A Toothache, A Birthday, A Wedding, Killer bees, and More!

Hanging out at coffee lodge.

I actually have a few anecdotes to start this entry, but one that explains the delay in posting also has the happy result that I found there is an excellent dentist here in Arusha. Sometime over the weekend I began to get a pain in a tooth. Although if anyone out there has had a bad toothache you know that the radiating pain can be so excruciating that it is hard to tell even what part of the mouth it originates from. I knew Rebecca had taken the kids for a cleaning to a dentist last spring so I got the number and made an appointment for the next day.

Dr. Tanya, as she is called, is from Macecdonia. (I am still not sure of all the countries that made up former Yugoslavia) but the sign at her gate says she is a 'dental surgeon', and I will say that she was able to figure out which tooth had cracked under an old filling, and painlessly repaired it. I was especially impressed by how modern the office was, particulalry a 'digital X-ray' machine which was amazing. She did a lot of her work with the help of a large screen monitor just above the chair. But with the digital X-ray, she could put a small wand by a tooth and get an instant X-ray on the screen with 1/10th radiation of a normal X-ray! More technologically advanced than my dentist in the US!

I now have a temporary filling in case a root canal needs to follow (depending on whether I relapse into severe pain again.) But so far so good. Of course coming from the US, what is most surprising  is how much cheaper medical and dentral care is here. The repair of the tooth, filling, Xray, etc. was under $50. A root canal will run me about $250. I can't really say enough about how great it feels to be pain-free again. (Something we don't appreciate when we have not been in pain.)

The last week has offered a number of opportunities to do things we have not done before here, and to repeat things that we did a year ago that are returning with the season--only now we are not the 'new guys'. One event was the Birthday of one of David's classmates last Saturday. Samwel was the first kid in David's school to invite him to a Birthday when we arrived. I remember taking David out to Tembo club to play. As I recall, being the new kid was not entirely comfortable and he got into several fist fights and did not make a great impression.

After a year, though, Samwel is one of David's very good friends at school and David has a large cadre of friends in his class. Going to the birthday this year was quite different. Almost all the same kids, but David seemed much more at home. I went with Oren to the outdoor restaurant (Tembo Club) and he worked on homework-- a large poster detailing the causes of WWI while David played with his friends and ate kuku na chipsi (chicken and french fries) and Birthday cake.

Rebecca was not with us because she had agreed to be the family representative at a local wedding of for the brother of Nai, our housekeeper. Rebecca is here to give an account:

In this culture, the family of the groom is responsible for hosting the wedding reception, so I made my way to Nai's parents' home in the village over the hill south of our compound. Luckily I was able to follow Nai's husband on his motorbike along wandering dirt roads to reach the place. I had been told that many weddings actually begin hours after the scheduled reporting time for guests. In this case, I found them in full swing at 3 pm. Two huge tents had been set up in the field beside the house, and probably 500 people were gathered to watch the proceedings. After greetings and prayers, the couple began to hand out ceremonial wedding cakes to honor first their respective parents, then the pastors, and then a few other guests...including me! I was very suprised to be receiving a cake thanking Paul and I, but then I guess we had given a substantial gift to Nai to help with expenses. Next, various couples were called forward to feed each other big bites of cake, some gracefully, and some with quite a bit of humorous awkwardness. Then various categories of people collected cash from their fellows, processing in a long dancing line forward towards the bridal dias, and placing bills in the hands of those responsible. Later, they presented the totals proudly to the couple: The parents raised 372,000! the sisters raised... the aunties raised... Some gifts were physical, too: big cooking pots, blankets, a rope to tie up the gift goat from a brother (goat wasn't present). And finally, we were all invited in order of rank to partake of a big buffet meal. It was fun and interesting and Nai was very happy to introduce me to her family. I drove back home just as the sun was getting low in the sky.

Paul again: So that was last Saturday, but Sunday had its adventures as well. Because our home is on the far side of town from many people we know, we packed to be out for the day on Sunday and went to church so we could do some things afterwards without having to come home. After church we had lunch at a Tanzanian self-proclaimed Mexican restaurant, which does not quite 'get' Mexican food. The fried tortilla chips for nachos were hard as a rock, and the soft taco tortillas were basically porridge that had to be eaten with a fork. Afterwards, we stopped by the Shanga handicrafts cottage industry where people with disabilities make various things out of fabric, beads, and glass. It is always fascinating watching someone operating a hand loom, or blowing glass. Rebecca tried her hand at glass blowing when offered the chance. You can see her results in the photo.

Later in the afternoon we went to the compound of some Norwegian missionaries who host volleyball on Sundays. I don't think I have done this kind of thing since highschool, and brought back memories of the 'Family Singers' of my youth (shout out to Jo, Charlene, Louise, Jean, etc.). It was great to have Oren join the adults in the game, several of whom were quite accomplished. Oren had been doing volleyball in school last year, and really distinguished himself by scoring over 20 points in 3 games when he was serving! He is actually getting really tall. David played with some of the kids in the compound but did join in one game as well. It was a great time, however the distance will limit the number of times in a month we can come to these games.

The week was eventful at work as I have heard back from the board granting ethical approval for my research who have asked for some major revisions. A bit disappointing but it is good to be able to plod ahead again. I am also getting ready for a trip to the Lake region next week to visit a partner so those preparations took a lot of time as well.

We had three events at school this past week. One was the secondary school 'meet the teachers and faculty' on Tuesday evening. We went as a family after work to hear about the secondary school programs this year. I was a bit shocked that despite being well publicized there were only about 3 sets of parents for a school of about 400 students. Granted, a fair number are boarders. The presentation itself was well done and we could certainly ask many specific questions. It is interesting to hear them talk about goals mostly in relation to preparing for O and A levels which is really the main interest of parents here as most are paying to go to a British school for the opportunity to study abroad. Getting top marks is the only ticket out--and an expensive one at that for most people here.

This past Friday, we had two more school events, one was an assembly to which we were invited, (Rebecca went), presented to the school by David's class. It was about diversity, a major focus of the school. The kids introduced the different ethnic groups represented by children in Tanzania, as well as South Asians, and other foreigners. David, the only American in his class was asked to do the Star Spangled Banner. It was kind of funny because he did not even know the words at the beginning of the week. Our family sung it daily at meals, in the car, etc. until he memorized it. He did an excellent job with it at the assembly and got alot of applause. He does have a beautiful voice and it was impressive to see him do a solo. (It is posted on Rebecca's facebook page.)

Oren had an event on Friday evening. It was a 'disco' at the school. Rebecca and I remembering middle school 'mixers' as fairly innocuous social events really encouraged him to go. He found out his friend Abraham was going so he agreed. When we picked him up afterwards though, both he and Abraham were quite scandalized by the amount of 'twerking' the kids were doing at the disco. They were not excited about going to something like this in the future.

snake we caught in our backyard.

While Oren was at the disco, Rebecca, David, and I went to Gymkhana and had another 'African' adventure. Apparently a gardener had tried to spray a bees nest in the roof of a building and had really stirred them up. African bees are 'killer bees' which is really about how aggresive they are, not how venomous. When we arrived, we had to park in a far off lot and go in a back way to the club house. There were dead bees everywhere and tons of people had been stung. One bee started chasing me and I see what they mean by aggressive I ran very, very, far and finally was able to escape into a room. The bee absolutely refused to quit chasing me. Apparently it was sheer chaos several hours before when the swarm started and many people around the club, wait staff, caddies, golfers, swimmers, etc. were stung and forced to flee. Our waiter's eye was completely swollen shut when he came to take our order. I can affirm that you should not mess with bees here.

Many more smaller adventures but I need to stop here. I will end by mentioning that we caught a green snake in our back yard. It is 99% likely to be a harmless water snake and 1% chance it is a juvenile green mamba. Sent a photo to the snake park here and they say it is a green water snake.

School Days-- Iron Rule Days

Rebecca with beet harvest from our garden.

The weather has definitely changed in the past week. It was cold as recently as last Tuesday, and now it is not. The sun is beating down harder, the dryness is turning everything to dust, we don't need socks in our houses at night. I have not worn a wetsuit in the pool this week, and I am in short sleeves at work. I know many like the cold, but I am definitely a warm weather person.

Last week I described some of the ways in which we are thwarted and left to wait patiently for the oft-constipated bowels of bureaucracies to move (Tanzanian and Canadian), and I have no updates of change to report at this writing although it seems certain now, that the visa process will not be done in time for our volunteer to participate in the program for her in Canada. We are hoping for better outcomes on the other things we are wating for.

We have been enjoying the return to school routines for the third week and have settled into activities we participated in last year on weeknights we feel we can spare. Wednesday evening choir is the most consistent. Since the kids are dropped off at our office by the school bus at 4:30 pm, we usually head straight there when they arrive and get home after 7. That is a general challenge of our situation: we really need to be prepared with all of our stuff for the entire workday and evening before we leave at 6:40am. Choir is enjoyable for Rebecca and I and the kids are content to read or search the church grounds for hedgehogs and chameleons (and usually find at least one). We are preparing music for a church harvest festival at the end of September. We are singing an eclectic repertoire with a choral selection from Handel's Judas Maccabeus called "Praise the Lord," a quirky barbershop quartet version of the old hymn 'Count your blessings' and another contemporary piece called "Thankful" that sounds like a jazzy Sondheim ballad. We have a mixed group of Tanzanian, European and South Asian singers, so it has been a rewarding challenge to get us to sing together in harmony in the 'crunchier' sections of the music.

Among the highlights of the last 10 days, I would mention three that were somewhat out of the routine. The first was a team meeting this past Friday. In an organization like MCC, the character of a team can change significantly from year to year based on the number of 1, 3, and 6 year expatriate staff that come and go. In a way, each fall can feel like a fresh start as most changes happen over the summer. It is also typical for staff to take vacations for some part of the summer. Our family was out of town, as was our Country Rep Sharon. We have all been back together in the office in the past month but this was the first all-day meeting where we discussed directions for the year ahead, changing roles, etc. We met at Sharon's house and had lunch together as well. It is interesting to see that we are smaller this year; notably Zoe, our SALT volunteer, left after her year of service and we were not successful in recruiting any new one-year volunteers this year. I am posting a photo here of our MCC team this year. Besides me and Rebecca, there is Sharon our Country Rep, Lucia our Finance Officer, and Chrispin our Agriculture Programs Coordinator. Among the exciting things we discussed was the location of our planned annual retreat. It is not decided yet, but Zanzibar as well as Mwanza on Lake Victoria are high on the list. This is one of the perks of living in such a beautiful country.

Friday evening we had a surprise visitor. Nyambura, a friend of Rebecca's from seminary who lives in Kenya, was down in Arusha for a wedding. She came in by bus from Nairobi and we picked her up on the way home from Gymkhana on Friday. She only had a short visit with us, not even staying over, but Rebecca enjoyed catching up after nearly 15 years of not seeing each other.

The second unusual activity was a field trip our family took this weekend to the far northwest end of town. (We live on the Southeast end) so it was about an hour drive. Our friends, Neil and Christy Rowe Miller, who attend our church here and are former MCCers, live closer to the foothills of Mt. Meru. (Interesting side note, Neil is a cousin of Marjorie, a classmate from high school who I saw at our HS reunion this summer.) We drove up to their house and then took a hike into the Meru foothills. We walked around for several hours in an agro-forest that surrounds Arusha National Park which goes up to the top of Mt. Meru. It was good to get out of town and do some hiking, although being dry season it was incredibly dusty on many of the paths and we came home looking like we had been plowing a field all day. Although we did not summit any ridges we did have some nice overlooks on Arusha, and passed through some interesting ravines. No wildlife except Neil's two dogs that accompanied us.

When we got back to their house, Christy had prepared Nestle's toll house cookies (a rare treat!) and a spaghetti dinner. We really enjoyed the time together with them and we learned about an app (Openstreets) where all the trails around the foothills of Meru are marked and can be followed with GPS on a phone. So we are hoping to come back and do some more exploring sometime.

Rebecca led music for church on Sunday and I continue to help with Sunday school registration. What is interesting about our Sunday school is that we had about 75 this week, and in the class I had taught, about 2/3 were new, and about 1/3 from the previous week were not there. I can see it will be a challenge to keep track of who is who in this context.

Teachers arriving into training session.

Monday morning at work was our third unusual event. Rebecca and I went to witness a training conducted by one of our local partners, Mwangaza, at a secondary school about 45 minutes out of Arusha. The project they are doing is teacher professional development on sensitization to issues of child protection. To that end, they are training teachers to refrain from using corporal punishment as a behavior management tool in favor of more effective alternative forms of discipline. While corporal punishment is highly regulated in TZ (not quite illegal), it is still frequently used in schools by many teachers, and generally looked upon favorably. The training includes awareness about the psychological harm that can result and reasons why it is less effective  compared to other classroom management strategies. The training includes a workshop to help the school write and implement a child protection policy, and to implement 'safe school clubs' (anti-bullying clubs) for kids because bullying is another common form of school violence.

Rebecca and I listened for a half day with 28 teachers who were participating. It was interesting and a great opportunity to practice our Swahili comprehension. Fortunately they provided many written materials which are easier to understand because the words are in front of us. The 5-day training began with a philosophical discussion of mindset (fixed vs. growth) to encourage teachers to think about how to approach difficult challenges. It was a good strategy because much of what they taught afterwards was quite challenging to many implicit assumptions about their practices. Generally, though, I sensed the teachers were open to change and particpated actively.

David's Swahili homework.

On the subject of education, since I did not post yesterday evening, I will mention one last activity we participated this Tuesday evening, which was a visit to our own kids' school for parents to meet the primary school teachers. Because school is so far from home, we opted to pick up the kids directly from school and spend an hour at the nearby Coffee Lodge until the program began. It is good to be involved as much as possible. St. Constantine's is a good school, but some of the teaching can be uneven and it is important as parents to be on top of details and express expectations. David is not as satisfied this year as he was last year and we are trying to make sure that he is getting what he needs pedagogically in a way that reflects best practices in primary education. It is challenging because the British system, particularly in Africa, puts a very high value on conformity and rigid obedience, as a pathway to success in school. Threat of punishment is often preferred over positive reinforcement. (Ex. David's whole class just got their first detention because someone was running during morning line-up. They all had to write down the 100 rules of St. Constantine during recess. Are there that many? I think it ended up being a creative writing assignment!)

St. Cons tries to do much better, but many of teachers only experienced that in their own education and may not have the experience to do something different. I think it helps if parents like us can help children negotiate these experiences and make the best of the situation they are in.

I am caught up to the present moment, so I will stop here.

Bonus Photo: David helping with beets too.

Tales of Confusion and Delay

Relaxing after school at Gymkhana.

For those of you with young children, the title of the blog should be all too familiar. It is, after all, the cardinal sin of all engines on the island of Sodor under the stern tutelage of Sir Tophamhatt (a.k.a. the fat controller).

I always enjoyed watching Thomas the Tank Engine with Oren when he was young. (George Carlin was narrating at that time.) I especially appreciated the Anglican sensibilities of Thomas and Friends' creator, the Rev. Wilbert Awdry, who endowed the engines with a classic British utilitarian morality where the highest virtue for an engine is 'being useful', and the worst transgression: causing confusion and delay.

Life in a post-colonial bureaucracy, modeled roughly on the sensibilities of the Brits has given me a new appreciation for the utilitarian moral code, especially as we have been bogged down in a number of govt. bureaucratic processes that have slowed us down in various ways. I will share them, not in a spirt of criticism, but more bemusement. When I first moved to this context a decade ago, I was easily up in arms at every snafu, but now I am better (most of the time) at waitng for something to change.

We are now moving into week 2 of school and the good news is, the dread of returning, far exceeded the reality of how bad it really is. In fact, we continued to get good reports about reconnecting with friends, feeling familiar with the routine and gratitude that they were not starting again in a new place. Of Oren's two best friends (Abraham and Abraham) one has returned and the other transferred to a school in town so he will hopefully see them both. Oren was not disappointed by his teachers although his maths teacher is assigning every problem at the end of each chapter every night, which is, to my mind a bit excessive. French continues to be a challenge and I continue to be amazed at how completely he can forget everything he ever knew about it, even with a week of review with a French tutor before he returned. He is excited about history which will cover the 20th century this year, including both World Wars. (He is quite a WWII history buff.)

David was disappointed to find his homeroom teacher was pretty mean. (Strict that is.) He even said she menaced a beating for misbehaving in her homeroom. (This is a very common empty threat here, as corporal punishment is not permitted at St. Constantine.) But she does sound like she is somewhat of an intimidator. Oren also has a few of these types of strict disciplinarians. I have told them that it is good to learn how to cope with all kinds of people as they can expect to find such types throughout their lives.

Oren is also doing swimming as his extra-curricular sport this year. He was not very enthusiastic about it, but with an incentive of one hour per school week of screen time (we eliminated all screens during the week except Saturday) he agreed to do it. After the first practice he came back smiling saying it was lots of fun. I wish I could say swimming has been fun for Rebecca and I who continue to do it between 7 and 8 am every morning after dropping the kids off at the bus. The water continues to be below 60 in the morning. It is tolerable with a wetsuit, but Arusha is always cold, cloudy, damp and breezy in the morning (the mountain effect). So even getting out and changing leaves one with a chill. We are all still using our space heaters by our desks at work.

Without screens we have enjoyed late afternoon games with the kids, as well as some crafts. David was very keen on making a bow and arrow. It worked pretty well for about a day. Other activities around the compound include walks and jumping on the trampoline. There are also some new guard dogs that are being broken in. They really seem to like David which makes him quite happy as he is a dog lover.

For any other dog lovers, I highly recommend the movie Alpha, which we saw at the theater here this weekend. (3D movies are only $4 here.) It was great. We went with Oren, David, and Oren's friend Abraham and his younger brother Ezechiel. We followed it up with a pizza at AIM mall.

This past Saturday was a highlight worth mentioning for Rebecca and I as we were two of the primary trainers in an all day Sunday School training seminar. It was interesting to be part of, because I was surprised, when our church announced it, that there would be folks interested in coming in all day for a Saturday to learn about how to teach Sunday school. But we had around 10 participants. Rebecca taught music, and I did a presentation on crafts and other ways to supplement a lesson. I even made a pretty elaborate powerpoint on ideas ranging from paper-plate dove cut-out, snowflakes, and origami, to mazes, wordsearch, and Eric Carle style collaging. It was all quite well received and I would have never thought myself to be an expert at craft sticks, but I realize I have been doing this for about 5 years now. (Free advice-- avoid mobiles like the plague!)

Sunday school workshop

Despite these bouts of productivity, there are some places where we are waiting for various things that have become mired in the 'confusion and delay' of bureaucratic processes over which we have little control. Some  are urgent, others not so much. Among the least problematic is the long delay Rebecca and I have endured in getting our drivers licences. The process of getting them required a half day and was nearly as complex as it was rendundant. We thought it ended on that day when we completed it and got a temporary drivers pass. We were told to come back in a month to get the permanent licence. When we dutifully went back we were told to come the following month because they were out of laminating material for the licences so they were not ready.

Office Birthday for our colleague Chrispin.

This has happened for the past 3 months and now there has been an official government notice that the lack of laminating material is a problem (no explanation, no accountability, no indication when it would be solved). It affects national IDs, and licences. It was odd because when we went in, the woman who laminates the licences seemed to have been coming in daily for the past 4 months with nothing to do. When we went the last time and we asked when it would be resolved the woman rolled her eyes and said she did not know. Since our temp. licences had expired she suggested laminating our payment receipts and keeping them in the car. I don't know what the police will do, but the bigger question which bemuses me is how did this happen? There is certainly laminating material readily available here, so why can't the TRA have any for producing vital documents? Anyway, I am learning not to be curious. Most people treat these problems the way you treat a flooded basement, or a muddy road-- it happens, you just make do until things get better.

The second process we have been awaiting was resolved yesterday, I am happy to say. This involved getting the kids' uniforms. We were warned in several emails by the school that everyone was expected to be in Class A 'smart' uniforms from day 1. Parents tried, on numerous occasions in the week prior to school starting, to get these uniforms at the St. Cons. uniform shop only to be told they were at the border and would be there by the following afternoon. (No matter when you went, you were always assured they would arrive 'the following afternoon.') Rebecca went on several occasions up through the first weekend when we finally received word on the night before school started that uniforms had not arrived and there would be some 'amesty' for those who did not have any old ones for kids to wear before day 1.

We waited for nearly 2 more weeks with assurances that the uniforms were just hours from clearing the border before they finally arrived. We were relieved because Oren was almost popping out of his pants, and David's shirts were a mess. Sadly on day 2 David changed into his PE kit and left his full uniform, shoes, and fleece school jacket at school. They were promptly stolen and we had to replace many of the pieces he lost.

The third process I am waiting for is related to a research project we are doing for MCC related to our maternal and child health project. I have applied for an ethical clearance form to do some qualitative interviews. I actually (foolishly) thought it would be fairly straight-forward. I had a website with clear instructions and also a contact- a professor- who was helping through the process. I spent about a month pulling together all materials I needed to submit. CVs of all authors, the proposal, budget, all interviews and consent forms submitted in English and Swahili, a receipt of payment for a fee, approval letters from local authorities, our partner, our donor, etc.

I submitted these several months ago, and after not hearing for about a month I asked my contact how it was going. He got back to me about 2 weeks later and said that all I needed to do was send the things on a checklist he sent. --It was all of the same materials I had submitted a month earlier. He also said I paid the wrong account, eventhough I had verified the account on the website and also called the institute and was told it was the right account. He did agree to look into that when I complained, but I did resubmit every single thing.

A months later I reached out again and he got back again and said that the committee had accepted my materials and were going to review them shortly and give me feedback (this was last week). This process started in March and it is now September. I was hoping to start the surveys, but from what I can tell there is a long way to go in this process. Once they start reviewing they will certainly want to have a few back and forth requests. So I don't know where this ends. But I am learning to be patient.

The final process we are mired in, is one Rebecca is trying to shepherd through. This one involves the Canadian governement for a change. MCC sent 2 Tanzanians for 1 year volunteer experiences in the US and Canada this year. The process of getting such visas is hard, and you would think it would be worse in the US. Surprisingly, though, the young man going to the US got his visa fairly quickly. The young woman we are sending to Canada, however, has been wating for month, and despite a computerized notification service, has received absolutely no word about progress. It is becomming more and more likely that she will not get to go because the position availability will close soon, even if she does succeed in getting the visa eventually. If you know anything about people from 'majority world' countries trying to get to North America, you know that the immigration officers who process these requests are well protected from any inquiries about progress. Rebecca, Sharon-our rep, and others have been in contact to no avail except to get polite, curt, automated responses saying the process is continuing and to please be patient. It does not look however that any progress is being made of if the process has stopped for some reason. It is frustrating that there is such deliberate shielding of the whole process and no mechanism for advocacy or even inquiry. You again, have the opportunity to trust, pray, and realize that there is very little in life that you control.

Hopefully I will have updates on some of these processes in the days and weeks ahead, in the meantime, in the words of Sir Toppham Hatt-- there is nothing but 'confusion and delay'.