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'.