Another update is long overdue if I am going to get two entries in this month. Truthfully, the events in the larger world, particularly in the US post-election have dwarfed our events and seem to be claiming a ton of our mental space. The insurrection at the US Capital (and that expresses my political point of view on the matter) was shocking. It seems surreal to witness the level of delusion around the outcome of a free and fair election--especially having lived in many countries where there is never a presumption of 'free and fair' in an election.
By comparison, life for us has seemed almost mundane in the past 2 weeks, despite several adventures we have had since Christmas. I believe I wrote the last blog during our first or second day in Kenya where our family had gone to join other MCC Representatives from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel along with our Area leaders in a regional gathering. This meeting was one of the first in person meetings we have had since COVID, and it was actually scheduled well before the recent surge of cases in Kenya. In hindsite it seemed higher risk than we expected it to be, and the cost of COVID tests to cross and return across international borders became a significant cost factor.
Nonetheless, despite a need to observe strict protocols and having all of our meetings in an outdoor pavilion and all of our meals outdoors, it was a very productive and enjoyable time. We were able to share quite a few experiences and help new reps. find their way. The meeting place, a large resort/camp, gave us all separate bungalows but plenty of common outdoor meeting space. It was located in the middle of a small game preserve so one could see a number of antelope and giraffe within walking distance of the entrance to the resort. (The only slightly dangerous animals were hyenas who came out at dusk.) There were many fascinating birds to see and bushbabies and tree hyraxes in the branches above the campsite.
There were several highlights including a socially distanced social dance organized by Rebecca and I. To be safe we taught several line dances that could be done at a safe distance from each other. The most popular one was "
Jerusalema"-- Master KG's viral hit of the past year. Our team did it pretty well, and I have put some footage of it here.
We also did 'Cotton-eyed Joe' and 'Pata Pata'. All of them were popular with the adults and kids who were in attendance. Actually the kids program was great while the adults were in meetings. David and Oren participated in organized games, hikes, visits to the giraffe sanctuary, did archery, and other activities. Adults also had a chance to test their analytic and practical skills in Team Building activities organized by a group that came in and led us through them.
Our last night was New Years Eve and we had a great time socializing with our group. We even did a spontaneous performance of 'Jerusalemu' when the hired keyboardist for the resort restaurant played it at about 9pm. I was surprised to find that our family and the staff were the only ones who made it until Midnight. Although in fairness, most of the other MCC team members were parents of young children.
The next day we had a final meeting and then went our separate ways. Our family drove back down to Arusha. It was a lot faster than coming up because we left earlier in the day and arrived well before dark. The border was better despite a small hassle about not having a receipt with our new COVID tests to show we paid for them and they were not forgeries. We worked it all out though without much delay.
We wanted to get back relatively early because we had an ambitious plan of going to Zanzibar early the next morning. We wanted to have a short vacation because the Nairobi meeting had taken all of our normal vacation time between Christmas and New Years. We repacked our bags with swim stuff and warm weather clothes (Nairobi had been quite cool). We left our house at 6am the next morning for the airport. It always seems amazing that we arrived at our hotel in Zanzibar by 10am. The flught is less than an hour from Arusha. In fact the drive to the airport is much longer than the flight.
Zanzibar, a Swahili tropical paradise which we try to visit at least once per year, is one of the hardest perks of living in Tanzania to give up. I say this because having residence permit to live here means we don't need to purchase a visa to travel, and we can usually get residence rates at hotels.
We had chosen a fairly economical hotel called Ananda Guest House in Bwejuu, on the East Coast of the Island. We knew beaches around there would be good for snorkeling in low tide. Since Zanzibar sits on a coral reef shelf the tide goes out about 2 kilometers every day, so you can walk out quite far to see tide pools of tropical fish, anemones, starfish, etc. It is great to snorkel out there in a few feet of water and you are never disappointed by what you see. (Warning: One must always wear beach shoes as the tide pools are full of sea urchins which can deliver a painful venomous stick if you step on one.)
One thing we were not sure of was how busy the island would be during high tourist season during COVID. We were actually pretty surprised to find most hotels fully booked with Russian tourists who flock to the island in winter and were not deterred by any travel warnings. (Consequently Zanzibar has seen surging COVID cases in the past few weeks). We did our best to stay away from crowds and fortunately the restaurant where we ate was outdoors.
The room we had was a suite, and enormous. It was in the Swahili style with a made bed covered with flower petals and towels twisted in swans. I love coming into a clean room here! The hotel also featured a large pool that felt great after hours in the salty tepid ocean water. While the hotel was not on the first row of beach hotels, it was only about 50 feet away from the beach, so not inconvenient.
David is always in paradise on the beach and spent hours collecting shells and identifying marine life. He also knocked down coconuts out of trees on the beach and brought them back to the hotel gardner to split open with his machete.
We did several special snorkeling trips, one of the best was on a beach in Michumvi, a town up the road where we had stayed at a hotel with my brother's family the year before. There were a number of very accessible coral formations not far from the beach. Our family took a cab up to the hotel and got permission to snorkel there and use their pool. We were out for about 3 hours snorkeling and saw some very unusual fish. Notably there are quite a number of eels and sea snakes along with venomous lion fish, beautiful and dangerous. We saw at least a dozen lion fish around several reefs. We took a swim then had a fabulous dinner featuring a mountainous seafood platter.
The last day we took an excursion up to the north side of the island where we had never been. We had heard that it is quite popular with Western tourists and now I see why. At the first stop we took a boat out to Mnemba island, about 25 minutes off shore. We were in a small boat and the swell was huge. We were headed for a coral atoll off Mnemba's coast where people like to snorkel. It is fun to snorkel off a boat because the water is deeper so the coral and fish are bigger. There was also an impressive 'drop off' that we swam along. We were in about 12 feet of water on the high side but could look down 50- 75 feet where it dropped down. I am quite adept and snorkel diving and can go down about 30 feet to see some of the bigger fish and coral up close. It was enjoyable, but also challenging at times because of the swell.
From snorkeling we continued to two towns on the north shore. They were much more like large European resorts full of tourists and options to take boat excursions, kite board, jet ski, deep sea fish, etc. Much less rustic than the side of the island we are on which is dominated by local fishermen. Hookahs also seem to be quite the craze at most of these resorts, probably an Eastern European touch.
We got back in the evening from our excursion had a late dinner then went to bed before waking up the early the next morning for our return flight. We were home by noon without incident. It was Wednesday by then and the kids had missed two days of school to allow for our Zanzibar trip. We took the afternoon Wednesday to prepare for the return to school the next day.
By Thursday morning we were back into what could be called a 'normal' routine again with us dropping the kids at schol then going to Gymkhana for a workout before beginning our work day. The big difference, however, is that we no longer have an office. That is very disorienting and we spent the first part of the day doing work on the computer at Gymkhana as the lounge there has nice tables to work at. Later we returned home and have been working to set up some ways of normalizing our officeless life.
We are close to closing out our role as Reps for Tanzania and next week we will be cut off from the Tanzania email as the Kenya Reps. take it over. We will be starting our work as Ethiopia Reps in training at about the same time. The next two weeks are tranistion weeks with Kenya Reps coming to visit us on Monday for five days, then me traveling to Ethiopia the following week and staying for about 6 weeks. It all sounds very stressful when I write it out like that.
As part of getting ready to transition out of Tanzania, I have been doing some last minute work on the Sunday School program at our church where I am coordinator. I have been trying to recruit a replacement, and yesterday ran a half day teacher training seminar to get some new teachers ready. We are hoping to relaunch in Feburary after a 10 month hiatus due to COVID. The logistics of restarting safely is tricky, and it is very hard to not be able to be a part of re-visioning. At this point I am still looking for a person to step up and take this on.
I will stop here and will probably be writing the next entry from Addis Ababa in about two weeks.
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