here, now, in this...practicing being present

Scarlet Tanager

I realize that half the month of May has past and we have not posted anything this month. Looking back over several years of entries from Tanzania, and Burundi before that, I do appreciate the meticulous chronicling we have been practicing over our time in these assignments. But life here, the stillness we are experiencing, is hard to put down in words. I know Thoreau was able to write an entire book about his life of solitude at Walden pond, but perhaps I am not as observant as he is. I suppose he also was not trying to homeschool his two children and keep up with rapidly changing events at his job online, so perhaps I can be forgiven.

Flower Moonset, 6 am

We have been able to watch the change in season come in a way we might never have experienced had we not been here. The last time we experienced a North America spring, we did not know it was a "last time" so we are noticing every detail this time. Granted this has been an unseasonably cold spring; even mid-May has only offered a few warm days, but we have seen new life spring into being in the flora and fauna in this relatively remote estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. Sadly, the last few weeks are a reminder of the fragility of life. After the excitement of seeing new life in the early weeks of our return--goslings, and fox kits a daily sight, we have witnessed a number of young animals dead or dying. David found a gosling, abandoned near our porch and brought it into the house in a shoebox, shivering. Despite trying to feed it back to health, it died in a few hours. One of the fox cubs, a runt, was seen limping badly before they all disappeared from the hole near our driveway.

Wave jumping, not typical Charter Hall activity

We had another squall this month, worse than the first one. The water pushed up to within inches of some of the lower doors of the cottages on the property. The front yard was completely underwater. Waves crashed over the seawall feet from our porch. The front dock was almost completely unmoored but somehow survived with limited damage. We spent a full day cleaning debris off the property and pushing driftwood trees off the lawn back into the bay.

indigo bunting

 Several days later we found over one hundred dead fish along the beach by the house at low tide. They were all the same species and not familiar to me--they looked like they came from the ocean, about a foot long and white (in death) with small mouths. I think they might have been shad. I don't know if this was a natural process, perhaps spawning up in the Bay and dying, or if this was a result of toxic algae bloom from sewage overflow after the flood.

Rebecca has been enjoying the bird migration of late spring with an astounding number of species passing through the marshland here. Among the highlights are indigo buntings, scarlet tanagers, northern orioles, blue grosbeaks and a number of species of finches.

David and I continue to enjoy the ever-improving fishing season as the weather warms. The many lures he has scavenged on his beach walks have proved to be still quite viable and we have caught a number of big large-mouth bass off the front dock in the past several weeks. (We have thrown them all back lately.) Despite the coolness of the air and water David and I finally ventured a swim! I will say, being a swimmer in Arusha has inured me to chilly water, although the bay in May was certainly a new test. We went in slowly from the beach accustoming our legs and feet before dunking our midriffs and finally heads in the water. I would say it was in the low 50s. We ended up splashing around for about half an hour before coming out. I will confess that after the past 2.5 years in Arusha swimming daily, I seem to have developed a bit of a fetish for the icy chill of dowsing oneself into very cold water. There is a strangely satisfying tonic effect that one experiences (maybe a dopamine rush?) Probably an acquired taste (not for everyone).

David baked his own baguettes

We have taken a few canoe trips in the past several weeks, although wind has been a factor as well as the hazard of cold water. (We can't risk capsizing). We also had a cookout outdoors with s'mores and hotdogs, although many days we have preferred inside activities, like baking bread and doing puzzles.

Henry and Bunny visiting

Despite social distancing, we have had the chance to see our parents several times this month. Both sets have come out to Charter Hall at different times. It is about 50 minutes away from where both sets of parents live. My mom and dad came out last week. We have to be especially careful with them because they live in a retirement community and have very strict regulations about leaving and going out. This is because they live with over 1000 other people over 75 and there is zero-tolerance for a coronavirus exposure. (We are not even allowed to go onto the campus to visit them.) We have really enjoyed seeing them out here twice, although one day we were sitting outside in a 50mph wind. The second time was sunny and calm though.

cookout by the bay

We have been to see Rebecca's parents almost every weekend at their house, They are in the midst of spring gardening and even added a large new garden in their front lawn (where they took out a bunch of weed trees). We have helped them haul horse manure to fertilize their vegetable garden, mowed the lawn, weeded, planted, and David and I have been building a brick pathway through their new front garden. We usually have dinner with them afterwards on their back porch and enjoy seeing the bluebirds, red-winged blackbirds and other species that gather at their feeders while we eat.

On Mother's Day, we enjoyed a lot of social time: a Zoom gathering of our international Bible study spanning 4 continents got us started off at 7 in the morning. We had a Zoom church service mid-morning, which includes the opportunity to actually share prayer requests with our community or offer reflections on the sermon. We shared an online Mother's day lunch with my parents (on Zoom once again), that included my brother's family also. In a great act of generosity, the pastor of our home church here drove all the way out to see us and sit 8 feet away with a mask on so that we could talk and pray together. And finally we enjoyed a lovely end of the day with Rebecca's parents coming out to walk, share a cup of coffee and conversation on the sunny lawn, and then have a ham dinner together.

Bird migration puzzle

Work-life, although all online, has been momentous. I am not at liberty at this time to talk about all of the changes that are going on at MCC related to the coronavirus crisis, but it has required us to be diligent in preparing contingency budgets and plans for our program and projects. It is very hard, in this time of uncertainty, to plan effectively with so many 'unknown unknowns'.

We hear optimistic, probably 'too good to be true,' news from Tanzania. The President wants to open schools and sporting events and has lifted quarantines on international travel. Tourism is supposed to return fully by August. It is hard to know what to believe, there are no more official reports about the number of cases or fatalities. I would like to believe they have passed through the epidemiological curve and are in decline, but have no data to confirm this. We are still planning our return for the beginning of August.

I think school remains the biggest challenge and we need to get through the end of June with the kids before they have a break. We will keep you updated in the weeks ahead. This coming week, we will shift into another empty vacation house on the same peninsula, as we need to vacate the retreat center. Maybe groups will be allowed to use the place again soon.

I am posting a photo essay of life here in the past few weeks with some captions.

Great Heron

Bald Eagles

Black Racer

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