So Much Winning!

Kilimanjaro golf course on a short sabbatical. 

This week has involved a lot of winning – many, many satisfying accomplishments. It’s the end of the academic year, and so there have been many ceremonies and recognition of a time of completion

The very first big one was the Confirmation Service at our church. Over the past year, Oren has joined 8 other kids in taking a confirmation class, preparing them for a more mature understanding of their Christian commitment. It was a bit of a funny situation for him – he’s quite a bit older than his classmates. And as a Mennonite, he hasn’t been baptized yet (he was dedicated as a baby), so confirmation as a rite really makes no sense for him. But the teacher is a very kind man and a good friend, and we felt like it would be good for Oren to have some spiritual input from someone besides his parents. Anyway, on the confirmation day, we had to figure out some way for him to participate with his classmates and celebrate the completion of this year of studies.

He was nervous, but he agreed to wear the white robe with the rest of them, and to make his affirmation of faith with them. I was on the schedule to lead worship music for that service, which was really fun for me. The confirmands had worked together to choose all the music for the service, and they chose well. The amazing music teacher from our kids’ school,  Mr. Kalule (most of the confirmands also attend St. Cons) played piano with me, and it was a joyful service to participate in. Vance, the confirmation teacher, gave a really thoughtful sermon about how this step of confirmation is one step in a continuing journey of growth in faith. And as these kids grow up into maturity, it will be good that they face challenges and grow stronger through them. He used the analogy of the failed biosphere experiment. Trees grew and matured in a controlled environment, which seemed to have the perfect balance of water, oxygen and nutrients. But eventually they simply toppled over and died. Why? Because there was no Wind in that protected space. And without the challenging force of the wind, the trees never developed strength and resilience in their roots. It’s a good way to see difficulties and setbacks –as a way to grow in strength so that we can stand tall.

After the service, we were so blessed to share lunch with Vance and his wife Beth-Marie, along with another church friend Fitsimt, at a local Ethiopian restaurant. This was actually Paul’s choice for Fathers’ Day – but we all loved the food. And we ended the day with a really good discussion with our bible study group.

On Monday – more winning. Our persistent colleague Chrispin had driven back down to Dodoma to deposit our work permit applications for the second time. We had made sure to comply with every additional request of the labor office. And on the second try, our applications were accepted. In our experience, getting papers accepted is more than half the battle. So now we wait hopefully to hear of a possible approval.

Even the best weeks must have a certain amount of difficulty to keep things interesting. Even weeks of so much winning!

On Wednesday afternoon, I got a call from the school nurse, who told me that Oren had fallen hard on his hand while playing soccer and injured his wrist. He was definitely in a lot of pain when I picked him up from school and couldn’t use his hand. Our regular pediatrician is back in Baltimore currently, but thankfully the other pediatrician was willing to take time from his busy schedule to see Oren in the morning.

So, Oren and I started off the day in the hospital, waiting to see the doctor. He was very kind and thorough but felt that it was very likely fractured. He sent us with a prescription to get an x-ray done at a different hospital because it would be faster. So, we waded through traffic to get down to the other place, waded through all the procedures of registering, paying, etc, and left within an hour with x-rays. We headed back to the original hospital to then see the orthopedist. He is a busy man and was in meetings, so it turned out to be quite a long wait. And then a longer wait. We talked with other patients, and with a doctor friend who passed by to greet us several times. I guess we saw him after 2 hours. Oren was very mature about controlling his impatience in a busy waiting room. In the end, there didn’t seem to be a fracture, but the doctor recommended getting a brace to protect his wrist.

So, our next stop was a good pharmacy – not an easy place to get to either. We were about to walk out with a good wrist brace in hand, when one of the younger pharmacists burst in, asking who was driving the Harrier, a wheel clamp had been put on it. Yep, that was me. Apparently, it is illegal to park on one side of the street – though there are no signs posted about that. A private company enforces that law and collects the fine, and apparently, they don’t like the pharmacy, who tries to warn customers ahead of time! The pharmacists all joined in on coaching me about how to get out of the situation in the most efficient way. (Don’t go with them to their office! They’ll lock you in and charge you 80,000 Tsh! Make them come with you to the central police station! Say you have no more money and offer them a small bill!) In the end, the head pharmacist, a devout Muslim, very kindly walked us out and dealt with the wheel-clampers, on his way to midday prayers. It was stressful and I was very thankful for his help.

After that, it really felt like a fast food pizza lunch was in order before I dropped Oren back off at school – just in time to take his very last final exam of Year 9. The teacher had agreed to let him take it whenever he finally got to school that day. And Oren had to suffer through writing the exam with his very sore right arm. But he pushed through and did it!

On Friday afternoon, all the primary music students performed in a recital after school was out. There were about 60 kids who each played some short piece – many of them were very nervous and had a tough time. But others played nice selections on the drums, or duets with a teacher on guitar. There were even a few who are taking voice lessons and who sang for the recital. After that wrapped up we went out for some supper and then to see the new release of Men in Black. It was a pleasant family evening out, and we were returning home on the new bypass road by a little after 9 pm.

Suddenly, our Toyota Harrier started making a very odd rattling sound. We thought it might be a plastic bag stuck to the bottom of the car, but when we stopped and looked under the hood we realized it must be something in the car itself. But what? Nothing was obvious. And at 9 pm at night, no garages are open. There is no place where you can just leave your car parked and empty where it will be safe. Even having people around just increases the likelihood of becoming a target for crime somehow. We realized there was nothing for it but to get home, and the fastest way home was to take the bypass. The long, dark, deserted bypass. We continued driving. The sound became more pronounced. We passed the halfway mark home, and needed to climb a hill. The engine was clearly struggling, so as soon as we crested the hill, Paul put it in neutral and started coasting down the other side. The engine actually cut out completely, and he couldn’t get it started again. And so there was nothing to do but let gravity take us as far as possible. Finally, we just had to stop, and pulled off the road as far as possible. It was completely, utterly dark – no lights of houses or anything nearby. We were on our phones, trying to reach someone who could come out and help us – at 9:30 pm. It wasn’t easy to get anyone to answer. Finally, Paul got hold of our neighbor Ephraim, who agreed to come out. And it was a wait that felt really long. I didn’t want us to wait inside the car because of the possibility that our car could be struck from behind by a careless passing vehicle. And it was cold to wait outside. An elderly man approached us eventually, and it was clear he had already had a few too many. He offered his services as a night watchman, but his whole affect didn’t inspire confidence. I left him chatting with Oren in Swahili (Oren understood nothing) while Paul and I tried to think what we could do, even when our neighbor arrived.

Thankfully, when Ephraim arrived, he came with a (sober) nightguard from our compound. So we felt better about leaving the car for a few minutes and bringing the kids home. Back on the base, Ephraim also offered invaluable help in finding a decent tow rope, because we had nothing adequate to the task. And then Paul and I returned to the Harrier and strung it up behind the Land Rover. I hopped in the Land Rover with the night guard, and we towed the broken down car back home. I’ve never done anything before like tow another vehicle with a rope, but I guess now I know how to do it. It’s much better at night without a lot of traffic on the road. So, all of that was a less than fun end to the week.

We needed a good sleep-in on Saturday to recover from that stressful late night. But on Saturday afternoon we headed out for some social time. Our first stop was a farewell open house for our Norwegian friends Anne and Roger. They have led the Sunday school program at our church for several years, and they will be dearly missed. They had a really lovely garden party including such a nice mix of people from all facets of their life here.

And then we drove on to a nice hotel in the center of Arusha, where we met Paul’s cousin Matt Calavan. Matt and his son had just finished climbing Kilimanjaro that day and had arrived in town, just in time to meet Matt’s wife Katy and their daughter, who joined them from Kenya. We make many good and amazing friends in this environment, but generally none of us have any history with each other. We see each other during a deep but narrow cross-section of life. It is a very special thing to spend time with someone with whom you have a long, shared history. Paul and Matt shared crazy memories of childhood together, telling story after story, as well as catching up years of life since then. Oren and David were quite astonished to see their dad in this light, so animated as he told tales of visiting the exotic Calavan cowboy life in Oklahoma.  They came away saying, “Why don’t you tell us more about our extended family?” It was a really joyful evening together with all of them!

On Sunday, I preached at the local Mennonite church. It is always an interesting experience to go and worship in Swahili and I do enjoy hearing all the choirs sing their various numbers. Because of translation, I ended up preaching about half the sermon I had planned – things just take so much longer when you say them twice! Paul taught a final Sunday school class for the term. And then we rejoined after church, for small group – one more before many people head out on “summer” travels.”

The final week of school was incredibly and positively intensive. The Year 5 and 6 classes in primary school (David’s level) worked very hard over the final term to prepare and present a full-fledged piece of musical theater: Beauty and the Beast. They modeled their script and music on the Disney movie. The kids did phenomenally well – considering that they are only 10 or 11. The lead actors sang all the real ballads, acted, did their blocking perfectly and handled lapel mics with a nearly professional ability. And then each set of classes performed a large ensemble number. The set was beautifully done and the student stage crew worked tirelessly to prepare countless scene changes. It was really remarkable to see what this set of students has achieved. They have some incredible teachers (including that amazing music teacher that contributes at our church also) and lots of support from the administration. In fact, the head of Primary is the same person who runs the lighting for the theater productions – only in a international school. So, we had two late nights, as we enjoyed the play in the evening.

On Tuesday, more winning:

·       The two Tanzanian young men who are accepted to an exchange program to serve in the USA with our organization received their visas to go to the US – that’s a great hurdle to cross

·       Paul’s really good camera, which had been broken somehow, was repaired, just in time for safari.

·       I heard about 3 more host families I could interview about hosting a French exchange volunteer next year.

·      

Paul and I had a day off together to review the past few months. We enjoyed a really nice buffet breakfast together. And then we drove out to a huge golf course out of town and took a very long walk around just part of the perimeter. It was a really good day to think and process and enjoy time together and explore a new place.

On Wednesday, Oren brought home the results of his Cambridge Checkpoint Exams. These are international standard exams, given around the world, to assess the level of students before they enter Year 10 preparation for O-levels. We were very interested to know how Oren would do. He gets good grades in school these days, but you never know – is the school just grading on a curve? Or is he really actually doing well, compared to education in the world?

Well, it turns out, Oren is being very well prepared academically at St. Constantine’s. He got a really good mark in English (5 out of 6). In science he did excellently (5.8 out of 6). And when I saw his marks in Math, I just burst out laughing. He got a perfect score. Absolutely perfect. 6 out of 6 in every area. 

The next day was the Secondary Awards Ceremony. We had been warned in advance that he would be getting some awards. In fact, he got four, which was almost an embarrassing number of awards for one student. He got the awards for highest academic achievement in his class for Math and Computer Science. He also got an award for best effort in Geography, and another for receiving the most merits (house points) in his house, Athens. And his house actually won the overall award for the most House Points.

(This is Paul cutting in)-- I was at the awards ceremony and was quite stunned to see him going up 4 times to get awards including some impressive academic achievements. I couldn't help but think of Harry Potter stories and how Gryffendor would pull out just ahead of Slytherin as Harry was awarded one hundred extra house points but Dumbledor for defeating Voldemor once again. Oren actually had 105 merit points which helped lift his house into first place this year. I think they are Gryffendor. Sparta is Slytherin and Olympia is Ravenclaw (since they are the brainy ones who won the debate competition). Actually Oren is a bit more of a Neville Longbottom than Harry Potter, but he definitely seemed like the hero on that day. 

School ended on Friday and we took Oren and some of his friends out to Pizza Hut for an end of school celebration. His best friend in school, Abraham, is from Benin and will be gone the whole summer. We met he and his brother, sister, and mom for pizza before returning home. 

I dropped the family off and then headed out in the landrover to the airport to meet my brother Jonathan and his family (Emma, and son Flether), who were arriving to spend the next two weeks with us. They were right on schedule and it was exciting to pick them up and bring them back. As you can see, we put them straight to work washing dishes. We plan to do some vacation with them, a safari in Tarangire Park and 5 days in Zanzibar, starting next week.

Fletcher going for the frisbee.

Saturday, we had a big day planned. It was Oren's 14th Birthday AND we had an ultimate frisbee game planned as well (which we do once per month with friends and people living on our compound.) It was great to have several families from our small group, Jonathan's family, and a number of Tanzanian teachers from the compound here join us. We had a particularly competitive game and it was a lot of fun!

Afterwards, we went over to our house and the kids smashed a giant ant piniata I am made for Oren. (It took about 3 days with balloons and paper mache to build.) It was tough and I finally threw it off our water tower to demolish it after they beat it with a bat for a while. This was followed by Birthday cakes, Rebecca made 3. It was a nice group and Oren got some nice gifts that Jonathan and family sherpa-ed from the US. 

That should bring us up to the present, and finished this blog before the end of June! We will report on our adventures on safari and Zanzibar next time.