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.