First Christmas in Arusha

Lighting Advent candles on Christmas eve.

Now that the building intensity of activities and events around the end of Advent and Christmas have recently past, I can sit down and recount the highlights. I am happy to say that after only four months we were involved in quite a number of holiday activities at our church and in our community.

One of the highligts of the season has been the arrival of Rebecca's parents, Dave and Jean Sack! They actually did not arrive at the same time though. Jean proceeded Dave by about 5 days, getting here on Monday night (a week ago). Her early arrival was timed to help us with childcare as the kids are out of school and Rebecca and I still had a week of work left to do.

Jean and Dave Sack

We have been fairly creative with the kids including having them do some supplementary Swahili lessons to help them with school. They were surprisingly willing to do this despite the fact that it was 'Christmas vacation'. They actually have about 4 weeks off, which seems like alot, but perhaps this is because some families travel a long way during the holidays.

Rebecca met Jean at the airport Monday night and she got to our house at around 10pm. The drive from Kilimanjaro airport to Arusha is quite far. Rebecca got a cab and rode back with Jean as driving at night is somewhat stressful since roads are not well lit and there tends to be a lot of traffic all the time. Jean was fully loaded with suitcases full of presents which, by pure luck, she was not asked to open in customs at the airport. (They do tend to look and charge duty on every item that looks new.)

She recovered from jet lag on Tuesday and by Wednesday was ready to spend the day with the kids. It seemed to go well, (athough I was at work) I came home to find Oren reading a book and finishing some over-vacation homework. David was playing a board game. They were both very excited to have her come.

Another stategy to keep the kids occupied during this work week was to set up the trampoline we bought from a departing missionary family. It was really the big Christmas gift, but setting it up a bit early seemed like a good idea since the kids have quite a bit of free time right now. It took a family effort to build it and we set it up right behind our house in view of our kitchen window. It is a very nice, large tramp with a much coveted safety net--not a standard feature of most trampolines set up in Arusha. Once it was built the kids have been on it for hours at a time. They tend to like to use it as a 'Gaga Ball' court even more than for jumping.

Wednesday evening, we had choir rehearsal brought Jean and kids in tow. We went well overtime to get all of our pieces ready, especially ones we had barely touched as we had needed a lot of time on the more difficult specials. We did feel that they were satisfactory by the time we left and planned to cram in one more hour, an hour before the service began on Friday. We took Jean out for Indian food as is our routine after the choir rehearsal. She thoroughly enjoyed the ritual having spent many years in Bangladesh. The Indian food here in Tanzania is excellent thanks to the enormous South Asian influences on Swahili culture.

Men's trio during service,
Erwin, Paul, Neal

Friday evening was the real highlight of the week. The long-awaited Lessons and Carols service at Arusha Community Church took place. This is the service for which Rebecca and I have been preparing for the past 2 months with our Wednesday night choir rehearsals. It is quite a popular event and had an enormous turn-out. There was a brass ensemble before the service, as well as a childrens choir, and us. It is always surprising to me to see an event here that draws a large expatriate community. I think what is surprising is the contrast it is to Burundi where I probably knew almost every American or European in the country, as there just were not that many. Here in Arusha, at an event like this service, or even the Christmas fair the week before, I feel shocked to see so many expats. This is largely because Tanzania has a number of industries and business opportunities that draw people from all over the world, tourism chief among them. So expats from very diverse economic sectors are here, and extend far beyond the standard, missionary, NGO, and diplomatic communities.

The service was very moving and a joy to be part of as a member of the choir. The pieces we struggled to learn, like the Magnificat and acapella Christmas "Halleluja" (a al Leonard Cohen/Pentatonix) all came together splendedly. The church was also decorated with greens and looked very Christmas-y. That is in contrast to most of the rest of the city in which Christmas is a far less commercial holiday. It did feel a bit odd to be sweating a bit in the church full of people. The cooler season is in June-- August. December is one of the warmer months of the year. Both Rebecca and I came home quite dehydrated and exhausted and had trouble getting up on Saturday morning.

We spend Saturday at Gymkhana with the kids. David and Oren have added squash to their list of activities there as they do have a squash court. We also took a short dip in the pool, which despite the warm weather continues to be abnormally chilly. We had dinner there while Rebecca did some worship music prep. at the church. Rebecca made a second trip out to the airport on Saturday evening to once again meet the KLM flight from Dulles (via Amsterdam), this time to pick up her Dad. Dave Sack also arrived after 10pm with a bad cold, and went to bed. He spent Sunday lying low as well and had to miss going to church with us.

Sunday (Christmas eve), after church, was spent in nearly continuous cooking activities. We made our traditional gingerbread house. (We even brought the magnet blocks toys that we always use for patterns.) David designed the church we built this year. The kids deorated it. Afterwards they helped Jean make her Christmas morning cinnamon roles. I ended it all by making a Christmas eve thai curry dinner which worked out very well. Because we have no dishwasher, time not spent cooking was spent washing dishes. (David also caught his 6th chameleon that day.)

We had family time in the evening, finishing our advent devotional book and talking about the meaning of Christmas. There were many, many, presents under the tree as Dave and Jean had brought stuff from all members of our extended families in their suitcases. Oren and David were very excited and had a very hard time going to sleep. We finished the night up by watching "The Polar Express".

They were up at 6 am on Christmas morning and could hardly wait until 7. We did get everyone up by 7, had some cinnamon rolls, then had our gift unwrapping. Oren was probably the most ecstatic over the gift giving and receiving time as he got a much desired Jurassic World Indominus Rex toy. He still loves dinosaurs. Both kids also got a number of lego sets. David is quite a builder and has been working on sets the past 2 days.

In the afternoon we had a fairly big Christmas dinner. We invited our friends the Halters. A family with 2 kids. They also had 2 grandparents visiting. We also invited Neal and Christy Miller, some friends from church (former MCCers). There were 14 of us in all. Rebecca had bought a large Christmas ham from 'Meat King' a local butcher. We had many of delicacies including a delicious homemade rasberry chocolate cheesecake (brough by the Halters) and the gingerbread house.

The adults talked, the kids played on the trampoline. It was a very nice way to spend the day. Our first Christmas in Arusha is a milestone, and I feel that we have integrated well with no lack of activities in which to participate after only 4 months here.

We have 2 days left in Arusha (including 1 work day) before we head off for a 5 day vacation on the coast. I look forward to reporting on the fun we will have there. Heri ya Krismasi na Mwaka Mpya.

Retreat and a Very Full Advent

Golf loving baboon spectator

This weekly report is feeling more and more like a an act of obedience. This could be due to the fact that the kids being out of school means they are going to bed later. We have been playing games and reading an Advent devotional story every evening. But by the time they drift off, I can barely keep my eyes open.

The last week began with an MCC team retreat at a place south of the town of Moshe. The place is called TPC and it is a gigantic sugar-cane plantation and sugar production factory. In fact the whole town seems to be a complete bi-product of the sugar cane factory. They have their own railroad, post-office, medical center, and seemingly unlimited access to scarce resources of electricity and fresh water.

TPC, perhaps because of its access to these resources also has a small resort on the backside of the sugarcane factory. It is quite vast and has beautiful gardens populated with flame trees (currently in full bloom), frangipani, lillies, and vast flower beds of perinniels. They also have a pool, tennis courts and, almost flaunting the extravagance of water, they have a very nice, well-irrigated, 9 hole golf course. It is quite beautiful and almost has the feel of a vast oasis in the otherwise dry savannah.

Our team, which included Sharon, our country rep. Chrispin, our ag coordinator, Neema, program administrator and her 3 children, Lucia, our finance officer and her two girls, our family,  and Zoe, our SALT volunteer. To support us we also brought Amina and Johanna, the two German volunteers at the Tanzania Mennonite church (they did child care), and Pat and Joannie, a couple who have been her about a year supppting an Eastern Mennonite Missions family that are working here. Pat and Joanie were our reflection-time facilitators. We were 18 in all going down in a fleet of 4 MCC vehicles.

We arrived on Monday afternoon without incident, and got settled in on Monday evening. On Tuesday we had worship and a time of reflection after breakfast. Joannie had some interesting team building exercises including one where 4 of us had to try to stack up cups using string. We were not allowed to talk to each other. It was quite amusing and thought provoking as well.

Tuesday, after worship we played a game with the kids in which a group of people try to move a hidden stuffed animal down a field without revealing who has it to the person who is it and can make them freeze. In the late afternoon, after a swim, we returned to the golf course and we all played a round of golf! The club had all equipment for rent and the caddies and greens fees were quite cheap. Under $10 per person for everything. We went out in a number of parties and had an adult with every kid. David and I had gone out first and to my great shock, David was not a bad driver at all. He could hit pretty well and we moved through the course more quicly than I thought. He did poop out at hole 7 and we went right from there to hole 9 to finish up, but that was more than anyone else managed. One nice bonus of the golf course is the view of Mt. Kilamanjaro behind hole 4. It is also like a mini safari as the grounds are teaming with vervit monkeys and some baboons as well.

I think everyone had a pretty good time getting to hit the ball around. I felt like it was something I could improve at quite a bit given the chance to play more often. I am thinking maybe it is something I could take up here in TZ since it costs much less to play than in the US. And our caddie, who was a great coach, only charged about $2.50 to accompany us on our 9 holes. (He also had the clubs we rented.)

David relaxing back at the clubhouse

On Tuesday evening we played a game of Greed (also called White Elephant by some) in which we select presents one at a time and may 'steal' gifts from other people when it is our turn to choose one. These kinds of games are often a bit awkward in cross-cultural settings, in my experience. I did notice that the Tanzanian children seemed especially reticent to take a gift from another person. And David, who plays this every year seemed almost heartless when he would swoop in to get something he wanted. Despite some slight awkwardness though, it was quite amusing. Rebecca had purchased all of the gifts in advavce instead of having people bring them and she has made some selections that were particularly appropriate to people. Zoey and Sharon both ended up with very nice dresses, and I got a very cool Kamba shirt.

Rebecca and I took some nice long walks around the grounds and golf course in the morning on Wednesday before worship and reflection time. In the afternoon the kids enjoyed swimming in the small pool, then we had crafts including finger nail painting and watercolors. Adults and kids both seemed to enjoy these activities. The watercoloring was definitely something that had come from retreats Rebecca and I used to do in Burundi. (Rebecca was in charge of preparing the music as well as many of the activities we did.) On Wednesday evening we set up our projector in the outdoor lounge and watched Zootopia off of our computer. It was like going to a movie.

We left on Thursday after lunch. The food there was generally good as were the accomodations.(We did have a small ant infestation in our room, but they never acutally bothered us.) We got home in the late afternoon and took the rest of the day easy.

Friday was a work day, and since we have been getting all of our quartelry progress reports in over the past week, it was very busy for me. Friday evening we did our Gymkhanna routine although it was packed due to a Christmas party there. We finished the night off with a double feature of 'Merry Christmas Charlie Brown', and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas.' There are still a few more classics we need to watch this year. (Polar Express to name one!).

Saturday we had a long over-due choir rehearsal to get ourselves ready for the big Christmas Lessons and Carols service this Friday. We really needed to go through a number of these sings, but they are starting to sound pretty good. We made Christmas cookies Saturday afternoon because we were invited to MCC Country Rep. Sharon's house for a Christmas party Saturday evening. We were told to bring some favorite holiday food, as well as a song or story to share. Rebecca and I worked up a nice duet and David sung The Friendly Beasts as a solo. There were a number of expats there including the two German young women who did child care for us. It was a very nice event which we had to leave earlier then we would have liked because the kids were getting tired out after a few hours.

Sunday was a bit insane, as there was a huge Sunday School Christmas party but the head teacher was very sick and could not come. Rebecca found herself in charge late on Saturday and had to squeeze in a quick shopping trip for food and beverages as well as works up some activities and music on a powerpoint. I was there to help with all thing technical.

Fortunately the teacher had planned to have a special guest come in and do a puppet show. It was very amusing, which was good, because there were about 50 kids in attendance that day, and keeping them in their seats for over an hour proved challenging.

We were exhausted when we left but had planned a very special afternoon treat. We went and saw 'The Last Jedi' which was playing in 3d at a new movie theater in town. In a word, it was AWESOME! We all loved it and talked about all the way on the long ride home.

When we got back to the house I pulled in the driveway and saw a hedgehog run into the garden. David promptly jumped out and caught it. Although they all look alike, this one was a dead ringer for 'Quiver' the one David set free. We kept if overnight, fed him some cat food, which he ate happily, then escaped out of his enclosure during the night.

Life is full here, and often amusing, for that I have no complaints.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL and to all a good night!

Training Trainers and a Week Full of Events

David with "Cammo 4.0"

I am now fully in the habit of writing this weekly blog on a Monday, rather than a Sunday night. For some reason I am more exhausted on Sundays. Probably because we are out for most of the day and then need to work until late in the evening to be sure that Rebecca and I and the kids are ready to begin the week again at 5:30 am with uniforms, bags packed, lunches made, etc. There is little room for error as we live quite far away from school and work.

Last Monday, I had mentioned that I was in Karatu after a complicated process of leaving the house after losing my keys. I did end up traveling up by taxi and took a daladala back.

I was up there for a training-- a pretty common development activity. We call them TOTs or training of trainers, because much of the work we do in training is to create a multiplying or cascading effect as those trained will train others in their community.

The training I was involved in last week was for a recently launched maternal and child health program in Ngogongoro crater region. The training was meant to prepare facilitators to train traditional midwives to motivate women to have facility-assisted births, complete all of their antenatal care visits, and breastfeed exclusively for 6 months. It was my job to recruit the main trainer and approve the curriculum. I was happy to find a very capable community health person with an MPH who was really up to the task named Bernadetha. As a bonus, she herself was Maasai and although the training was in Swahili, she could speak Maasai as well. (This was especially good because the project is taking place in a Maasai community.)

She expertly led the group of 11 participants, some were nurse midwives others were members of the community, to think about what the particular barriers were in their context to women practicing "health seeking behaviors" like the kind of actions we were promoting. It was fascinating to hear the group share and reflect on their experience. It was also good to see Bernadetha not coming as an expert with all the answers, but truly a facilitator to help them solve their own problems.

The group was interested and enthusiastic. For them I think they see the particular challenge of bringing about changes in behavior in a community like the Maasai who strongly hold onto tradition, not unlike the Amish in the US. All of the facilitators are Maasai themselves and they live with a foot in both worlds in a way. They see the need for certain cultural practices to change, but they are also aware of the complex cultural institutions that keep them in place.

Among the participants was at least one Maasai elder, who serves on our partner's board of directors. It was good to see him listening and reflecting on what was being shared.

I stayed in Karatu for two of the five training days heading home on Tuesday afternoon. I got home in time to drive to a school play that David was involved in. It was an original script prepared by the drama teacher about the writing of Roald Dahl that the 3rd-5th graders have been reading. (David read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.) It was a very clever production with a fabulous backdrop. The story took a short journey through about 7 of his stories. Some, like "Matilda" I had never heard of, other like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and the BFG were familiar. The kids sang and danced. David had a few lines that to be honest he looked a bit petrified to be saying.

We enjoyed watching it, but ended up getting home quite late in the evening. We repeated the same routine on Wednesday. Thursday we were very happy to be home for dinner. On Friday the kids got out of school early but had to wait at work with us while we finished the work day then went to Gymkhana for a swim and dinner.

The weekend was fairly busy as well. There were competing events on Saturday. We were invited to a wedding of the son of the Mennonite Bishop of Arusha. I felt some obligation to have someone represent us there, but did not think the kids would be very well behaved if we all went. so I went in the afternoon alone while Rebecca took the kids to a Christmas fair. The wedding lasted about 2 hours and was a very lively event. There was a live band even out in the parking lot as the bride came out of her car.

The music inside was much more lively than we have in the US in a traditional wedding and the bride and groom actually danced down the aisle with their entourage. The choir also danced when they were singing. Despite all the movement, the bride and groom did their best to not smile at all. This is because, I was told, a wedding is seen as a solemn event and they should not look like they are taking it lightly. I still sensed that they were really into it though.

Once I was done, I took a rickshaw to meet Rebecca and the kids at the gigantic Christmas fair which is held at a coffee plantation called TGT. It is also a kind of club like Gymkhana. I had no idea how big it was, but heard it is considered the event of the year. It was gigantic! There were so many food and merchandise boutiques, art, handicrafts, performances, etc.

I arrived just on time to see an amazing dance performance by the dancers from the Ibuka Dance Foundation based in Arusha. A choreographer based in the UK (he was French named Johnny Autin) who did physical theater came and worked with the group for a week and created a piece that was nearly half an hour long. They used used tires as props and the dancers had a physical virtuosity that reminded me so much of the downtown dance I used to be into in New York City when I was dancing and choreographing myself. I wish I had a video to put up. It was as good as work I have seen by David Dorfman or Doug Varone(for those of you who are reading this with a dance background.) I was impressed that there is a group of Tanzanians that has familiarity and ability in this particular genre of physical theater.

We went from the fair to a big farewell dinner for some new friends at our church. It was a good chance to build community and talk to friends we have been getting to know as most everyone we know was there. Another night getting home late.

Sunday was actually a lot of fun because the worship team asked me to play djembe for some of their songs. I was happy to oblige. We were also officially welcomed into the church as new members. Rebecca was teaching Sunday school that day as well, so I feel we have been integrating and making ourselves useful pretty quickly.

Christmas break has already started for the kids, so they do not have school on Monday. We will be going as a family on an MCC team retreat, more about that next week.

David has been continuing to cycle through pets. We let his hedgehog go free on Sunday because of out of town events coming up when we knew we could not feed him. (Also, quite frankly, he was really stinky!) David is currently on "Cammo 4.0" his 4th chameleon that he is keeping on the tree outside our back door. The problem is, they tend to wander off after about 4 days. I guess there just is not the kind of bugs they like there. He is sad about losing the hedgehog but will get to dog sit next week. Hopefully that will cheer him up.

Christmas Preparations with a Smattering of Swahili Wisdom

The beginning of the past week seems like a blur to me. I do know that the kids had a short school week because Friday was a National Holiday (Islamic). The work week was also largely uneventful as we are in the season between reporting periods and partners are busy implementing activities and not in frequent contact. I am excited about a new proposal that is being finalized to implement a child protection program in 18 Lutheran schools. The program will provide instruction to teachers on alternative forms of discipline instead of corporal punishment -- which is frequently used here, despite some attempt by the government to limit it. To a great extent, I believe teachers are simply practicing what they have learned from their own experience as students. Some of the stories we hear make it seem shockingly arbitrary.

The project will also implement safe school clubs (modeled after peace clubs) in schools for students to address issues of bullying and harassment. The club meetings will provide a space for students to discuss issues with each other and with a trained adult mentor. The third leg of program will facilitate meetings with administrators and parents' associations to develop and disseminate a written child protection policy.

The other somewhat interesting work day event happened Wednesday, when we helped to empty MCC's long-used storage container. If you have not lived overseas, it might be hard to imagine how ubiquitous these enormous shipping containers are. Once they are not seaworthy, they end up being used in any number of ways, including as houses, smalls dukas (shops) on the side of the road, storage units for farmers, etc. MCC has had one for a while, but we will need to empty and get rid of it, because the property it is parked on belongs to some missionaries who are leaving town.

Sharon our Country Rep. was out of town, but the rest of us at the office went over Wednesday morning, emptied the container, and stored the contents at our houses. Rebecca and I have a shipping container next to our house which is available to us, so some of the stuff went in there. The really great part of this was that the family that was leaving was also selling an almost new trampoline, and Rebecca and I bought it as well. We helped take it down, and took it to our house during the move. We have not set it up yet, and are thinking of doing that as a Christmas surprise for the kids.

The best Christmas surprise though will be the arrival of Rebecca's parents, David and Jean Sack, who are planning to be out here at Christmas and will also go on our short vacation with us to the beach! (That story will have to wait until it happens.)

Back to this week...Having Friday off meant that we could finally begin preparations for Christmas. It is a family tradition to begin setting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. This year, we decided to wait until the weekend of first Advent. We are really into Advent and Rebecca usually makes an Advent wreath with 5 candles and (if possible) we buy chocolate-filled Advent calendars for the kids. We were able to get some of these this year, even in Tanzania! Lots more imported goods are available here, than were in Burundi.

Finding a nice Christmas tree was a bit harder but Rebecca did manage to get one during a shopping trip in town. It is not real, and really does not look very real, but we were happy to have it to decorate (Charlie Brown would be proud). We did have a friend bring out a Christmas suitcase filled with all of our Christmas stuff (Thanks, Rebecca H) and on Friday afternoon we decorated the tree, put up lights and other decorations including stockings and 4 creche sets. Rebecca also got the kids to make some paper cut-out wreaths that we hung on the door. Oren and David were both into decorating and it was a nice thing to do on our day off.

In the afternoon we met some friends at Gymkhana. I also brought our squash rackets and played with Oren and David. (It was their first time.) I used to love the game and the squash court is old but well maintained. Reminded me of childhood at the American club in Bangladesh. David and Oren both really enjoyed it as well.

We ended the day with a family game of "7 Wonders". It was the first time we ever played it as a family because we thought David would be too young. But he actually won it! (We also played Settlers the day before which is what you see in the photo.)

Saturday we got off to a slow start, but then did some adventurous visiting. We had met a family at our church and decided to go out to their place which was nearly an hour away. We were interested in connecting with them because they have 4 kids and one is Oren's age and one is David's. It was nice to visit them despite the somewhat treacherous driving conditions on unpaved roads. They are definitely a missionary family (which mainly means they get a lot less screen time than our kids.) But Oren seemed to hit it off with Harry and David had a blast on their trampoline with the 3 younger kids.

Sunday was church as usual and I was helping in Sunday School. After church we met a number of friends for lunch, followed by another social event-- Oren invited his classmate Abraham, and his younger brother Barack (yes, he was born in November 2008) to come over to make Christmas cookies.

It would have been fun for me to participate in the festivities after church as well, but it was at that moment that I realized I had lost the keys to the pick up and needed to leave early the next morning to Karatu for a training session. I searched for hours, then went to our office, where we have a box with spare keys. Sadly, the spare key box was locked. That key was locked in the desk of the office manager, and the keys to her desk were with her at home. All this happened in the two days while we are getting a new key system in place at the office.

Since I was bringing all the curricula and supplies to a training, I could not afford to be late. With plan A and plan B thwarted, I decided to get a taxi to drive me there, for $100. (I had way too much stuff for a daladala trip.)

When Rebecca got to work the next day she called me from Arusha to say the guard at our office had found the truck key in the parking lot. She also tole me that Lucia, our finance officer, shook her head and offered a bit of Swahili wisdom with the proverb: Kifu cha nyani, miti yote huteleza --- which could be translated: When death comes for the monkey, every tree is slippery.   I think it is about the inevitability of fate (or else it is about avoiding dead monkeys falling out of trees:-)