A Flurry of Visitors before Vacation

David and friend Samuel on safari.

Its a Monday evening and the last chance I will have to write before our 4 week departure from Tanzania. Actually we will leave this coming Wednesday (departing the house around 5:30 am), but Tuesday evening will certainly be busy doing last minute packing.

Although the kids have been out of school for over a week, nothing else about this time feels like 'summer vacation'. For one thing, it is very cold! (We consider night temps in the 50s to be cold.) We tend to wear sweaters or light jackets all day and have some small space heaters at the office to keep our feet warm at our desks. But it is not only the weather that does not feel very 'vacationy', it is also the work that has been quite busy in the last week. Sharon our country rep. did get back from her trip to Ethiopia so I am not filling in for her, but we are at the point in the MCC calendar year when new proposal concepts are due and this has meant scrambling to finalize these papers and do some prefunctory evaluations of projects in progress that are due to end.

I have been able to keep ahead of the jaws of the snapping wolves, but just barely as I need to finish all of these before we leave Wednesday. Many other things have been happening at the same time that are more relational, and consequently a bit more exhausting. Our friends Kate and James left last Sunday, but on Monday we were welcoming two new guests. They were Deus and Gladys, our IVEP volunteers for next year.

IVEP is an MCC program that sends young people from LMICs (Lower  and middle income countries) to the US and Canada for a year abroad to work in the context of a Mennonite community. It is an exciting program for those selected and the process for selecting Deus and Gladys was competitive although ultimately they were chosen by their peers as the two finalists. We invited them to Arusha (one lives in Dodoma, the other Dar Es Salaam) to have an orientation of living in an American host family. They both arrived by Monday evening and we brought them home with us, having just cleaned out Kate and James' rooms. They stayed with us until Thursday morning.

During our time with them we had a good time. We prepared them American food (like burritos:-), Rebecca took them to the office for 2 days for various types of orientation including meeting the MCC team and becoming familiar with MCC programs. They also had a chance to talk to a former IVEPer about the challenges he faced. (All the food tasted bad to him when he got there.) Relationships were a big topic. Here in TZ, being seen talking to a member of the opposite sex in public, if you are not married, is tantamount to announcing your engagement. We had to explain that in the US, a person of the opposite sex being conversational and friendly may not be expressing any romantic interest whatsoever. The IVEPers acknowledged that all the secrecy around dating and relationships here in TZ was often quite confusing.

One evening we went over to Gymkhana and watched the Switzerland /Sweden World Cup game. They are avid football fans and had a lot to say about the game and other teams in the quarterfinals. On their last night we played some card/board games and explained to them that many Mennonites love board games. They were excited about the prospect of learning some, but except for Scrabble and Chutes and Ladders which they had played in elementary school, they said that playing these kinds of games was not something they ever really did with their families.

Zoe with host mom and brother.

They left early Thursday morning and I went for a day of work while Rebecca had the kids. On Friday, though we went as a family to Longido to pick up Zoe our SALT volunteer who is just finishing her term, and brought her back to Arusha. We brought the pick-up to Longido and went and got her luggage at her host family's house, where there were tearful goodbyes. Then we went to the partner where she was seconded and said good bye there. When we got back to Arusha, we had a lunch with Zoe at George's restaurant for her and the MCC staff.

Zoe spent Saturday night with us, then Rebecca went with her to the airport on Sunday afternoon after church. It felt like a busy day because I did my last Sunday School teaching before our break. I had about 65 kids. It was nice to have the house guest free Sunday evening until the power went off and left us without lights for the night and part of the next day. It is hard to get off to work in the morning with no lights. Fortunately the kids did not have to go to school.

Monday was a busy work day as we had a group of Canadian Mennonites visiting TZ on safari, stop by for a brief 'learning tour'. I met them at one of our partner projects--the Step-by-Step learning center, where Margaret gave them an excellent tour and explanation about they serve these special needs children in such a resource poor setting. Some of the visitors were teachers and were fascinated to see what the children were doing. They spent several hours there and I gave them a brief synopsis of other MCC programs in Tanzania as well. When I got back to office in the afternoon, we had an early Birthday celebration for Rebecca since we will not be here for her real Birthday.

Besides this flurry of last minute visits, we had a few other highlights. We have spent several evenings in the last week at Gymkhana to watch various World Cup games. We tend to watch the early ones as the late ones are just a bit too late. With the kids out of school we have also been trying to keep them occupied. One of the activities they have done at Gymkhana is golf lessons as there is a pro there that offered to teach them for about $4 each for an hour and a half. They did a lot of driving, chipping, and putting in the past 5 days and are getting pretty good.

David also had a chance to go on a safari at a near-by game park with a friend whose mom owns a safari company. He had a great day and we sent with a camera on which he shot many pictures. (Most did not come out well) but he was very happy about the opportunity to go.

This will be the last blog before we leave, the next time I write we will be in Baltimore. We will be there from July 12 to August 12. Maybe we will see you there.



Bonus video of David driving: