sent to see the police.

9.       Walk down the street in the rain, ask 3 strangers, and finally end up at the traffic police office. Wonder if you should join the line up of young adults who are preparing to actually get behind the wheel for a road test. Instead, knock on the door of the officer and somehow get access (and cringe at the privilege you just asserted). After he looks at your home country license, get his signature on your driving test receipt.

10.   Walk back to TRA in the rain and through the mud and report to Office #6, desk 3 once more. Show the signature on your receipt. Receive a third receipt for your license.

11.   Leave TRA and go next door to the bank for a third time, where you stand in the very same line (which has now become much, much longer) to pay the exact same teller for the fifth receipt from the same office. This is where you have plenty of time to talk with your companion and salute the diabolic cleverness of a system that works with carefully calculated inefficiency. There are no real line ups inside the TRA office, but everyone ends up in this same line at the bank, multiple times, for various reasons.

12.   Return to Office #6, Desk 3, waving your final receipt in triumph. Hope for a real license to carry out with you like a trophy. Instead, receive a half-sheet paper provisional license and instructions to return in a month for your little laminated card. Sigh.

In fact, we managed to go through the entire process before 11:30 – which we counted a great victory. 

Mona and David

Hosting: A colleague from the US visited us over the weekend, during a long work trip to the African Continent. Mona Bormet works for Christian Connections in International Health, and it was truly a pleasure to talk with her about the projects she is overseeing and to share about the work that Paul is involved with at MCC. MCC is a member of this networking organization, so Mona welcomed the opportunity to learn more about MCC in this region.

We also had some fun. Normally we have a family movie night at home on Fridays, but our kids were keen to go see Avengers: Infinity War in 3D before they heard too many more spoilers from their classmates. We were pleased when Mona said she would love to go with us. In the end, we realized that she was far more at home in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than we were, and she was able to explain a whole lot of backstory to us afterwards. Good thing! Mona was also so fun with the kids, and happy to play a game of Apples to Apples that she had brought as a gift.

Monawith MCC Rep.and friends.

Monkey invasions: I think I’ve mentioned that monkeys are sometimes seen at the kids’ school. According to David, last week, a troupe of 6 vervet monkeys actually organized and staged an attack on the kids sitting at the picnic benches outside the cafeteria. Many kids were so startled and frightened that they dropped their food as they ran. The monkeys then retreated. Since then, David has seen many more guards walking around with slingshots. A vervet monkey was also spotted on our compound yesterday. Perhaps this is a trend.

Studying: Exams are also coming up in just 6 weeks. Oren’s teachers have told him to start studying, because these are comprehensive exams covering the entire year. To us North Americans, this is a foreign concept. But in any case, we must help Oren learn to study this way. We’ve been reviewing the geography of South America with him and trying to help him conjugate his French verbs. On Saturday, we helped Oren get together with a classmate for some studying in the afternoon. I relentlessly drilled them on facts about tropical rainforests, but then they asked me to leave them alone. I guess they studied science for a bit before having some time to walk around the lodge gardens and play in the playground with David.

Back to Paul. One of the things we have been working on at the MCC office this week is preparing to host all of MCC's partners for a 3 day capacity building meeting. We are covering a variety of topics to help them improve the way the plan, monitor, and evaluate projects. I am teaching two modules in the retreat, one on Do No Harm, which is a framework for planning and monitoring development work in a conflict setting to try to avoid bad outcomes resulting from provision of foreign aid. The main premise is that 'Aid is not neutral,' it has an impact and can have as many or even more negative consequences than positive ones.

I am also doing a module on project management, focusing on scheduling, including doing a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart (for any project managers out there.) We will also do a field visit to an NGO that does some innovative ag. projects. All of us in the office are working to be logistically prepared for this gathering which begins on Wednesday evening.

The last bit of news worth mentioning is Mother's Day. I was lucky to have some time to prepare and to have the kids do something special for Rebecca. She had a meeting on Saturday morning so the kids stayed and worked on very artistic cards. David did a very nice painting of a field of poppies (he learned about Flanders field at school) and Oren made a detailed illustration of characters from his new favorite video game (Five Night's at Freddies) all wishing Rebecca Happy Mother's Day.

I was able to sneak out of work during lunch on Friday and go to a local jeweler who specializes in Tanzanite and got Rebecca two small circle cut studs for her ears. They go perfecly with her eyes. She was quite surprised by cards and gift. We went to church, where Oren started his first day of Communicant's class, and then out to George's for pizza afterwards. When we got home we were delighted to find the sun shining and we all went down to the trapoline to play "Monkey in the Middle."

Bonus Photo:  David holding his new (temporary) pet, a Brahminy blind snake which he caught when he threw a baseball at an owl in a tree next to our house. He missed the owl, but it dropped its prey anyway and David caught it, still very much alive.

A Sejour in Burundi

Southern Red Bishop by Lake Tanganyika.

I left last week's blog with a cliff hanger, for those who are following this regularly. We had had a series of good and bad twists of fate that left us wondering whether we would be able to secure visas and get our passports back in time for a visit to Burundi in a very narrow time frame. There was a lot riding on the outcome as we had already bought plane tickets and paid for visas and an agent to get them stamped in Dar. If I were to continue the 'that's good, no that's bad' routine from where I left off it would have gone on for several more lines as the drama did not end up to the night before our plane left. Long story short, after a delay in the DHL flight to Arusha, I was finally able to go down to their downtown office and get the parcel with our passports at 10:00pm on Wednesday night. We left for the aiport at 6am the next morning. I could not even believe we were on a plane to Bujumbura that morning!

Zanzibar

A direct flight from Arusha to Bujumbura would take no more than an hour. But of course there are no direct flights between those cities. Kenya airways took us to Zanzibar, then Nairobi where we changed planes and flew the last leg to Bujumbura. We got there in the midafternoon, and a driver from MCC partner Help Channel met us at the airport and took us to Help Channel headquarters where we saw from friends, Normand, Emile, as well as two MCC workers seconded there (actually in transition and overlapping for a week). Cassien, the director, and a close friend was not there but we caught up with him the next day. Help Channel did provide us with a car for our use during our 5 day sejour in Bujumbura, which was a true blessing! (Although I did have to learn quickly how to drive on the left side of the road again.)

We drove up to the guest house where we were staying (in Kiriri for those who know Bujumbura.) It is a family home where they rent rooms to 'wandering missionaries'. The family are the Peake's who moved to Bujumbura shortly after we left. But we did meet John once before we departed in 2014.

The house was perfect for us, with the kitchen available to us as well as a swimming pool and trampoline! Even better, the view from their veranda of Bujumbura, Lake Tanganyika and the mountain range in Eastern DRC across the lake, were exquisite. It was great to have that view again and brought back much nostalgia for Bujumbura in the following days as we sat out and enjoyed our morning coffee.

We had dinner the first night with the Guillebauds. Simon, Lizzie, and the kids Zack, Grace, and Josiah. Zack was a friend and school mate of Oren's when we were living here. They had a great time reconnecting, which was good because Oren had some trepidation about returning to some of his old haunts and seeing friends long forgotten.

We had a good catch-up with Simon and Lizzie. They are getting ready for a sojourn of more than a year away from Bujumbura. The Guillbauds have been an anchor for missionaries in Burundi as Simon's grandparents first came here in the mid 1900s. Their family was with us the whole time we were in Burundi, and stayed in the following years through the election crisis and ongoing turmoil. It is interesting, because returning, Bujumbura seems fairly peaceful and life seems to be going on as normal. But Simon shared more the reality which he summed up as: "People here are tired, and alot thinner." The economy is way down from our departure and food and work, as well as foreign aid is very scarce. It is hard times here, despite some improvements in roads and infrastructure. (Side note: To find out more about the Guillbaud's and Simon, who is the author of several books, please check out this website at:  Simon Guillebaud Blog.


The next morning we got a call from Simon again to come and join him at 'Musee Vivant'. This is the local Bujumbura 'zoo' where we used to love to go when we were here. Simon is somewhat of a local celebrity there as he brings many people to visit. 'Zoo' is not the best description as it often feels like a private menagerie for those who visit frequently. The animal cages are not difficult to reach into and the animals are used to human contact. I was very happy to see Jango the leopard was still there who I used to scratch behind the ears, and he loved it. There is a somewhat gruesome 'fundraising' practice involving the purchase of a guinea pig which one can then throw to the predator of choice. Not for the faint of heart, but Jango was very happy to get a guinea pig from the kids.

Simon is famous (or infamous) for inviting people in to hold the tail of one of the large crocodiles (who are quite sedentary). The kids who used to watch the spectacle when they were very young, did join in this time and took turns getting photos holding the tail of one of the bigger ones.

Rebecca was very pleased to see Kita the chimp was still alive and seemed to remember us. She used to play games with David and Oren by putting a bottle out of her cage for them to grab. But right before they could take it, she would snatch it back in. A kind of 'keep-away', that she was very good at. Rebecca gave her peanuts which she liked to be fed by putting them right in her mouth.

Snake handling was also one of the enjoyable activities, especially the green bamboo tree snakes and the python. Our guide also took the gabon viper out of the cage who is also quite docile and let us inspect it closely.

We spent quite a bit of time at Musee Vivant and again enyoyed the nostalgia of remembering our times visiting there when we lived in Burundi.

That evening we visited another anchoring missionary family, Joy and Jesse Johnson, who also have kids Zack, Micah, and Elliot. They were also friends and school mates of our kids from the Ecole Belge. The Johnson's also stayed through the past 3 years and have been serving the Emmanuel church community established by Jesse's grandparents. It was amazing to see their work on the Discovery School. Something that Joy had started when we first new them and is now a large primary and secondary school that offers high quality education to children in the under-served Kamenge neighborhood of Bujumbura. They were also preparing for a brief furlough this summer and it was great to catch up with them after 4 years.

The next day was a Saturday, we began the day by visiting our friend and former MCC service worker Jennifer. She is back in Burundi working with IRC (International Rescue Committee). She made us pancakes and we had a long chat with her about her current life and reminisced about our time together in Burundi. It was bittersweet to remember the times and people we had known and lost. We have been able to keep up with Jennifer over the years and we always enjoy a chance to see her again.

When we left Jennifer's house around noon, we planned to go out and visit the Lakeside resorts, particularly Pinnacle 19 and Club du Lac Tanganyika as they were places were frequented on weekends in Bujumbura. Pinnacle 19 was the place where David and a special friend, a baby chimp named Avril who loved to play with him on the trampoline and on the beach. (She ran free on the property. We were not overly surprised to find the place a bit more dilapidated since our departure. Because of the political crisis in the years since we left, tourists and the expatriate community have largely left. Burundi is still on the 'no family' postings with the US and other embassies so there are virtually no expat. families here who are not missionaries who would normally patronize these places. Avril, who was now quite large was kept in an enclosure with another chimp. She seemed to remember us and was happy to take peanuts from our hands. The keeper there said she was generally quite 'mechant' (mean) and it does not surprise me as I am sure she is mistreated by most who visit there. It was sad to see this sight and I am personally against keeping chimpanzees in any kind of captivity.

We went on to Club du Lac T, which looked about the same as when we last left it. Even some improvements. A number of the staff recognized us and gave us an update on how things had been. Tourism has dropped dramatically and they were really suffering. Many of the rooms were permanently closed down, despite appearances. One big difference though were the number of people who were around by the pool and on the beach. There were no other families and actually no one in the pool for most of the day. When we left, there was never an open chair or table around the pool to sit at on a Saturday. The kids enjoyed playing in the pool and on the beach and we had a much coveted Briochette de poison with pomme frites with mayonaise and pili-pili sauce. (The fish around lake Tanganyika is the best in the world in my opinion. (We had sangala briochettes.)

The next day, Sunday, we were very excited to be going to our old church. BICC. We had many Burundian friends that we were very close to during our time there. Both Rebecca and I had been very active. The week before our arrival, when we told them we were coming, our friend and founder Emmanuel Ndkumana asked Rebecca if she would be willing to preach. So when we went that day, Rebecca did preach a sermon she had shared at our church in Arusha about the 7 bridesmaids.

It was so good to connect again with people there and though many had left, most of our Burundian friends who we were close to were still there. We had a very good morning being in worship, singing our favorite French songs (Recois L'adoration) and catching up with friends. After church we returned to the beach area, a place called Petit Bassam where we arranged to meet a few people who had been part of our small group from church. Not all were available, but we were very happy to see our friend Goretti who had been part of our group for several years. It was great to catch up with her and remember how God had been faithfully with us since all the many prayer requests we made as a small group. It was not uncommon for us to pray weekly over a year for the same thing, like someone getting a visa, etc. We thought back to all the difficulties we had been in and delivered from since that time. It was a special time.

The kids enjoyed playing on some of the playground and old carnival equipment that is kept at Petit Bassam including a kind of bungee--trampoline ride. Oren observed many times that things looked a lot smaller than he remembered them.

Monday was our last day in town and it was a whirlwind of last minute visits that began with a trip over to the home of a family where our former house staff Odifax is working. Odifax worked for us for about 4 years, and is also a pastor and leader of his church. He alse recently finished a theology degree. He looked to be in very good health and we had a nice visit with him to catch up.

We also stopped down the street to the home of Doug and Deanna Hiebert--former MCCers. Actually they were the Country Reps. before we came to Burundi. We really only spent short amounts of time with them for an overlap when we arrived in 2008 and then in the month before we left in 2014 they came back (not with MCC). But it was very good to catch up with them. At least as important, they were the family with whom we left our golden retriever Bella. We actually inherited Bella from them when we first came in 2008 and returned her in 2014 when we left. I was amazed she was still alive. She was however, completely deaf and did not even hear the honk at the gate. We had a very nice reunion and she seemed to remember us (not surprising after only 4 years), but she did not have a lot of energy to greet us. David was thrilled to see her as she was his best friend growing up in Burundi when he used to literally sit on her. (He was much lighter then.)

We went from the Hieberts to the house of our friend Jodi. Jodi was with us as a service worker in MCC in Burundi. It was a blessing to see her although we had precious little time to actually sit down and chat. She is back in Burundi working as a professor at the University of Burundi. Her story of the blessings and the challenges of being an educator there were touching. It was good to see her back in her adopted home country.

We returned to the Peake's house where we had a much awaited conversation with Emmanuel Ndikumana and his wife Asele. He was the person who had founded the church we went to, and did a lot of work with Rebecca on peacebuilding, especially with the Great Lakes Initiative. We spent several hours just talking and listening to him talk about life in Burundi in the past 3 years. He is very wise and had a lot of insight about the challenges the country is facing. He also seemed to be quite tired because working as a pastor and leader in this context is exhausting. But he is also very inspiring and we felt blessed to listen to him, pray with them, and encourage them.

We finished the day, in the evening at one of our favorite haunts, the Ubuntu restaurant. It is the first place we ever went when we arrived in 2008 and the place we ate our last meal in Burundi in 2014. It was a fitting place to close our visit. Cassien from Help Channel met us there as well as Jennifer. We had a very pleasant last meal with them. Unfortunately it was a rainy evening so we were not treated to the normally spectacular sunsets over the lake, but the crowned cranes were still there and the atmosphere there was still very nice. Oren and David did try to sit on the wooden crocodile that is still in the entrance. It looks so tiny now, it is hard to believe they both used to ride it comfortably.

We left the next morning but were surprised to find there had been a tremendous amount of flooding since our arrival as we headed toward the airport. We had some worries that our car would not even make it through the flooded road in some places. We ultimately got there and had a smooth albeit long trip home with a 6 hour layover in Nairobi.

It was good to reflect back on our time there and the experience was very renewing. Both Rebecca and I really liked to speak French again, and most of our conversations with Burundian friends were in French. It is amazing how easy it is to switch back when you are in the context.

We got back to Arusha on Tuesday evening, ready to go back to work and school Wednesday morning. It was pouring in Arusha when we landed and continued for the next 24 hours, a bit dreary. The pool was a chilling 62 degrees fairenheit. But it was good to get back to our normal routine as well.

Bonus:
Burundi Photo Album

A Series of Unfortunate (and fortunate) Events

David with giant red-spiky caterpillar

At the risk of dating myself to the distant past, I can recall, as a boy, watching a show called 'Hee Haw'. It was a country-themed variety show that featured country singers like Roy Clark and Glenn Campbell, as well as a cast of rubes who did corny skits--usually repeating certain well-loved (and well-worn) gimmicks.

One such routine was a dialogue where a barber would be telling a customer (Roy Clark) a story, and when he finished a sentence the customer would say "That's good" to which the barber would reply "No that's bad" then elaborate on why things took a turn for the worse, to which the customer would then say, "That's bad!" to which the barber would reply "No that's good", and explain why things again took a turn for the better. This would go on for several minutes before resolving in some punchline (which usually was an unflattering poke at the barber's wife.) sample here.

I think, living here has given me a new perspective on this kind of story, particularly when it comes to advancing a processs through a bureaucracy, such as immigration. In reality, we learn to lower our expectations, the skits in Hee Haw end with a positive punchline, ours, not so much. We get used to disappointment when it doesn't work out. This week we are nearing the end of such a process that will either end well or not so well, and you (like us) will be left in suspense until the next blog entry. But it starts something like this;

We have a 6 day weekend coming up and have decided to visit our old stomping ground Burundi. 

That's Good

No that's bad, we need a visa to travel to Burundi.

That's bad.

No that's good, because there is an embassy in Tanzania.

That good.

No that's bad, the embassy is in Dar which is a 14 hour drive from Arusha.

That's bad.

No that good, because we have connections to an MCC partner in Burundi who can get us an authorization letter to get a visa when we arrive at the Bujumbura airport

Oh thats good.

No that's bad. They went to the immigration office and the guy who signs those letters is not in town.

Oh that's bad,

No that 's good. They did approve our visas and all we need to do is go to the embassy and get the stamps.

Well that's good.

No thats bad, it took so long to get this news that we don't have time to send our passports to the embassy in Dar and get them back in time.

Oh that's bad.

No that's good, because our agent we have worked with here just happened to be in Arusha on his way to Dar and we gave him our passports to take down to the embassy personally. 

Oh that's good. 

No that's bad, when he got there he found that Burundi immigration had only sent my name down to the Tanzanian embassy as approved for a visa. 

Oh that's bad. 

No that's good. I contacted our Burundi and they were able to go to immigration and get the other visas approvals released and sent to Tanzania immediately.

Oh that's good. 

No, that's bad. The embassy had already closed for the day and we were leaving in 2 days.

Oh that's bad. 

No that's good. Our agent went back early the next morning and the names were on the list and he was able to give them our passports to be stamped. 

Oh that's good. 

No that's bad. He spent 7 hours waiting for them to put the appproved visas in the passports.

Oh that's bad.

No that's good, he was able to get to DHL before it closed and sent us the passports with a guarantee from the clerk that they would in Arusha tomorrow.

That's good. 

No that's bad. When I checked the tracking number it said they would arrive by Friday, which is a day too late.

Oh that's bad...

Actually the story is not over yet. I think the passports will arrive in Arusha tomorrow, and we may well get them and get on the plane to Burundi on Thursday morning. But we may fail despite Herculean efforts to make this work. I will say that in my experience, despite much stress, things often do work out for the best, but I have also had ample opportunity to 'get used to disappointment'.

For readers of this blog though, you will find out next week when I either write a report of our 6 days in Burundi, or a long weekend in Arusha. 

The week prior could be characterized as a series of unfortunate (and fortunate) events as well, in some ways related to the stress around getting our visas for Burundi. It included misplacing numerous items including keys, and my work bag, (bad) all of which eventually turned-up--so that's good.

We also enjoyed the final week of cousin Julie's visit. Rebecca was able to take Julie out to a few other sites in town during the week on her days off. They went to a glass blowing factory at a crafts market and coffee lodge near the kids' school. Julie even cooked us a Greek meal one day during the week as well.

Julie went on a safari to Ngorongoro on Friday and Saturday and had a rare day of good weather on the first day. Her bike trip on day 2 at Lake Manyara was not as good and ended when everyone found themselves in deep mud about 30 minutes up the bike path. She also reported the car getting a wheel stuck in a muddy ditch and having to be pushed out. She was happy to be back in Arusha on Sunday.

Oren with African nachos

Despite all of this, she said it was worth the visit to Ngorongoro where she saw many animals. We met her after church in town and had a lunch at a Mexican restaurant we had not tried before. I can't say the food was bad, but I think Afro-Mex can be added to the styles of Mexican food alongside Tex-Mex and Cali-Mex.

Before the weekend, Julie treated us to a date night last Thursday by babysitting the kids. We found out that there were swing dance lessons being taught at a restaurant by some friends of ours and decided to check it out. That's good. ---No that's bad. That was the night we had to drop off the passports with our agent and we arrived an hour late to the restaurant. But we did get in on the last dance and did have fun and ended the evening having very nice 'adult' conversation with Vance and Beth-Marie. (Our dance teaching friends.) They are also school teachers at one of the international schools in town. Interestingly, Vance was also the person who preached the sermon for Earth day this past Sunday.

Rebecca and I both had church responsibilities during the week as we are both on various committees and each had 2 meetings during the week. I think you really know you are not 'the new guys' anymore when you are on a committee or two. Truthfully the church has opportunities and challenges as one of the only international English medium churches with a lay led congregation. It really does require sharing around a lot of work and having to work together on the problems. 

Despite the challenges of the week, I did enjoy the return to 'normalcy' that came with the kids back in school for nearly two full weeks before their next break. It has meant swimming regularly and going into the office with Rebecca. The pool water temp has not dropped much in the past week, but we do regularly swim in a downpour.

Work was not excessively busy, as we are between reporting periods, and we did enjoy on one afternoon, watching a large earth mover get stuck in a ditch across the street from our office window. After trying to lift and grind his way out, they finally brought another even larger earth mover over to haul him out. I am sure they were having a "That's good--No that's bad" day.

Stay tuned for the next installment: Our Burundi adventure..or not.

Dueling Sermons and Adventures in Preaching

Crocodile and Hippo at Cultural Heritage Center.

Rebecca will be recounting most of the events of the past week because she spent the most time doing interesting things. One of the unusual confluences though was that both Rebecca and I were asked to preach this week at different churches-- I at ACC where we attend regularly, and Rebecca at a Mennonite church near the town of Moshe. In short we had quite different experiences, but you can hear all about it below. Oh, we also still have 2nd Cousin Julie visiting this week, and she spent her first week here in the St. Elizabeth hospital pediatric ward rounding with a Rumanian physician. She had interesting stories to tell about her experiences when we were together in the evenings. She has been a welcome addition to our family and enjoys playing board games, entertaining the kids, and even washing dishes!

So without further ado, here is Rebecca:

This past week, Paul had a normal week of work, but it was still an unusual week for me, since the kids didn’t return to school until Thursday morning. On Tuesday, the kids and I drove out to visit some friends who live about 45 minutes away. I really enjoyed spending hours talking with and getting to know Katie better – she’s been a missionary here in Tanzania since 2010. They have four kids and my kids also enjoyed interacting with them for hours on end. David concentrated on catching all varieties of crickets, together with the younger three kids. Oren played the game of “Life” with their 12-year-old. The sun had come out and it was so wonderful to just share lunch and relaxed time with this family on the rural Bible college campus where they teach future Anglican priests.

On Wednesday afternoon, the kids and I met my cousin Julie at the Natural History Museum in the center of Arusha. We had never visited this site before, so it was a good opportunity for us to explore a touristic corner of town. The museum featured exhibits on the origins of humans, being so near the Olduvai gorge with all its archeological finds, as well as exhibits on different animals from the region. But the live animals were of most interest to the kids. We hunted down an acquaintance of my mom’s there at the museum, and she was very friendly and gracious. She also let us know about the opportunity to hold live snakes: David was all in!

So, we went and found the guy with the snakes. He brought out a little African tiger snake (Telescopus semiannulatus), which apparently lived in a 1.5 L water bottle. That seemed quite sad to me. Then he started trying to get the snake out of the bottle, and obviously, the snake had no interest in complying. I’m not sure exactly how he got the snake out, but it was not happy with the process. The museum officer held the snake for a few moments and then started putting it into David’s hands. Unfortunately, David was holding the snake’s front end too gently (he is used to relaxed snakes), and this little snake twisted around and planted his needlelike teeth into David’s hand. David just said, “Ow, ow, ow,” but didn’t drop the snake (brave kid!), while the guide pried the teeth loose. They kept telling us, “It’s not venomous, it’s not venomous!” I did believe them, but I think Julie was quite horrified. There was a bit of blood, but the bite was just on the surface of the skin, so we decided to wash it, put on a band aid and not worry. When we got home, I looked up the snake and found that it is in fact mildly venomous, but not dangerous to humans. Interesting. Oren really regretted afterwards that he hadn’t held the snake, saying, “I wish I could go back to school tomorrow and when people asked me what I did on my holiday, I could say, ‘I got bitten by a snake!’” We finished our afternoon outing with some treats at Africafe in town, and then picked up Paul to go home for dinner.

Church council members

Paul and I also had completely different experiences this past weekend. On Saturday, I rose early to go join the other newly elected elders of our local church council for an all-day retreat. The morning was drizzly, and we were doubtful as we drove up the long slippery hill to Erwin’s place. As we arrived, Erwin, our council chair and master gardener took us on a tour to admire the beauties of his garden: secretive orchids blooming quietly in the branches of a cactus, tree tomatoes and passion fruits ripe for picking, beds of fragrant herbs and even an apple tree blossoming. And then we sat down together around scripture, reading thoughtfully through John 15:1-12. We spent the day, talking about the community, the changes over the years, the things we are currently celebrating and the areas of church life that perhaps need pruning or tending. We learned from each other and listened to God for our community. It was a good day and good to get to know one another better. It was also a long Saturday of intense concentration.

Paul's interjection>> While Rebecca was at the church council retreat, I had a day with the kids and Julie. We had a normal, relaxed Saturday morning (we have a tradition of making pancakes). I spent some of the morning working on finalizing my sermon for the next day, but after lunch I took Julie and the kids to the Cultural Heritage Center to see the art and handicrafts of local artists and artisans. I have talked about this before and it is probably the most prominent tourist attraction in Arusha itself. (Most tourist attractions around here are in the surrounding game parks.) Shaped like a giant african drum, it has spiraling layers of galleries not unlike the Guggenheim museum. In an adjacent mall-like complex where one can buy many handicrafts and souvenirs of Tanzania, including a very impressive jewelry store where one can purchase the extremely rare gem 'Tanzanite'. Tanzanite is native to the area around Mt. Kilamanjaro and nowhere else in the world. It is about 200 times more rare than diamonds and is deep blue in color. 

Outside these buildings are a huge array of iron sculptures of Tanzania wildlife. Some are much bigger than life. It is like a heavy metal safari.

We spent about 2 hours walking around the galleries, then went into the stores. Julie did end up getting a beautiful tanzanite ring. Definitely an excellent souvenir to take back from here. 

Back to Rebecca:

On Sunday morning, I rose even earlier to be ready to leave the house with Julie at 6:30 am. Our mission was to visit a Tanzanian Mennonite Church, where I had been invited to preach. I had warned Julie thoroughly that it would be a long day with many unknowns, and she was still game to join me; I was honestly very glad for the company. We met Pastor Nzela in town, together with his adult son, and then started out together for the community of Merarani, about 75 km from Arusha. This village is unusual, in that it is located right outside the one and only Tanzanite mine in the world. There is a large industrial mine, owned by South Africans, which is doing it’s best to wall off and regulate the mining of this gemstone. This has put them in conflict with the many small-scale / artisanal miners and traders in the community. Apparently, many of the church members are Tanzanians from various other parts of the country who came for the mining opportunities and stayed in Mererani, but now are really struggling to make ends meet. They all came from places where the Mennonite church was more established, and so a Mennonite church was built in 2016 in this community.

We arrived at about 8:40 in the morning, just as the drizzle was picking up into a proper rain. So, we took shelter in a neighboring house, and Pastor Nzela had his sister in-law serve us all chai tea and bites: vitumbua and mandazi (fried rice cakes and fried dough) along with a huge platter of bread. We were told that we needed to eat a lot, because you never know what’s coming in the next few hours, and if you don’t eat a lot, you’ll be banished from the men’s table to the women’s table (!). Church normally starts at about 9 am, but we were experiencing a rain delay – people who need to walk to church usually wait a bit to see if the rain will slow down before they head over. By about 9:30, Pastor Nzela decided it was time to make our move and so we entered the sanctuary to continue waiting there. A bit later, the associate minister began to lead a bible study for those who had already gathered. He told me later that he is really trying to help people open their bibles and discover scripture for themselves, so that they own the truths they find there. He gave me an interesting analogy, comparing the church to chickens. “The church today is like broiler chickens. They just sit inside their shed and wait to be fed. They have no idea how to fend for themselves. I want our church to be like local chickens, which can go out and search and find the food they need for each day, and then have enough to sustain them while they sit inside on their eggs for up to three weeks.”

After about another hour, the service itself really got going and I was led up to the chairs on the dais, leaving Julie behind, together with the three male service leaders, so that we faced the congregation. They sang Swahili hymns together from their hymnbook with tunes I know, and I was glad I had remembered two copies of Tenzi za Rohoni (the skinny little hymnbook) so that both Julie and I could sing the texts. Then the choirs started leading worship: the young women’s choir, the youth choir, the joint choir. The time of worship was very lively and very loud!

The congregation included many, many children. Pastor Nzela had been lamenting with me that he has no building in which the children can meet and have a separate Sunday school (and he was quietly asking for support for that endeavor). However, I really noted the way that the children of the church felt at home and part of the body. They knew all the words of all the hymns and contemporary songs, without any hymnbooks. They knew exactly how to participate in the prayers. They danced their hearts out and with great skill when it came time for the children’s choir to perform. And yes, they did get fidgety during my sermon, but they are children! For heaven’s sakes, it was a four-hour service! To my eyes, they looked like people who were fully integrated into the body of Christ and felt comfortable and needed there, far more than most western kids look and feel integrated into the Christian community.

Starting at about 12:30, I was invited up to preach a Mennonite sermon to Mennonites, on the heart and character of a peacemaker, drawing especially from James 3. However, I found as I went along that I needed to simplify a lot of things to make them relevant to the community and translatable. (I could understand at least 75% of the service in Swahili, but I’m still not ready to preach in that language). I really felt the gap in my understanding of this community, of their needs and struggles, and of their level of biblical knowledge. Honestly, I’m not the best preacher for a group like that. Maybe next time, I will have a better idea of how to prepare.

But the fact is, my preaching to the community was in some sense a pretext. Really, the community wanted a visit. They wanted to share their needs and struggles with people whom they perceive to have access to resources. They truly want to develop their church, in terms of buildings. They want to help develop income-generating opportunities for their congregants. They want to support the evangelists and church-planters in the neighboring villages, who are presently just volunteering their time. They want their church to grow. Somehow, they hope that the presence of a missionary might help in those endeavors. They even asked me, in the presence of the whole congregation if I would be able to return once a month! I know about making promises in Africa, so I had to respond that I would try to return at some point, but that I would not be able to come once a month, since I am a leader in my own congregation.

Once the service was over, I needed to sit with the (male) leaders of the congregation and hear their list of requests for support. I did my best to point them towards the Mennonite mission in East Africa and to gently let them know that MCC doesn’t support the kinds of projects they want to do. Those are hard moments for missionaries, when we need to tell people “no.” I also find myself very frustrated by the kinds of superpowers imputed to me, simply by the fact of my racial and national identity. I wish there were ways that Tanzanian church leaders could feel more confident in their own judgement about how to solve the problems of their churches. But I also intensely feel the inequity in our access to resources. Yet how can we be more generous without fostering dependence, and especially the sense of white cultural dominance?

Following this meeting, we were graciously invited back into the sanctuary to share lunch with the (male) leaders of the church. Julie had been hoping to try ugali (stiff cornmeal porridge) during her visit, and this lunch was an answer to prayer. She learned to roll little balls of ugali in her palm and dip them in the meat and sauce. Then we found the women who had cooked and thanked them, took lots of photos with just about everyone, and finally headed back towards Arusha. We made it home at about 5:30 pm, nearly 11 hours later. Now that’s a day at church!

Paul finishing off:

My day at church was quite a bit less dramatic (and shorter). I did end up having the kids alone and had some concern that they might need parenting during my sermon, but they did very well. I don't think I can do the topic justice in a synopsis, but I did move through scripture from our natural and righteous anger at injustice--(especially when we or someone we know is a victim)-- to a point where we realize that while it is easy to point fingers at others, we may avoid seeing our own culpability. Sometimes in systemic ways, other times very deliberately, many of us find we quite literally have 'blood on our hands'. The recognition that we need to be forgiven greatly--to the point of someone dying for us, should lead to profound gratitude. "Those who are forgiven much love much." I talked a bit as well about my experience of sharing this hope with incarcerated men through the Kairos prison ministry. The message was well received and I had a number of people approach me and talk about how it impacted them personally. 

I spent the rest of the day with the kids having pizza for lunch then going home and relaxing, waiting for Rebecca. I have had the experience of preaching at a church where I am perceived as 'the great white missionary; I knew her day would be long and rife with awkward moments. It was good to see Julie and Rebecca finally back around 5. I was very happy to hear about the cultural experiences Julie had there, and nodded in sympathy to Rebecca's negotiating the minefield of cross-cultural ministry. 

Cancelled Plans, A Special Birthday, and a Visitor

Produce from the market

'Torrential downpour' is rapidly becoming the most common expression in my daily lexicon. While I know this is the rainy season, I did not realize the extent to which everything we do is defined by it during the 4 months between March and June. Rain and mud. It has already taken its toll in the first 2 weeks of this month at MCC, forcing us to cancel 2 trips. (We had planned to visit partners in Dodoma and  later, several places in Serengeti region.)

The Dodoma trip cancellation was particularly unfortunate because the rain was not a factor on the roads per se. But on the weekend before we left, the Area Reps. (who have been in town last week to see our projects) were out on a hike. Laura slipt on some rocks because of mud and broke her wrist. She had to have it surgically set at KCMC in Moshe. We cancelled our trip with them that week and they headed home after some recuperation. Sadly, upon being X-rayed in Kenya, it was determined she would have to have it surgically redone because it was not set properly in Tanzania. (Another cautionary tale about the medical system here.) I have heard that the second time went well and she is recuperating nicely.

The second trip was one we were planning to leave for next week, but given the amount of rain we contacted our partners in the Serengeti region which has virtually no paved roads and asked about our chances of getting around without major delay. They told us the roads were very bad, and we have decided to reschedule for some time in the dry season.

The rain and the tilt of the earth are making it feel cooler here, and apparently temperatures will continue to drop through July. Swimming is already getting quite cold even though we are more acclimatized. It is often raining when we go and last week I swam in one such torrential downpour that made it even hard to tell if I had tilted my head out of the water to breathe or not.

The kids have been on their two and a half week term break and Rebecca and I cannot wait for them to go back to school. She has been doing most of the childcare during the day, although I took a turn on Monday this past week so she could do some work.

We have also had some exciting adventures worth chronicling as well, so I am handing the computer over to Rebecca to tell about a special Birthday and the arrival of a visitor.

This is Rebecca:  

We have probably mentioned that we have a woman who comes to clean our house twice a week. She is a very cheerful and sweet person, as well as a very efficient worker, who doesn’t need a lot of direction. And that’s good, because most of the time, she comes and goes while we are at work, and so we don’t see each other that much.

She has long wanted to invite us to come to her house, but I must confess, we didn’t immediately snap up the opportunity. I guess after six years in Burundi, we found that we were reticent to jump into patronage relationships too quickly. If you’ve lived in Africa, you probably know what I’m talking about. This time around, I wanted to build the relationship more slowly, make sure we were staying in this neighborhood, keeping her on as an employee, etc. In any case, we have really grown to appreciate Nai, and always breathe a sigh of relief on Mondays and Fridays when we come home to a clean, orderly, spotless home. I enjoy sharing conversation in Swahili with her on the few days when we have some overlap. She has a very positive attitude towards life and I’m grateful for how she helps us.

In any case, a few weeks ago, she invited us to come help celebrate her oldest daughter’s 8^th birthday at her home. It was a great arrangement for us since it fell on a weekday evening during our school break. Nai asked if I would bring a cake, since she doesn’t have an oven in which to bake one. So, on Wednesday, David and I baked a layer cake out of Betty Crocker. Oren helped with sugar cookies. And on Thursday, Oren helped me to decorate my very first pink birthday cake (being a boy mamma), with pink icing and pastel colored Mentos. In fact, David had been invited to a schoolmate’s party for the early afternoon, so he and Paul met us at Nai’s house separately after work.

Nai’s husband, Abraham, is a gardener on the base where we live, so he met us at our house and we drove all through the compound, across the private bridge, up the hill, through a gate, along the dirt road past the Joshua Foundation school and then along another dirt road about 1.5 km. We arrived at their house at the most glorious hour of the early evening, and they were very happy to show us around. Nai and Abraham built their house together after they got married and they have taken a lot of initiative to make it a nice place. They have two large rainwater collection tanks, as well as a tank in the ground – very wise for dry season. They are raising chickens and rabbits to sell and have a variety of fruit trees in their yard. They tend maize fields just outside their compound. Their house is built of cinder blocks and pretty big for a village house, with a good strong tin roof – they are just saving up to put in ceiling boards. Their three kids (8, 5 and 2) were happy to run around with the neighbor kids and David, looking at everything and poking the rabbits.

These kinds of cross-cultural visits are much more challenging for our older son, but he has become more mature and polite about it, and just quietly sits and observes and tries not to be too awkward. Nai cooked some very delicious pilau (rice cooked with meat and spices) and a meat stew. Then we sang for Lidya and shared cake and sugar cookies. Everyone seemed to really enjoy having special sweets, and Lidya was happy about receiving some gifts.

Later we took a little stroll through this village area in the perfect late afternoon light. First, we went to visit the neighbor cow, belonging to Mama Jackie, who supplies our fresh milk (we only met Mama Jackie later on our return journey, a widow and mother of four, who is doing her best to make ends meet). The sun was gleaming across the river on the hillside, Mt. Meru was perfectly clear and glorious, and we couldn’t stop walking. It has been raining torrentially and often, and so a clear afternoon was a real treat. So we visited another neighboring farm, and accidently met the owners, a much more well-off family, investing in roaster chickens and lots of other kitchen garden stuff. They also have cows who produce 10L of milk per milking, but I feel better supporting Mama Jackie.

We headed back to Nai’s house and the cars as the sun was setting, and Oren was saying, “Come on, mom! We need to go!” But, being relational has its own sense of timing, and it was almost dark as we got in the cars. We drove back the way we had come…and found the gate to the Joshua foundation locked.

Now, this was a problem because we had come across the river on the private bridge. And we weren’t sure where the next bridge was. I knew there was a nearby bridge suitable for motorcycles, but not for cars. Google maps pointed us down the road farther, assuring us we would be home in 6 minutes. We drove on and looked down the narrow, dark slope heading to the river – with no car tire tracks marking it. I sent Oren down to do reconnaissance (and to get his complaining voice, saying “I told you so!!!” out of my ears), and meanwhile I asked some passing children about the way forward. They told me, “well, there’s a way, but you’ll never find it without someone showing you!” And just at that moment a man came strolling up, learned of our problem and said, “Let me show you.”

So he got in the car and we drove another 20 minutes through very muddy slippery roads, across the muddy foundation of the new East Africa highway that’s being built near us, down and around, fishtailing here and there. And finally, FINALLY, he led us back out to the tarmac main road that we knew. And then we drove him all the way back down the other side of the river to nearer our neighborhood. As he got out of the car, Oren said, “That was a really nice man.” And I replied, “He was more like an angel helping us out of a really tough spot!” (and I had told the man as much in Swahili when he left us). We were back home five minutes later and as we entered our house, I had to confess to Paul, “I enjoyed EVERY MINUTE of that experience!!” That was an afternoon of really living in Tanzania.

On Friday, the boys and I had our first dental visit in Arusha with Dr. Tanya, who is apparently trained in Macedonia. She seems very good to me and has good equipment. She talked quite a lot about how she needs to treat teeth differently in this context because of the problems of excess fluoride. In fact, the water that comes out of our resident volcanic mountain, Mt. Meru, contains extremely high levels of fluoride. Even the fruits and vegetables that are grown here contain a lot of fluoride, so filtering one’s drinking water is not the only solution. In the US, we often add fluoride to our water to help prevent cavitites. But here, there is a public health problem called fluorosis. Many people who grow up in the Arusha area have badly stained teeth, and children often experience stunting, when they are exposed to too much fluoride at a young age. Our kids are old enough that it shouldn’t be a problem, and most of our drinking water is rainwater, harvested from our roof. But we won’t be putting any sealants on their teeth.

Later in the afternoon, we joined a group of expat families at TGT, a club on the other end of town. It was the first time we had ever visited the place, which has a pool, exercise facilities, restaurant, playground, a series of big fields where people gather to play soccer and rugby on Friday evenings. It was another lovely evening free of rain, and our purpose for gathering was to help welcome the Cameron family who have just arrived in Arusha. They will be working to restart Young Life clubs in the international schools (and here is more about the teen ministry of Young Life). Our kids are younger than the ones they will be intentionally reaching out to, but we still want to be part of supporting their new life and ministry here.

We didn’t stay for dinner with others there, because we needed to be home to welcome a special guest later that evening. Julie, my cousin Colette’s daughter, is nearly finished with Med School in New York City and had a few months free before graduation. She decided that she would like to broaden her experience of medicine and the world and come to visit us. She found an opportunity to observe/volunteer at a local hospital in Arusha and will just be living life alongside us for the next two weeks. It’s been very fun to have her here and to get to know her better as an adult (in the past, we just spent time with her at big family gatherings where there wasn’t as much time to really talk and get to know one another).

On her first afternoon, I decided to take Julie to the central market area of town. We worked on getting some extra keys cut for her and then headed into the market proper to see the sights. It’s always wonderful and intimidating to walk between rows of beautiful fresh avocados and bananas, on into the wonderful aromas of cardamom and pepper in the spice aisles, past grain sacks full of tiny dried fish (which don’t smell quite as appetizing) and back into the area of stalls selling household goods. We were able to find string for a Sunday school craft Paul wanted to do the next day. And then we found a smaller wooden spoon for kitchen use (the one we had was about 2 feet long, for making ugali). And finally we started shopping for produce. I was really happy with the beautiful broccoli and Chinese cabbage, as well as red peppers, carrots and other things.

In the process, a young teenager came up and was very assertively poking me and taking my bag to help me carry it and guide me around. I didn’t much appreciate the way in which he completely glommed on to us, but there was really nothing for it: you pretty much have to take on someone as your porter, so he was as good as the next kid. He led us further on in our search of tasty tiny bananas, mangoes, papaya and other fruit. I just said out loud, “Now, the last thing we need is tomatoes…” and some other kid was thrusting tomatoes into my face. It was quite funny! There were some less pretty moments as we headed out of the market. At one point, it looked like our teenage porter was about to bolt across the street with all our produce; in fact he was just running into traffic in order to look at a wedding procession passing by. When we got to the car, he started asking for a lot more money to pay for all the plastic bags he had (unnecessarily) added to hold my veggies. I gave him a tip 4 times what he had first asked for, but he was still not happy and was trying to block my way into the car. Anyway, we were able to leave eventually without a fight. So it was all the good and bad of the market: wonderful fresh produce to take home, a good workout for my Swahili, and complete mental exhaustion at the end! Julie really enjoyed the experience I think, and I will keep taking visitors there to have the experience with me. But I don’t think I’m quite ready to make it a weekly trip.

Another wonderful part of Julie’s visit has been the ways she has reminded us of family traditions we share. She brought along a couple of decks of cards and taught us how to play “Spite and Malice,” a game I now clearly remember playing with the Sack grandparents. I’m so glad to know the rules again now, and David can play it just as well as any of us at this point. Our kids are really enjoying have her around, and it’s also a blessing that she’s eager to help us cook, wash dishes and do other things around the house.

Bonus Photo:  This is something amazing that the rain did to a pile of constuction sand in the parking lot at church. If you read the entry last month about our trip to Iringa and the gigantic amazing natural pillars we saw, you'll appreciate this. These are miniature natural pillars formed in exactly the same way!! The rain washed away the sand under the small rocks and left little pillars. They are about 2-3 inches tall compared to the ones that were several hundred feet in Iringa, but the landscape of them looks the same!