The second ascent...the mountain of moving

Nay's family came to visit

Rebecca writing: Two and a half weeks ago, Paul and I arrived on the roof of Africa. Currently, we are back in the sky, at about the same altitude, looking across at the summit of Kilimanjaro through the windows of the aircraft which is carrying us away from Tanzania and into our new lived assignment in Ethiopia. Climbing this second mountain – the mountain of uprooting our life and moving to a new country – was far more demanding mentally and emotionally than the delight and physical effort of climbing Kili.

So, the week after our big hike, we had a lot of work to catch up on, as is the way of things when you take a week of vacation. Paul had many hours of online meetings, finalizing things in many of our food security projects. We were so grateful for our new Food Security Programs Manager in Addis, Mesfin, who kept everything rolling while we were away.

Meanwhile, I had a very different assignment: facilitating worship for a gathering of Christian leaders from around East Africa. This was actually the 8^th time I have participated in the Great Lakes Initiative reconciliation gathering and I have facilitated worship many of those years. But this time we had to meet online, of course. And it was quite a challenge to think through how to prepare five days of meaningful worship when we are not together physically, and I can’t just tap volunteers to bring their gifts of music or scripture reading or testimony spontaneously. The gathering includes leaders from anglophone and francophone Africa, people of different Christian backgrounds, and many ethnic groups, and our worship has always come out of the particular community that is gathered in a given year, to practice what it means to be a diverse and reconciled beloved people. 

Irene at open house

I was able to ask a variety of participants to prepare musical pieces in advance and send recordings to me to use on various days of our Zoom meetings; even a video recording of a Swahili prayer song from Congo, a south Sudanese original chorus on being Ambassadors of Christ, and “I surrender all” in French from Rwanda. Other people read key scriptures.  (I was very grateful to learn from the experience of interactive online zoom church services with our home church in Baltimore, where I have seen really excellent lay-led worship prepared every week for more than a year!). Overall, it was possible to have a good conference with solid teaching. But still, being together in person is probably 500% better. I look forward to the time when we can all safely meet, but that was not now, as a third wave of COVID is sweeping East Africa. So, this conference (and my monumental blisters) kept me tied to home for most of the week.

Open House

On Saturday, we decided that we needed to invite a variety of friends to come to an open house so that we would have a final time of sharing and farewells with them. We remain grateful for the covered veranda on our house, where we could safely sit with friends in the fresh air. Many dear friends from church came to spend some time. 

It was also wonderful to see them happy to see each other, and to take the time to talk – some friends know each other from past interactions but hadn’t seen each other for a long time, so it was great to facilitate some reunions. We had snacks and sodas and tea, and it was a very relaxed time together to appreciate each one.

About halfway through the afternoon, Oren started getting dressed up to go to his Year 11 Graduation dinner. The IGCSE exams are considered a big deal in the Cambridge system, and the end of one key stage of education. A number of students will be going on to other schools next year, even university.

Parents were not invited, and so probably the kids had even more fun together! When Paul and I had cleaned up from our party, around 9 pm, we set off to go pick up Oren across town. A few minutes along the dark, sparsely populated East Africa bypass we suddenly spotted a couple of young men running into the road and violently waving arms and shovels. They were basically blocking our lane, and at first, it seemed like they might be in need of help, but then we realized they were most likely hijackers. Paul swerved around them and gunned it. It was over quickly, we were fine, but we came back home by the busy roads through town. We subsequently heard about the murder of a motorcycle taxi driver from the neighborhood on that road on Friday night. It was a good reminder that even sleepy Arusha is not always safe after dark.

Sunday was officially the “farewell Sunday” for us at church. Several people are leaving together with us, and sadly, they all seem to be key musicians at church. Our little church choir met once the week before to prepare a few songs – great to sing together once more. And I offered the sermon that Sunday – about how storms can sweep in on us at any time, even when we are faithfully following Jesus. We feel a bit like this, with COVID and the loss of our job in Arusha. But we know so many friends who are dealing with serious illness or strife in their families, through no fault of their own. Many of them need the comfort of knowing that Jesus is with them in the boat. After church, we enjoyed one final actual bible study with our family bible study group. They have meant so much to us as a foundation and support over the past three years. And then we headed home to make sure all was ready for… Secondary Activities week!

Oren was off at 5:45 am to catch a bus at school and head to the coast. He and 5 others in his class joined a younger grade for a week at a beautiful eco-resort on the Indian ocean. They paddled kayaks into a mangrove swamp, took a boat trip to a sand island, went snorkeling and played a lot of cards and other games. I was particularly grateful that his oldest and most faithful school friend, Abraham, joined him on that trip.

Here is what Oren has to say about it, taken by dictation: “The trip was pretty nice. We went to the beach with my friends. We went snorkeling in a mangrove forest off kayaks. In the afternoon, we were riding on an inflatable hot dog pulled by a speedboat. We also went snorkeling in a coral reef. I saw a moray eel and an octopus. At high tide, we were able to jump off a very high jetty. The only downside was the long 12-hour bus ride back and forth each way.”

David didn’t leave until Tuesday morning – they needed Monday at school to practice setting up tents and getting ready for a real camping trip. He and 24 of his classmates piled into safari vehicles and spent 3 nights in the Ngorongoro conservation area. The main goal of the trip was to learn more about some of the smaller, indigenous tribal groups of Tanzania, including the hunter-gatherer Hadzabe people. Apparently, David was sensible on this trip and went to bed early most nights!

Here are some details taken by dictation: “On the way out in the morning we went to the Snake Park and Maasai museum. Then we got to the campsite. The first afternoon was going to a Datoga village, going inside a house and learning about them. The house was made of mud and smelled like a cow because it was made of cow poop. Then early in the morning we went hunting with the Hadzabe and walked for two hours. Along the way, we ate fresh honey that they found from a baobab tree they had marked that had bees in it high up. Then we walked back and bought some souvenirs. Then we had a bow contest, and the only kid who got it was Shedson who got a bow at the right level for him and could pull it back. The rest of us got bows that were too hard to pull back. Then we went to Ngorongoro the next day but we didn’t see any lions. We only saw 3 jackals, hippos, buffalo, wildebeest, and one hyena. It was a bit disappointing. Then we went to another Datoga house outside the crater, and we went to the Datoga blacksmiths and saw them make an arrowhead and a bracelet. They just took a nail, slammed the hammer a lot on the nail until it was a good shape, then they took some sharpened metal and made the arrowhead and added spikes in the arrowhead for monkeys. We had a talent show at the campsite and swam and then we came home the next day.”

My second hand shop

Meanwhile, our kids’ absence gave Paul and me the opportunity to knuckle down and move out of our house into the next-door apartment. Our former neighbor Wendy departed in March, but she left it fully equipped for her mission group to use as an Air B&B when needed. It turned out to be a godsend for us because we needed to get rid of our beds and pots and pans, but still continue to sleep and cook somewhere. And we were right next door, so we could manage all the comings and goings of our furniture. I had pre-sold most of the furniture and even collected on it, so on Tuesday, most of the big stuff was out of the house. On Wednesday, I had a yard sale of the smaller items for the workers on the compound (sheets, towels, kitchen stuff, and some of the kids’ toys), which continued on into a total giveaway of whatever was left to families in more desperate need by Friday afternoon. Our housekeeper Nay had bought a lot of things to set up her own small hotel restaurant in the village, and so she also benefitted from a lot of odds and ends. She wisely recruited the help of various family members to help her carry off loads, day after day.

Nay's purchases

And amidst all of that dealing with material goods, Paul was continuing to work hard at our actual job, answering emails and representing us on virtual meetings. He was also dealing with the latest crisis in our work – on June 18^th, Ethiopia abruptly stopped issuing e-visas in advance, nor were visas available on arrival. The only way to get a visa was to get our passports and applications to the nearest embassy in Dar es Salaam. So, we were back to contacting our trusty agent in Dar, George, to pick up our passports from DHL and facilitate the process.

We also learned of some great sorrow on our team in Ethiopia. Our accountant Eyerusalem is due to be married on July 4, but her mother passed away over the weekend. On top of that, her fiancé was meant to arrive on Monday from Zambia, but he also got caught up in this visa problem and couldn’t travel without doing a similar process to us. And in addition, another staff member has a mother in critical condition with a respiratory illness. Our hearts were heavy for our colleagues, even as we were trying to wrap things up on our side.

In the evenings that week, there was also the opportunity for some last meals with friends. On Tuesday, John and Mary Israel invited us to share a Pakistani dinner with them at a local restaurant. We enjoyed hearing more about their mission initiatives, school decisions for their kids, and reminiscing about good times we’ve shared in church, and playing Ultimate Frisbee on our compound. On Wednesday, we met our former colleagues Chrispin and Lucia at Gymkhana. It’s wonderful how our relationships with each other have grown over the past four years of working together—it’s not a given that it’s fun to meet socially with one’s colleagues, but we really enjoy each other – and we were all regretting that we were not granted more time to develop the Tanzania program together. On Thursday evening, we had a final “resident dinner” on the Joshua Compound. Again, it was a very meaningful evening, around an outdoor fire, sharing our appreciation for one another as neighbors over the past four years. I was sorry that the kids were not with us that night because Oren has become very much part of the adult conversation with that group of neighbors, and David loves playing with the new neighbor kids. 

On Friday evening, our children returned to us from their various trips. Things were a bit discombobulated with uncertain arrival times for each of them but in the end, we collected them from school and went to grab a quick dinner out at a restaurant at the mall near our house. When we got home, I was intending to spend several hours finally working on packing, and I realized that my phone was no longer in my possession. With horror, I realized that I had left it behind at the mall! We called my number and a man answered to say that he had found my phone (and driving license) and that we could pick it up from him in the morning when he came back to work. I was pretty stressed about it all night, but in the end, we managed to recover it, and that guy got a big thank you gift from us! It underlined to me how essential it is to have one’s phone in a time of transition.

bible study farewell

On Saturday, we had set aside time for a final farewell lunch with our family bible study group. We met at Rivertrees, one of our favorite safari lodges to go for a relaxing social afternoon. There is plenty of space for our kids to throw frisbees or find a separate table to play cards. We adults lounged around at a long table and enjoyed good conversation for hours and hours, as various people came and then had to leave again. We were graced with the company of a big band of black and white Colobus monkeys in the trees overhead. They are so astonishing and wonderful to watch with their lush white dangling tails, funny faces, and acrobatics between tree limbs. We spent nearly six hours together and really gave thanks for the time we’ve been able to spend supporting and encouraging each other. 

Bible study farewell

I was glad to have one more Sunday at our church, doing what I nearly always have been doing – taking a taxi early to do something or other for the service. This time, our friend Neil invited me to play music with him one last time, and I was glad to do it as long as I could just show up and practice on the morning of. There were some tears as we said final farewells to a few people after the service and then headed back home. Nay came with her children to say a farewell to us in the afternoon. Her kids had wanted to give gifts to our kids, and soon they were parading around in Maasai shukas and practicing with the Hadzabe bow David had bought on his field trip. At 4 pm we transitioned into playing our ultimate game of Ultimate Frisbee with the neighbors and a few friends from outside the compound. Again, it was a tough game, and the speed of the younger folk seemed to overwhelm the skill of some of the adults. I’m so glad we were able to establish this tradition while we have been in Tanzania – it took the place of the folk dances that we once hosted in Burundi, an active social opportunity that brings various people together to enjoy each other’s company in a unique way. And our growing boys have enjoyed frisbee a whole lot more than dancing, and are both really quite good at the game now. We left our frisbees with the neighbors and made them Admins of the WhatsApp group so that they might summon a game at some point in the future.

Picturesque 18th hole on an island

On Monday, we let the kids play hookey from school so that we could take them for their COVID tests for travel…and squeeze in one more chance to meet some of the Taylors at Kili Golf. Paul needed to have a final round of golf with Mike, and Katie and I enjoyed one more walk around the perimeter of the course. Oren hung out with his friend Harry for a final game of Munchkin with David. We’ve been able to enjoy such beautiful places together! And then on to the hospital for the tests… and to DHL to pick up our passports with the visas for Ethiopia… and to the Nairobi, shuttle stop to drop off five heavy boxes of documents to ship to the MCC office in Kenya.

We needed one final “normal” evening at home after school. Oren and I took that 5k walk down the road in the evening and had a good chance to talk about random things. I’ve really been glad to live in a place where it’s been easy to get our boys out to walk and talk with us. Hopefully, we will still find a way to do that in a more crowded, busy city. After dinner, I decided to work on packing until after midnight and found that we were going to need a bigger boat, i.e. more suitcases. I definitely had to get our house in a condition where Nay could clean most of the bedrooms with the vacuum cleaner so that I could pack the vacuum into a suitcase!

Tuesday involved some errands (particularly delivering kids’ Lego sets to people who had bought them on WhatsApp – I should get a commission for that!) And then preparation for Oren’s birthday party. We couldn’t imagine how to have a birthday party at home since we had no home. So we invited two families of friends to join us as one of our favorite Arusha restaurants, George’s Tavern. Oren had a table of four teenagers, David had a table of four Taylor age mates, and we enjoyed a table of six adults and good conversation. Again, it was one of the most relaxed and joyful evenings we’ve had in a long time. We had many good laughs at Paul’s Indian puffy-sleeved shirt with strange, oversized pockets sewn a little too low. It looked great with a vest over it, but when the vest was unzipped, it was clear why he was wearing it as an item of clothing to leave behind! 

Oren's birthday

Many of us had ordered a particular dish that turned out to be unavailable, so the manager, Festo, showered us with appetizers on the house. Interesting how we got to know him well two years ago when our volunteer’s backpack was stolen at that restaurant, but that’s part of how relationships are formed. Towards the end, all the restaurant staff paraded our sad little store-bought cake out to present to Oren, complete with a festive version of “Jambo Bwana.” He was embarrassed, but it was very fun. Honestly, it was probably the best kind of birthday party for a kid turning 16. We really hope to see these good friends again when we come back to Tanzania for a visit, or maybe even in Maryland, (one family originates from the same county as my parents).

And our last two days were a flurry of packing, cleaning, final disposal of trash (or treasure?), and a very late night of final packing. It’s amazing how much stuff one can accumulate in just four years –but honestly, we had started bringing a lot of our specialized camping and hiking gear over to this side of the ocean in a series of trips from the US, since this is where we intend to live and enjoy life for many years. We’d also invested in things like an electric piano (sold at the 11^th hour when it was too large for air luggage and Cargo turned out to be too expensive) and a basketball backstop when we anticipated 4 more years in Tanzania. It’s just a real pain to now have to move most of it onward to another country, in a single trip. And the grand total of goods included 2 suitcases left for a colleague to bring in October or later, 2 suitcases of camping gear, and a set of golf clubs left with the Taylors in anticipation of a Tanzanian holiday, and 11 big suitcases coming with us on the plane. In desperation on Wednesday afternoon, I was out of suitcases and still had a pile of clothes to pack, so I found an old canvas cargo shipping bag, lined it with a garbage bag, and stuffed all kinds of last-minute things inside. We gave away at least half of our clothes, but still, there were household goods we didn’t want to re-buy in Ethiopia, so it was kind of worth the extra baggage. And then, with a big send-off from our neighbors and Lucia and Chrispin, we departed for the airport on Thursday afternoon.

It’s all a bit surreal, as I sit in a new home on Saturday morning finishing this blog, basically, all unpacked, and try to take it in. This is now our new home. It’s not a visit or temporary situation. We will need to grow and adapt and learn to love a new place.

Last view of Kili from the plane.

We will be leaving this blog site and moving full time to our Ethiopia blog which we have already begun as we have been in transition for several months. To follow us in the future, you can go to: https://pamosleyet.blogspot.com/

A few more bonus photos

Tramp's last day with us

David with his awesome music teacher, Mr. Kalule

With Katie, S and Lena

Patrick, Paul and Mike

David and buddies