Phases of 60 Part 1

Our "jellicle" Tramp.

Happy Leap Day everyone! I am glad there is one extra day in February to allow me to get in two entries this month. That is my theoretical minimal amount of documentation I am trying to do of our life here in this blog. There is, in fact, quite a bit to say about the last two weeks which is one reason I have not had the chance to sit down and write. 

Among the many events of the month, I did have a milestone Birthday, the festivities of which I have included in here. But chronologically there were many other things that happened, especially the arrival of several very special visitors who stayed at our house as guests. 

I have talked about our one year YAMEN volunteer, Jessica, who is here serving our partner Step-by-Step Learning Center as an Occupational Therapist. She is from France, and her family came to visit her last week to say Hi and to take the opportunity of her working here in TZ to do a safari and a trip to Zanzibar. Her father, mother and youngest sister planned to make the trip together.

Rebecca and I were pleased to offer to host them as we are French speakers and also curious about what French Mennonites are like. Jessica further enticed us with the promise of a fondue dinner with ingredients brought from France by her mom.

They arrived on a Sunday and I picked them up at their guesthouse on the way to church. Her family accompanied us there after which we went to Andrew's a local Tanzanian restaurant, and good tourist introduction to Tanzanian food. After lunch we went on to our own house and got her family settled in. It was not long after that they came down to begin preparing dinner. 

Jessica's parents are no strangers to experiencing new cultures, they had worked in the past in both Laos and Chad. They were, however, not entirely comfortable speaking English, which was fine by us as we have not had the chance for extensive communication in French since leaving Burundi.

The meal the first night was like going to a five star French Provincial restaurant. We joked that such a meal in the US would cost upwards of $50 for the main course alone. They prepared a fondue dish, a specialty of the Alsace region where they grew up. It required a precise mixture of 3 cheeses from the region as well as herbes de province and other ingredients. Their family worked together to prepare the feast and even provided bottle of French wine to accompany the meal. 

It was, in brief, exquisite. Even David and Oren (not connoisseurs of haute cuisine), ate it all with enthusiasm. Her family, true Mennonites at heart were also first at the sink to wash the dishes (beyond the call of duty after their fabulous cooking in my opinion) After dinner we did play a game they introduced us to before retiring to bed.

The week was a bit complicated by the fact that David and Oren were out on mid-term break, but Rebecca and I still had work. Jessica’s family did some sight-seeing in Arusha, including the place she volunteers, and a day safari to Tarangire park. On Wednesday they left for Zanzibar for several days to enjoy the beach as well.

While they were out, Rebecca and I had an interesting work day on Tuesday as a team of students from Goshen College on a one semester cultural tour of Tanzania came to Arusha. Rebecca and I met them at their hotel and did a presentation of MCC’s work in Tanzania. After that, we took them to see the innovative work of ECHO, an NGO that has been doing a lot of innovative agriculture including developing new ‘climate smart’ seeds and technologies to help subsistence farmers here. Erwin Kinsey, a good friend and member of our church, who directs ECHO here did a great tour and explanation of conservation agriculture to the students.

After the visit to ECHO, as an extra treat, Erwin took us all up to a ‘parasitic crater’ basically a mini crater that is part of the geological features of this area. It was a short drive, then we hiked up a medium ‘hill’ which we found to be a huge hollowed out crater about a half mile across. We had brought David and Oren along for this long day, much of which they did not find terribly interesting, but they were very happy to walk around the rim of the crater, which takes a bit less than an hour to hike the circumference. From the lip there are quite spectacular views of the surrounding savannah (quite green from the excessive rain of the past few months) as well as some giddy views looking down into the crater itself. (a bit like the ‘sarlacc’ in Starwars!)

When we finished our field trip with the Goshen students, we had a synchronous visit from another Mennonite friend from our church in the US who was here doing some research, Rebecca Hiedekamp. She has visited us once before during a trip here about 2 years ago. We spent a pleasant evening with her catching up on our church in the US (North Baltimore Mennonite Church).

Volcanic rock.

Although Tuesday was my official Birthday, we had our first of several celebrations the following day, Wednesday with our Country Rep. Sharon. Rebecca and I, along with Sharon and our kids went out to George’s restaurant and had pizza, and a Birthday cake (with a raucous chorus of ‘Jambo Sana’ from the wait staff.) Some of our staff were out of town at the moment but it was lots of fun and Sharon had some very funny, quirky gifts for me from the MCC TZ team.

I actually was able to take the whole day off from work on Wednesday (besides our lunch together) and took a day with the kids so Rebecca could get some office work done. We went to Gymkhana in the morning and played a game of golf (David, Oren and I). It was a lot of fun, although not one of our better games since we have not played at all since our return to Arusha this summer. I think we lost about 10 balls between the 3 of us and I almost felt sorry for the caddies. Despite that, it was a very good day all told.

Rebecca was the main planner for a large Birthday celebration scheduled for Saturday. We had a big event planned with many friends from work, our small group, and church. Rebecca planned a caterer to bring Indian food, baked a cake, and sent out invitations. The plan was to begin with a big ultimate Frisbee game in the afternoon, followed by dinner, then folk dances on our driveway, and finally cake.

It was every bit as great as it sounds. We began with Frisbee and a good turn-out. We did get rain at the end of our 3^rd of three periods of play and ran back to the house and had dinner. The rain stopped soon and the driveway was dry enough in the evening to do our folk dancing. We planned for but did 3: A Ceilidh “Dashing White Sergeant”, a South African dance “Pata Pata” and an American Dance “Virginia Reel”. It was great to see the inter-generational participation in all the dances.

After that we all went back in and had cake before people left. It was #60 for me, although, in my experience, aging seems to happen in fits and spurts and not as a steady change. I don’t feel particularly old and I feel more surprised than anyone that I have crossed this milestone year. On the other hand I do feel a slowly emerging desire to be able to share my ‘wisdom’ from many years of experience, but have not felt particularly sought out for this frequently. I think having made some very big shifts in life from a career in performing arts, to international development, and now public health makes it difficult to know what field I may have ‘wisdom’ in.

One area I seem to be developing increasing skill, is in overseeing the Sunday School program at our church. Last week we had our monthly family service and our kids did a rousing version of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and another song.

Our choir has been busy as well with weekly rehearsals on Wednesday. We sung 3 songs at our Ash Wednesday service which was a fitting beginning to our season of Lent. We are working on family rituals to recognize the season. Time seems to be flying this spring and we are already looking toward Easter and planning for summer vacation. Like ‘60’, time can rush past you when you least expect it.