Festivals, Meetings, Field Visits, Elections, and a Birthday

 When one thinks of hazards on a golf course, I would venture to guess that water and sand traps come to mind before puff adders. One of the small indulgences that life here has afforded me is the chance to play an occasional game of golf. I am not good, but I do enjoy playing. The club where Rebecca and I swim has a course. There is also another course in nearby USA River, Kiligolf, a championship course. Both courses are extremely picturesque and offer views of Mt. Meru and Kilimanjaro behind the long glens leading to several of the holes.

I have been playing with a friend from Bible study, Mike T. who has far more experience. Yesterday we were playing at Kiligolf and a ball I hit a just out of bounds on 6^th fairway landed, apparently, next to a basking puff adder. The caddie came bounding out of the woods screaming. Amazingly, he did manage to retrieve the ball (and earned an extra big tip to boot!)

The fact that there has been any time for leisure activities surprises even me in the past 3 weeks since our return from Mt. Meru. We have entered a particularly intense period of activity at home and work, and national and international events have also been claiming both time and mental/emotional space.

I don’t know if I will be able to capture all the events of the past 3 weeks, but I will record some of the highlights here.

Harvest Festival:

Our church celebrated Harvest Festival Last Sunday. This is an annual event that usually happens as a fundraiser for some of our charitable outreach. It was several months late this year, but as we have just reopened the church, we have not been able to have it. While most everyone in TZ has abandoned masks, our church has remained cautious and requires them along with social distancing in the sanctuary. Despite the widespread seats, we did have a reasonable number of people come to buy crafts and food outside, then stay for the auction. Both Oren and David participated in the event. David made cookies to sell, and Oren helped display items that were being auctioned off. Rebecca and I contributed a number of pictures which we know will have to be donated or sold by the time we leave in June. We also bought a beautiful handmade quilt, sewn and donated by our friend Susan S.

Rebecca was also the music leader for the service that day. I continue to go to the kids’ school St. Constantine’s, to offer Sunday School to the boarders who used to come by bus to our service. We have not yet opened Sunday School at the church.

Ultimate Frisbee:

As I have said, in past blogs, we continue to live in a surreal bubble where COVID does not exist in Tanzania. I won’t go into the science behind this again, but we are enjoying the opportunity to continue to have some social events. We still practice some caution by staying outdoors, and ultimate frisbee, a reasonably socially distant game has proved to be quite popular with our friends. We hosted another of our monthly events, the first since our return from the US. We had a good group join us including a couple from our compound here, several families from our small group and Bible study, and friends from school. Some for the first time. We have now set up an ultimate Whatsapp group and hope to continue this on a monthly basis. Oren is playing ultimate as an extracurricular at St. Cons. as well, so he is getting quite good.

David’s Birthday

The biggest social event of the month was without a doubt David’s birthday. Or I should say birthdays. David’s birthday fell on a Thursday this year, so we had a small party with our family and our friends the Taylors whose son Sammy is David’s age. We shared dinner and had cake for that event. On Saturday morning, (Halloween) the day we celebrated David’s birthday with friends, the Taylors were kind enough to take our kids to the Snake Park while Rebecca and I set up for the party.

Actually set up for a birthday begins several days before the party because we have some family traditions, including a homemade piñata, and an elaborate treasure hunt. This year we outdid ourselves I think. David wanted a pokemon, so I was able to fashion a papier-mâché  Pikachu using a balloon, a cardboard box, and a clothes hanger. It came out quite well, thanks to some yellow paint, and construction paper for the eyes and mouth.

The treasure hunt was the most elaborate we have done and included a number of clues involving locked boxes with hidden keys or combinations that had to be deciphered. Rebecca also made several cakes and snacks for the party.

Kids started arriving at about 2 in the afternoon (about 10 in total, all boys). We planned a mask-making contest as they arrived, using paper plates. Halloween is not celebrated here, so this was our only nod to a costume party. All the kids made masks and got a prize in the end.

The treasure hunt took about an hour to complete and led them to the Pikachu piñata, which they demolished after everyone got at least one shot at it.

We ended with candles and cake. All in all, it went very well. Admittedly, some years the energy level of David and friends is so high, it is hard to keep the party under control and they have virtually wrecked the house. This year, most of the activities took place outdoors and seemed more in control.

Annual General Meeting and All Africa Reps Meeting

From all the social activities, one might wonder when we have time for work. The truth is, we have been very busy the past several weeks as we are not deep in the thick of closing the country office and consolidating our program into the Kenya office. One major hurdle was convening an Annual General Meeting of our Advisory Committee members to officially dissolve MCC in Tanzania. We planned this event at an outdoor restaurant so we could sit at a social distance from each other in an open-air setting.

We had about a dozen members who came, these are advisors we have known for many years but have not seen since our departure in March. It was good to get together, although emotionally difficult. Rebecca and I have been processing the decision to close MCC here since April, and although an official letter was sent out several months ago, this was the first time our advisors have had the chance to speak into the decision.

I would say that the emotions were running understandably high, especially for those who have been accompanying MCC here for 20 years or more. Many expressed reservations about the Kenya program making decisions for future programming in Tanzania. All were deeply saddened to see MCC closing its office here and really wished for a less drastic outcome from MCC’s loss of funds. Ultimately we took time to talk this through and did successfully pass a motion to dissolve. (This was essential because we need to submit the minutes of this meeting to the Registrar of NGOs in the Govt. to have a proper dissolution) We also approved the disposal of assets. Our lawyers were there for all of this to make sure that we had completed the meeting with all requirements completed.

After the meeting, we shared a last meal together. The advisory committee decided, among themselves to write a letter of advocacy to MCC HQ to make one final appeal to reverse the decision. I do not anticipate that outcome, but I appreciated the deep bonds this group has built with MCC over the years and their commitment to its well-being in Tanzania.

Daily work at the office in the past 3 weeks has been reading and entering reports as we are in the second-quarter reporting period for the year. It is quite busy and a number of partnerships are ending which requires more extensive final reporting protocols to complete.

We also had an All Africa Reps meeting over 2 days on Zoom, with all the other MCC Representatives and regional leaders in Africa. It was a far cry from the last of these events I participated in, in person, in Lusaka, Zambia when we were Reps for Rwanda/Burundi. COVID is making such an event impossible. However, seeing everyone on Zoom was encouraging, and admittedly more convenient as far as the kids not missing any school and us having to make extensive travel arrangements at this time.

Dodoma Trip:

This past week, I was the stay-at-home parent while Rebecca went on a field visit to Dodoma with Chrispin, our Agriculture Coordinator. This was a bit of a change of roles as I usually do the traveling, but she had never had a chance to visit our partners there, and this was the last chance, so she went instead. For my part, I am happy to say that I was able to get the kids to school on time, every day, and have food on the table every night and homework done. Rebecca will post a special edition of the blog next week with details and photos.

Elections:

We have passed through two countries elections in the past two weeks. Tanzania re-elected their current President John M. The current political environment does not make comments on the Tanzania election possible. I will say that in the past two weeks we have seen all social media shut down, and the internet was slowed down considerably. I think those restrictions will be lifted this week.

To some extent, a blackout of social media might be a good thing in the US. At this time, the election is still undecided, but Biden looks to be the winner of the Presidential race as he leads in 4 of the last 5 key states that are still counting votes.

I try not to be overtly political in this blog, but I can say, I will not miss the mental and emotional baggage I have carried the past 4 years with the current officeholder. I will say, from an international perspective, that most people I meet click their tongues and shake their heads when I say I am an American. They think we are crazy. America is not perfect, but I have come to appreciate more the ‘Idea of America’, especially as I have seen it threatened by the isolationist nationalism of the current administration.

Our cat Tramp 

Some ultimate frisbee participants