What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

Lunch stop Tarime. Mishkaki na chipsi.

Sometimes. in looking back at the activities and challenges of the recent past, it is daunting to even know where to begin and what to cover in a single blog.

Eight days ago, last Sunday morning, Sharon- our country rep., Chrispin our agriculture coordinator, and me got on a flight to the town of Mwanza in Western Tanzania. It was the first stop in what was to be a whirlwind tour of the 5 diocese of the Mennonite Church in the Lake region of Tanzania. We had 5 stops on our itenerary over 7 days-- remote towns, in the Serengeti and Mara region-- The route went from Mwanza to Mugumu to Tarime to Shirati to Musoma and then back to Mwanza for a final meeting before catching a flight back to Arusha.

Mugumu Bishop looking pious.

The purpose of this odyssey was a goodwill tour of sorts for MCC to visit the Mennonite bishops and remind them of what we do and how we do it. MCC is an anabaptist peace and development NGO with strategic priorities in Tanzania focused on food security (through teaching low tillage agriculture), health, (particularly preventive and maternal and child health, and people with disabilities), education (focused on teacher professional development, and child protection) and peacebuilding. We work with partners that are doing projects in these areas. They do not have to be Mennonite, or churches, but since we are a Mennonite organization we try to show goodwill to the Tanzania Mennonite Church (KMT) and partner with them when there is an appropriate opportunity.

Often it is a challenge because the church has an older missionary based model of foreign aid where they present a list of needs (roof for a school, or church building, borehole, vehicle) and the mission would decide which one to pay for with little oversight or accountability. It is hard for them to move into a grant based model involving proposal writing, approval, then reporting on outcomes, and close tracking of a budget.

By visiting each diocese Sharon hoped to reinforce their understanding of our process, and have them meet the strategic area coordinators.

Sharon exiting plane at Mwanza.

We did not get off to a great start when Chrispin arrived at the airport sniffing and feeling bad, saying he had 'the flu'. The flu can be a catch all term for any respiratory virus involving coughing and sniffing here, and while I felt sorry for him, I hoped it would pass me by or would not be too severe. I have had the flu shot every year for decades including this year and had not actually had the flu since I was in my 20s.

The Precision air flight to Mwanza was uneventful and short, about 1.5 hours in the Bombadier turboprop. We were met by a driver with a nice white Landcruiser (ac broken), who was to be our chauffer for the trip. I was grateful for this as doing our travel by bus would have been intolerable. The first town we drove to was Mugumu, about 5 hours north and east into the Serengeti above the park of the same name. Like everything here, it had the look of a parched, dusty, southwestern (US) town. We were taken to the only hotel there, the Giraffe Hotel.

Metal vendor enroute. 

We were to spend the night, a full day, and the next night in Mugumu to visit the Bishop as well as a Mennonite hospital and nursing school. We had dinner, and went to bed. The next morning we went to the Diocese office and met the Bishop. I noticed Chrispin was looking pretty bad that morning. He did not join us for the afternoon session at the hospital and nursing school.

I found the latter one of the more interesting places as the director of the college Magiri, has a long history with MCC. To see the challenges they have to stay certified amidst incredible shortages of just about everything is daunting. We toured the facilities and saw ways in which they made do with make-shift mock clinical rooms equipped with donated dolls for doing various types of exams.

Magiri (right) showing the whole library.

The computer room had 40 desktops, but no internet. The $850 annual budget for broadband for the campus is currently out of reach. The library had a few dozen books, no texts, and resources on pharaceuticals that dated back to 1980 (nearly before ARVs!) There were nonetheless, students dillengenly working and learning. (Note to Jean-- no Hinari). Magiri, a medical officer has been working for many decades in this milieu, making improvements where he can, through fund raising, gifts, and some support from KMT and the ministry of health. He is looking tired though, and talks with some fondness about retirement.

That evening, after a long day of discussions on how they might meet some of these challenges, we went back to the hotel. I laid down for a few minutes before dinner and woke up hours later feeling physically deflated, and a chill coming on. It felt like the beginning of a very bad virus. That night the first round of fever started. It broke for a bit the next morning and when I went out to get some fruit and juice for breakfast, Sharon said it had started for her as well. We managed to work in a short visit to girls safe house that morning who were interested in a partnership, then headed to Tarime, about 3 hours north, near the Kenya border.

We got a hotel there, although we had some trouble finding one with rooms. Tarime is more bustling more than Mugumu which seemed more like a sleepy stagecoach town in the old west. Tarime was more like the 'big city' nearby.

By the time we got into the hotel I was dead sick and spent the rest of the day and night in bed feeling like 'Don Juan' on a peyote-induced vision quest in a Carlos Castaneda novel (some might know the reference). The fact that I was in unfamiliar surroundings is what seemed to make it feel so surreal. The splitting headache kept me grounded in reality though.

I was aware, during that time, that I was at least 2 days from Arusha (absent a $10,000 airlift) and we were still very early in a long week of traveling and meetings.

At my worst, about to go into Shirat hospital.

The fever broke in the morning and I was able to participate in the morning meeting with the Bishop and his staff. We spent a half day with them, then loaded back into the car and drove to Shirati, which actually sits on Lake Victoria. We got a particularly uncomfortable hotel which had no fans or AC, (and no working toilet in my room.) By that point I had not eaten for 24 hours so it was OK as a place to be unconsious. The night brought so much of a head ache that I asked Sharon if there was a hospital I could go to in Shirati. I said that with some trepidation here as there is always some risk that the treatment will be worse than the disease around here.

I talked to Rebecca when I could. Fortunately I had cell service. She told me that while I was sick in the Lake region, she was dealing with David who had developed strepped throat and had to miss school. This is really hard when you are single parenting. He was miserable with very high fever as well. This began to feel like a divine tribulation at that point.

Sharon told me about the Mennonite referral hospital in Shirati and said it should be quite good. Although entering into it that morning and seeing long lines of people standing, sitting, and waiting outside various clinic doors, was disheartening. I could not imagine I could live through sitting in a yellowing wall hallway for half the day to see a doctor. Because we were guests, however, a doctor did come to see me and got me a blood test which revealed that I did indeed have some kind of infection--possibly atypical pneumonia. He started me on an antibiotic and gave me some relieving cough meds. They did provide some relief.

Squat pot and water bucket for you know what. 

I missed the visit with the bishop that day because I was in the hospital. I caught up with Sharon and Chrispin in the afternoon and we proceeded on to Musoma, about 2 hours heading back down south along the lake. We stayed the night there at a nice hotel on the lake side. I still had no appetite and went without a meal for a third day. I did sleep a bit better as the intense headaches I was getting with the fevers at night had subsided. One other complication were the occasional bouts of diarrhea at inconvenient times. Often the squat pot was the only available option during our field visits.

General Secretary and KMT staff members.

The next day we had a long series of meetings in Musoma at the diocese office with the bishop and his staff, then the office of the General Secretary, and finally at the office of another partner (One World). I was pretty much shot by lunch time, which was an exhausting experience in itself at a very crowded local cafeteria. We finished up around 3:30 pm and made the 4 hour drive back to Mwanza from which we would fly back to Arusha.

We stayed in a hotel there I had stayed in before which was nice, the obsequious service not withstanding. (At breakfast as I made my way to the buffet table, the overly helpful waitress quickly prepared me a massive plate of spaghetti, white sweet potatoes, 2 crepes, a hard boiled, egg, water melon and a bowl of chicken soup before I could refuse.) I almost wretched to look at the plate and went another morning with nothing more than a glass of juice.

Best hotel name.

Our flight was at 1pm and we planned a 2 hour meeting with the Mwanza diocese before going to the airport. Not surprisingly it took every minute and we were afraid we might not make it to the airport. I think the Bishop felt slighted that we did not stay to share some food they had brought, but unfortunately planes don't fly on the more flexible 'Africa time' schedule.

All three of us had been experiencing a similar course of the disease and by this stage the fever was mostly gone but the weakness, fatigue, and hacking cough was still there. We sounded pretty bad on the flight back.

a lighter moment with General Secretary and staff.

It was good to finally get back to Arusha late Saturday afternoon and catch up with the family. David had missed 4 days of school but had returned Friday and seemed much better. We watched a movie on Saturday night and went to church Sunday morning followed by the annual general meeting. We had our small group after that and it was nice to debrief with them as well.

It was a rough trip and reflecting back I felt a bit like Jonah in the belly of the whale. Being away from family and sick with fever, there are things that seemed to be stripped away. The state you come back in is not the state you left in. I have felt fairly calm and quiet, I think I had felt more agitated and impatient before I left. It helps to think that God used the time of my separation and delirium to do some healing work mentally, and to appreciate the good health I often take for granted.

Came home to find David and Oren playing
Axis and Allies.

Pre-Script:

One activity that happened last Saturday, the day before my departure, is worth logging. Rebecca and I organized an ultimate frisbee game on our compound. We invited people on the compound as well friends from small group and some other people we know. We had about 14 people show up including our whole family, 2 New Zealand families from the compound, Joerg and his kids from our small group, and another father son duo, and 2 Tanzanian teachers from the base. There were quite a few decent players and we had a great set of games. (We could only play 20 minutes at a time because it was sweltering hot that day!) We hope to try to keep this up at least once per month.