Back to the New Normal in Arusha

Air travel in the age of COVID certainly changes the hierarchy of anxieties. Whereas once one might entertain vague worries in the back of the mind of a hijacking or some bizarre mechanical failure, the overwhelming fear of flying nowadays lies in the possibility of inhaling something lethal circulating in the closed air of the plane cabin. Dauntless, however, our family committed to returning to Tanzania in August to continue our work with MCC despite the risks.

But overcoming fear is not even the biggest obstacle to overcome in order to make the trip. Our Airline, QATAR, on which we bought tickets in March, just resumed international travel to Kilimanjaro airport a week before our scheduled departure. Then there was the consideration of which countries in the world will let passengers embarking from the United States to enter. Only about a dozen are open to US travelers given the prevalence of CVD-19 in the US right now. Fortunately, Tanzania is one of them, although they had just begun requiring proof of a negative COVID test within 72 hours of departure. (I wrote about the challenges of getting that in the last entry.)

After a last night with all of our parents which included a final croquet match dominated by the Grandfathers, we went to bed, packed into 8 suitcases and 4 carryons, about 10 Kgs overweight all told.

The next day, Dave and Jean drove us in their minivan to Dulles airport. Traffic was surprisingly light on a midday Monday in DC, but it was even more shocking to see how few people were at the airport. Dave and Jean dropped us outside the QATAR departure terminal where we were about the only ones checking in. We were fully masked but social distance was not really a problem as the gates and hallways were nearly empty. Very few stores were open either.

We were 4 of what looked to be about 40 people on the Airbus A-350 900, a very new wide body plane very much like the Boeing Dreamliner. It was actually more comfortable in my opinion. We were nearly alone in our section and each of were able to stretch out fully on separate rows of 3 seats, which was great for the 12.5 hour flight. One challenge was keeping a mask and airline issued face shield on at all times during the flight except when eating.

We arrived in Doha in the evening and had a 9-hour layover. We were able to find a nice lounge that charged a per person fee to stay but had very comfortable seats and free food and beverages, there were even showers in the bathrooms! It was very relaxing despite having to wear masks at all times, and again, the airport was not very crowded.

We did the last leg of the flight which takes about 5 hours from Doha to Kilimanjaro airport. This flight was a bit more full, although they did create a socially distant pattern of seat assignments. We got to Arusha at about 6 in the morning, and I am glad we had our negative COVID tests as they were collected as we came in the door of the airport. (Anecdotally we heard about someone who did not have one when he told the health officer the officer apparently said; “Just bring it next time.”) We did also get a temperature screening.

Out cabbie, Japheth was there to drive us back to the house. He told us he had not had a single airport run since we left 5 months ago because tourism had been so devastated by the virus.

We got back to the house at about 9 am and despite our plan to stay awake until evening to get readjusted, we all fell asleep until 3 in the afternoon.

One of the big adjustments to coming from a place where everyone is wearing masks and observing rigid social distancing is to come to a place where virtually no one is doing so. There are some handwashing stations set up in front of some businesses, but for the most part, the streets and stores look like when we left them. People are out and about and everyone tells us there is no COVID here now.

This was very unnerving and we did call some medical friends to find out what the situation was with respiratory cases in the region, and apparently, they are seeing very few cases.

I don’t know if I am ready to fully attribute it to faith and prayer, but the prevalence in Arusha seems to be very low right now for not entirely explainable reasons. (Some have suggested the young age structure of the population or the TB vaccine that is given that might have some cross-protection.)

We are not fully ready to abandon our mask protocols, but it is hard to know what good our face clothes are doing if others are not using them. We do use the surgical masks now when we go out shopping since the protection is more for us than them.

Back to the house…  It was good to find it in very good condition on arrival, thanks to our housekeeper Nai. We were able to move right back into our rooms. Our cat Tramp was ecstatic to see us and looked as good as ever. The 3 dogs on the compound also found us the first evening and were over the moon to see David. They had been small puppies when we left, but are now pretty much full size.

Jet lag has been very hard and I was glad we had 2 weeks before school started because it took quite a bit of time to adjust. We had told our office staff that we would quarantine in our home for 10 days after arrival just to be safe before beginning work back at the office. We did have a meeting on our back porch with our 2 national staff: Lucia our finance officer, and Chrispin our Ag. Coordinator. It was very good to see them and they were happy to have us back. We made plans for the months ahead which are daunting in terms of closing the program. It was good to see them though, and we agreed to begin working back in the office in 2 weeks. (Mainly because each of us has our own large office space so we do not have to be in the same space together. We agreed to wear masks when we move around though.)

Besides work, getting the kids set up for school was also important. The school is set to reopen with new social distancing guidelines. The headmaster invited Rebecca and me to see the precautions they are taking. St. Cons has the advantage of being in a mild climate. All the hallways between classes are outdoors and all classrooms are open-air with no AC or heat. They had set all desks 2 meters apart and had all traffic in outdoor corridors going one way. Lunch is eaten outside, etc. It was actually very encouraging, although we were disappointed that they were making masks optional. Although I can see that here in Arusha it would have been a huge battle to enforce with no one seeing cases around here. David and Oren both planned to wear masks and today, day one, they went with them.

There are significant changes to our daily routine as we have decided not to use a school bus this term. We are driving the kids to school which means we have a shorter time for exercise before the workday begins. We drove to Gymkhana this past weekend and saw to our disappointment that it has not fared well in the past 5 months. Most notably, the pool is mostly empty and they dismissed the pool staff. I don’t know how long it will be inactive, but it is a painful eyesore to see it in that condition at a nice club. Rebecca and I are using a studio next to the gym to do our HIIT workouts for the time being.

We have met a few friends since our return, Kay who live on the base where we live, and was one of our cat sitters, gave us news about what was happening on the compound. Many folks who had left were still not able to return from New Zealand. But it generally looks in very good repair.

We continue to meet on Zoom with our small group but this past Sunday we were treated to our friends Vance and Beth Marie coming over to our house. They are here as teachers at one of the International Christian schools and members of our church. We have been friends since we moved here. They updated us on the challenges of restarting school, and like everyone, had stories of difficulties with work and residence permits. We watched a Zoom church service together then had lunch and prayed with them. They were our first official guests at the house.

Fortunately, we did not get sick during our time of quarantine. We were diligent on the plane, but you never know. We did have one scare when on night 7 I came down with a low fever. I moved into a different bedroom and Rebecca and I began talking about steps for isolation, but the next morning I was fine. Apparently, I was just run down, but we certainly had many people praying for us from afar that night. 

We have done an excursion since the end of our quarantine this weekend. We went to Lake Duluti, a place not far out of town where one can walk, see birds, and other wildlife, fish for tilapia, and even sit in a nice outdoor restaurant. We decided that Rebecca and Oren would walk around the lake while David and I fished. I was wondering if it would have changed from the last time we were there and it had flooded and was about a meter higher than it should have been. We shocked to see it had risen another meter! The picnic area and boat docks where we would fish was completely underwater. I don't exactly understand why, since I think it is mostly fed from underground sources and the dry season has begun. We were still able to fish and walk, but it was quite a shocking change. 

This week was the official start of school! David began Monday and Oren joined on Tuesday. I cannot even describe to you the sublime pleasure of being back in this routine where we have about 7 hours per day away from the children, able to focus on our work, or anything else. It has been about 6 months! Oren and David both came home from school genuinely happy to be back, despite trepidation about restarting. They really missed their friends and routines as well.

So we are back and finally in a routine that feels somewhat ‘normal’ albeit with some anxiety that things could change very quickly again. We are praying that we can stay safe in this situation where it is hard to know just how much risk we are taking. We are thankful that things seem pretty good right now and Rebecca and I have enjoyed taking walks and seeing the flora and fauna was have missed since our departure.  

Recap Before Return to Tanzania

Just like that another month is coming to an end. Rebecca wrote the last time 3 weeks ago and left us at a short vacation during our official home leave in Virginia where we spent about a week with my brother Jonathan's family. We did finish that vacation together which was a highlight of our break. We are down to the last 36 hours in the US as I write this entry, and I will run through a few highlights of the last several weeks and reflect a bit on the return and some of the unusual preparations we have done to get ready. 

 Among the celebrations we have had in the past weeks,  was Rebecca's Birthday. We had a small celebration at the cabin we were staying with Jon and Emma in Virginia, which included a 'corn hole' tournament on the back porch. (Corn hole is a kind of horseshoes only using beanbags--quite popular in the Southern US). Cousin Fletcher also baked a kind of chocolate chip cookie/brownie confection (called a brookie?) We said goodbye to my brother's family the next day and headed back to Baltimore. 

We did stop in for a visit on the drive home, with a former MCCer from our Burundi days who lives in Virginia as well. We spent about an hour outdoors chatting with Melody and her husband Alexis (and their one-year-old son). We are now used to the new protocol of not visiting indoors because of COVID which is ravaging the Southern US. The precaution was apparently warranted as we got a call from Melody about 4 days later saying Alexis who is a health worker tested positive for the virus after getting a test result 5 days after he took the test. (One of the insane challenges we are facing here in the US is the inability to get tests back quickly enough to do any contact tracing or isolation). By the time Rebecca and I had been told we were exposed (albeit minimally as we had taken precautions), we had been staying with Rebecca's parents for 4 more days and had attended a socially distant church picnic.

We contacted our doctor with whom we had an appointment for an annual physical the next day. She told us we could not come in if we had been exposed to someone and ordered COVID tests for us. That was the first COVID test Rebecca and I had and it was a strange experience, profoundly unpleasant, but not exactly painful. Like having a moth fly up into your sinus cavity. (Happily, we were negative and were able to go for our physicals two weeks later.) 

While we waited for results we did have one more chance to spend a weekend at Charter Hall. This was the place we had spent two months in March and April upon our arrival from Arusha to isolate during the lockdown. It was quite a contrast from the early spring days when things were just coming to life. The bay at this time is very lush and overgrown at this time. This is particularly notable in the water which is so overgrown with milfoil that it is hard to fish or canoe in many places. Despite this, we did go up to our favorite fishing spot under a railroad bridge about a mile paddle away from shore and David caught two large striped bass which we brought back and ate, and shared with Dave and Jean and my parents. (Dave and Jean stayed with us over the weekend and my parents visited us outdoors for a day.) 

 The deal we made to stay was that our family would clean the larger lodge when the group that was staying there left. We did so with the help of the kids on Sunday afternoon, then Dave, Jean took the kids and returned to their house, where we were staying. Rebecca and I had one more long canoe trip before returning ourselves which was a nice time to reflect on the many months we had spent by the bay. It was certainly an unforgettable time, even though the circumstances that led up to it were so catastrophic in terms of disrupting our normal life. 

Another interesting socially distant adventure was a family trip to the Potomac river in Southern Maryland near Calvert Cliffs, a place that draws visitors who want to dig for fossilized sharks teeth along its sandy banks. This had at one time been a shallow sea about 50 million years before. It is not hard to find these teeth with some digging and sifting of sand. Our family spent about half a day there and came home with about 120 of them of various sizes. Needless to say, this was a huge adventure for David who loves to find things in nature. 

The next week, we had another change of scenery. As part of taking our new MCC assignment as Country Representatives, Rebecca and I had a short leadership orientation in Akron, PA, about 2 hours away from where we were staying in Maryland with Rebecca's parents. We took the kids as well, as MCC had made accommodations available at The Welcoming Place, a charming residential and meeting facility in a campus-like setting. There are a number of guesthouses on the property, and this year most of the participants were joining by Zoom and not meeting in person. They did, however, offer some limited, socially distant, options to stay there for a few couples that were in the US. 

 Our family stayed in one entire wing of one of the guesthouses and had a kitchen to ourselves. No one ate in the cafeteria, but once a day we were allowed to go in and pick up food for dinner. Breakfast and lunch were left in the kitchen or in brown bags at the meeting building. For the actual meetings, all of us met through zoom and we sat in separate rooms in the large meeting center. It was a bit odd but nice to be back in the place where Rebecca and I had done several orientations in the past when we were Rwanda/Burundi reps. and service workers to Tanzania. 

 

Serendipitously, our successors to our Rwanda Burundi assignment were there as well, because they had accepted an assignment as Representatives to the Kenya program (and will be taking over Tanzania as well in Jan. 2021). Their successors to the Rwanda Burundi role were on campus as well! So three generations of MCC Reps were together at the same time. It was very nice to reminisce with them and also talk a bit about their new assignments and changes to the Kenya/Tanzania programs because of the consolidation. Scott and Anne-Marie's kids were there as well (Sam and Luke) which was good because there was a kids orientation as well, and Oren and David finally had some friends to hang out with. 

We did have time between meetings and in the afternoons for leisure during the 3 days we were there and enjoyed going to the park in Akron which we remembered from many previous visits. On the last day, our whole family went on a zip-line and ropes course that was offered as an adventure to the kids. It was quite a challenge with 5 ziplines that went from tree to tree in the forest. Happily, we all survived! Afterwards we went out for ice cream before getting back on the road to Dave and Jean's house for our last week. 

Finding socially distant activities for social events has been an interesting challenge. It seems we finally settled on croquet, which allows one to be in proximity close enough to talk without being out of breath, but is outdoors and does not involve sharing common equipment. We have had several games with friends and family. Rebecca's brother's family most frequently. 

We have also made several return trips to the Gunpowder river for swimming and inner-tubing, again another opportunity for socially distant interaction, and much less crowded than a swimming pool. Most recently we were with Chris, a high-school friend of Rebecca's and Ella his daughter who is a good friend of David. 

Getting ready to return has challenges of its own. We have several friends who have asked us to bring quite a bit of 'swag' back from the US that is difficult to get in TZ. We might have to take an extra suitcase. More problematic, though is the ever-changing protocol for travel during this time of COVID-19. We have been in crisis mode when we found out that TZ is requiring a negative COVID test result to be presented on arrival taken within 72 hours of departure. This is extremely difficult to get in the US where there are virtually no facilities that offer rapid tests, and results for the other kind can take more than 7 days to get results. Getting a 72-hour test is next to impossible.

We spent days doing research and finally found a place in Baltimore that can give results in 3 to 5 days. We scheduled an appointment and hoped for the best, that it would come on the early side. The test site, in downtown Baltimore at the Convention Center, was quite an experience. It is all outdoors with dozens of stations for check-in and testing. Our whole family went through the process. I have to say again if you have not had the nasal swab test before, I hope you never have to get it. Profoundly uncomfortable. I was impressed that David and Oren handled it so well although they both said it was one of the most disgusting things they had experienced. (Less painful, but worse than a shot!) 

We are finishing packing today and are saying final goodbyes to parents and cousins. Surprisingly our test results came back last night, only 24 hours after we got them. We also got a message from the US embassy in TZ that said that they are no longer requiring a COVID negative test for entry into the country. So it looks like the barriers are clearing and we will be able to start our return trip tomorrow. We expect to be in Arusha on Wednesday morning. 

It has been a long, strange trip. It is possible to see the many blessings in the time of isolation by the bay, despite the very difficult news about the closing of our country program and the challenges of school and work done remotely. 

It has been a sad time to be in the US. Our country is in a profoundly bad place right now. The failure at the national level to aggressively address the coronavirus pandemic is a tragedy, largely because it became far worse than it ever needed to be. The false choice over addressing the seriousness of the virus, vs saving the economy, or the use of masks for prevention of spread vs.  'freedom' demonstrates the profound lack of vision and competent leadership we are currently facing here. Added to that has been the conflagration of the issue of racial injustice in policing long overdue for redress and represented by the Black Lives Matter movement, which is being treated as a senseless revolt by the current administration. Immigration is another issue that has impacted us in our work as the President's executive order to end J-1 visas during the pandemic has effectively ended MCCs one year abroad IVEP program for young people to spend a year in the US. (Ironically of course, the real risk of the virus is the one incurred by volunteers coming to the US and being exposed here where it is more prevalent than anywhere in the world.)

I won't lie, I am not sad to be leaving at this moment, although going back to Tanzania is not much better and the govt. response to the virus had been equally inept. The race issue has led me to do some reading in the past month through audio books on my morning runs. I finished a book by James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time), and Tanhesi Coates (Between the World and Me). The best so far, however is Michelle Obama's Becoming Me. If you have the chance to listen to her read it, it is beautifully written and a reminder of what we had, and can hopefully aspire to again.