Patience, Flexibility, Harvest

Maasai choir at our Harvest Concert (Ron Eggert photo)

Patience and Flexibility:

two key words that came up frequently over the past month, as I have been orienting our new MCC volunteer Jessica. (this is Rebecca writing for a change) Here are a few humorous examples of practical learning. And one more on the serious side. 

Vignette 1: Finding fabric

Jessica needed to get some local fabric to make a skirt which would be more suitable for church and visits to rural Tanzania. I took her on a long walk through town to get used to the hectic feel of the area around the market and to look in whatever fabric shops we passed. I wasn’t finding the fabric stores I wanted, so I stopped by the tiny back-alley workshop of a tailor I often call. We walked in and saw a teenage boy and a woman in a burka, but not Juma, my tailor. I thought, well, perhaps he shares this business. So, I let them know my problem. The boy took Jessica and I straight to the hidden indoor market with countless small fabric shops. There were some complex relational negotiations (shouldn’t we buy from his relatives?), as well as monetary haggling, but we found a beautiful green print for Jessica. And then of course had to have the boy’s mother be the one to take measurements and sew it for her. And then, the boy ended up jumping into the 3-wheel taxi that took us back to the office, seizing his opportunity to perhaps find a foreigner who would help sponsor his education. Not a relaxing outing!!

David's first swim gala

Vignette 2: Picking up the skirt

We needed to return for the skirt, of course. This time, I drove and parked the car closer to the woman’s workshop. The seamstress knew we were coming, but as soon as she saw us arrive, she threw on her burka, grabbed a bundle of some fabric in a bag and rushed out the door, leaving Jessica and I with another woman (A customer? A friend?) to sit and wait. And wait. And try to make conversation. And wait. About 30 minutes later, she returned, pulling the skirt out of her bag and searching frantically for a zipper and the hooks. Apparently, her over locker was broken and she needed a friend to finish the seams for her. And then she finished the skirt right before our eyes. Flexibility. Patience.

When it came to getting a top sewn for Jessica, I called Juma and he came straight to our office to do measurements and to return the finished garment. One has a limited budget of flexibility and patience, as it turns out. At least, if one is a mzungu.

yesterday, today and forever -- fragrant flower

Vignette 3: moving in with a host family

In June, I had made an earnest search for a good host family for Jessica. I found Mary, a widow in her 60s who was very kind and open and ready to receive Jessica. She seemed to have a settled, peaceful life. She has a beautiful garden. She has a beautiful heart. I was grateful to have found her.

But in early August, Mary received the kind of call one can’t refuse. Her older sister was seriously ill in another city and needed her help. Mary left town for about a month to take care of her sister and bring her to doctor’s appointments. She wasn’t able to return at the scheduled time for Jessica to move in with her host family. She delayed another 2 weeks, and then finally returned so that Jessica could meet her. But then we learned that Mary needed to go back to Dodoma again. It was another 10 days before she finally returned to Arusha, together with her sister.

Even on the day that Jessica was planning to finally move in, we found out that Mary had to take her sister to a doctor, and she was very late getting home. It was hard to just keep waiting, building up to this big emotional transition. Finally, at 7 pm, Jessica and I were able to drive over. We spent about 2 hours there, getting a few piece of furniture moved in, setting up the filter, and then having a very sweet time of prayer and singing with Mary, her middle aged cousin and companion, and her sister. I have no doubt that the coming months will actually be quite difficult for all of them: this was not the situation Mary envisaged, when she agreed to host Jessica. Please do pray for wisdom, patience and flexibility as all of us go forward.

Vignette 4: Searching for bible study

Last Sunday, Nina invited us to gather at her home for Bible study for the first time. She warned us that it was a bit far, and then sent directions and a google pin. We planned ahead and had lunch near the town where she lives, and also joined up with another bible study member to ride together, cramming 6 in the car (together with Jessica). Once we got off the main road, we were following directions like this, and I quote: “you come to a funny little dam with two big trees right and life…you’ll pass a bar on your right…and a small wooden stall on your left with tomatoes and grains…take that left hand turn.” (what if they were selling avocados instead, that day?)

The road was just terrible – we should have brought a 4WD! We kept saying, this better be a really nice place! Why would someone live out here? This is the middle of nowhere! But when we arrived – it was truly a peaceful oasis, a German-built home surrounded by a gorgeous garden full of beautiful birds. We enjoyed sitting in the afternoon light on the veranda, kids playing with dogs all around us, studying the book of Ruth together.

And I’ll add a few more vignettes, not necessarily regarding patience or flexibility, but because the past few weeks have not really followed a theme for me but have been more like contrasting beads on a thread.

David's classmates preparing for the clean up

Creation care

I am so thankful to any of you who participated in a climate strike or demonstration, somewhere in the world. Here in Arusha, I learned too late that we could have joined a march in the city center (thanks Naja!). Still, the school participated in World Cleanup Day, and David really wanted to go, and so I decided to take him last Saturday morning. 

And yes, I did feel conflicted about driving to his school, burning gasoline, to help him participate in picking up litter. But I chose to honor my child’s good impulses, hoping that this will encourage him to keep doing even more important things later. The head of Primary spoke to me, saying that he was surprised that no students went on strike the day before, but that this year was a record turnout for the Cleanup Day. Even in Tanzania, momentum is building among young people to take the climate crisis seriously. Jessica took part in an MCC volunteer virtual effort to encourage all of us: “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.”

Imperfectly, and Jessica wearing her new skirt.

A lesson in biography

This term, David has been learning about different genres of literature. Last week, they studied biography, and so his class teacher invited a few parents to come as surprise guests, one on each of 3 days. We were to be prepared to answer any and all questions the children would pose, in their efforts to collect information and write a biography on us.

I was so happy to accept this extraordinary invitation, knowing that it would give me an opportunity to meet David’s new class teacher and his new group of classmates. And I suspected that it could be an incredibly meaningful time to share back with them, so I prayed quite a lot that morning before I stepped into their room. David’s surprised, pleased, embarrassed face was priceless, when he realized his mom was that day’s surprise guest.

There were a few boring minutes as we figured out how to spell Iowa, the state of my birth, but then they started to ask me more interesting things. A birth story? My mom having malaria when she was pregnant with me. Who was influential in my life? My father, and his calling to help prevent so many deaths in the developing world through vaccine development – and the kind of dedication he had to his work and the people around him. I was able to talk to them about being a third culture kid, something many of them can identify with. I cited Tintin as a favorite character. And of course, when they started asking me about my career, I talked to them quite freely about being both a pastor and a development worker. They asked: “what are some benefits of your career, besides your salary?” What a beautiful question! As a pastor, I get to see God at work in other people’s lives and I am able to know more of who God is. There is nothing more meaningful in life than that! One of the kids summed up my career like this: “So, you’re saying being a development worker and a pastor go together like a milkshake and biscuits?” Yep!

ACC choir (Ron Eggert photo)

Overall, it was a precious hour that I spent with David’s classmates. And after they all left for their next lesson, David’s teacher came to me, just glowing, and said, “I could tell that there was something special about David, but now I know his mother is one who loves Jesus and prays for him.” I assured her that there were many people praying for him. It was a delightful surprise to learn that she is a Christian (she’s of South Asian ethnicity) and I’m so thankful that David has her as his new class teacher this year.

Harvest Weekend

In Tanzania, people celebrate the end of the harvest with a big service at church. Our international church started the weekend with a concert on Friday evening. Jessica joined Paul, myself and about 10 other singers to make up the ACC choir. We’ve been practicing for the past 5 weeks and sang our three pieces about the best we’ve ever managed! But the five other local choirs were truly the highlight. We enjoyed a children’s choir of 40 kids, led by a child director; an enormous women’s choir; two excellent mixed choirs; several small ensembles; and a cultural Maasai choir, who sang Christian worship chants in the traditional style, with dancing, shield-brandishing, and horns, made of…horns. I think people were really inspired by all the music, and we had an excellent turnout from our congregation.

Our Sunday service was extra special and designed to be on the short side. As people arrived for church, they brought some of the fruits of their labors up to the front of the sanctuary, as an offering to the church and a praise of thanks to God. Jessica and I participated in the music group, which was a veritable orchestra! 2 violins, cello, flute, piano, guitars, percussion. We sang many old hymns which our Tanzanian congregants know by heart in Swahili and sang with gusto.

Harvest worship (Ron Eggert photo)

Right after the service, I dashed outside to set up a movie and snacks for the children in a Sunday school room, so that they would be settled during the auction – the next part of our Harvest Festival. Traditionally, all those offerings of first fruits are auctioned off to the highest bidder after the service. There was also a side table of baked goods, fresh veggies and other items for fixed prices. The auction itself was actually a lot of fun, as congregants waged bidding wars, and others took turns modeling and holding up items for auction. It was a joyful way for the community to contribute towards the external giving of our church, towards mission and mercy. We commit to giving 50% of our budget each year, which is quite a challenge in the economically challenging times in Tanzania right now. But this auction took us a long way towards meeting that goal.

Firstfruits

After the auction was finished (in record time, at 1:15) we shared in a huge potluck meal outside in the courtyard. Potlucks are not really a Tanzanian tradition, but our members rose to the occasion—another way of showing things was giving food to share. And there was plenty of food for all!

The downside of Harvest weekend was that Paul missed most of it -- he departed on Saturday morning for field visits with our Directors. So, the kids and I did our best on our own, making cookies Saturday to donate the next day, having a friend over, and then having a really tough time leaving on Sunday morning without another parent pushing us all out the door. The cookies got left behind. Thankfully, someone bought them, sight unseen and they were delivered the next day.  

Finally, a pet!

We have lived here for two years, with our pet-loving David, always hoping that we would have some kind of pet walk into our lives. But hedgehogs are too prickly, smelly and shy. Chameleons always creep away. We are not home enough to, in good conscience, be dog owners. So, finally we sought permission to adopt a cat.

Tramp (the name he came with) is a mature male who was not able to leave Tanzania with his expat owner. Her friend had tried to adopt Tramp, but found that he did not co-exist well at all with the cat she already had. And so I found Tramp on the Arusha FB page, and we offered to take him. Aside from the nightmare of getting him into the cat carrier and bringing him home for the first time, he has adapted really well to our family. He is super social and cuddly, and really loves our company. David has fun playing with him. He really likes to snuggle up to one of us at night when we sleep. However, he is also a dedicated predator of any toes which twitch under the blankets at night, and we’ve all been woken up in the night, with claws sinking into our feet! We will need to work on that behavior. But he is very fun and it’s really nice to have an animal around the house. Paul will load a photo and edit this post. 

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Back to Ngorongoro for a Day

Tradition midwife listening to a training on supplemental feeding. 

Time seems to fly when you are busy and the early part of the school year and only a month back from a summer break still requires much catching-up on a daily basis. Honestly, though, being busy with work and social events is better than the alternative. In our third year here we have definitely find ways to fill our time with things we believe in and enjoy as well. The past two weeks give evidence to that.

I have actually begun writing this on a Saturday morning and I am trying to get it done before we have a large group of friends come over for an afternoon/evening of board games. Board games are definitely a favorite activity of Mennonites (as some of you may know) but also of many other missionaries here on our compound. Jessica is still with us as she completes here orientation and began work at Step by Step Learning Center for children with severe mental disabilities, where she will serve for a year as an Occupational Therapist. We continue to enjoy having her at our home where she regularly shares in the cooking and has an impressive repertoire of French provencial cuisine. We anticipate moving her into the home of her host family this Tuesday.

Long dusty roads, very remote.

Backing up about 2 weeks: I had scheduled a field visit to our maternal and child health project in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is the first out-of-town trip I have taken since our return. I try to get to every partner several times a year for a field visit, some are more convenient than others. The trip to Ngorongoro involves a 3 hour drive to the town of Karatu, where I usually stay the night before proceding on to the conservation area and the villages where we are doing our work (an additional 2 hours). As it turned out, Sharon, our Country Rep. decided to join me on the trip and suggested bringing Jessica to let her see some of our other projects and partners.

Getting data from Irkeepusi disp.

The three of us left on a Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Karatu Tuesday evening. We checked into a local hotel which had a surprisingly good rate given the number of very high-end tourist hotels in this town that is at the gate of the conservation area. We had dinner at local restaurant and turned in early. We drove to the conservation area entrance, paid our fees and proceeded onto the very rough 1.5 hour drive to Nainokanoka village, our first stop. As a newcomer, Jessica was very keen on seeing animals, and the days did not disappoint eventhough our route did not go directly into the crater where most of the game are. On the way out of Arusha we saw an elephant wandering in the savanah not far from the main road. We also saw the families of baboons on the way up the escarpment to Karatu. There was a large family of love birds on the roof of the hotel as well.

Kirambu showing teaching materials.

On our drive into the conservation area, we started in thick fog and when we looked into the Ngorongoro crater from the lip at 8am, it was like a bowl of thick white soup. No hope of seeing the bottom. It cleared within in an hour though and we saw a number of zebra, ostriches, a secretary bird, jackal, and impala in the savanah where the Maasai villages are where we went to visit the clinics.

We arrived in Irkeepusi village about 9 am, and met Laangakwa, director of NDI our local partner. We followed him in his Landrover to the furthest village (Bulati) which is about 30 kilometers from Irkeepusi. The road is so bad that we used two vehicles in the anticipation that one was likely to breakdown. Although it is not rainy season, the ground is so dry on the road that there were some deep ditches of fine dust that we had to use four-wheel drive to pass through.

Sharon, Jessica, Laangakwa and nurses at Irkeepusi.

The purpose of visiting the three clinics in the ward where we are working is to collect data on facility deliveries and ante-natal care to see if our project is having an impact in getting women to use the clinics for delivery. We have generally seem an upward trend which seems to have leveled off at about 30% (from 2%). It is always good to talk to the nurse midwives about their challenges and needs. One of the clinics, for instance, had a stock-out of supplements for women during pregnancy (ferous folate). We also visited the local market which was just opening in Bulati before returning back to Nainokanoka village.

Nainokanoka village has a 2nd tier health center and we were able to meet the ward medical officer there and talk to him about work in improving MCH in the ward. He is a big proponent of us building a maternity waiting house near the clinic to eliminate the need for women to travel when they start labor. I wish we had funds to do that, but not at this time.

We also were able to visit a 'care group' meeting in session. This was a training session for traditional birth attendants who are bringing health messages to women in the ward. Currently they are working on promoting proper infant and young child feeding (IYCF). The current protocol is to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months then introduce a variety of supplemental foods after 6 months. The 25 TBAs in the small room greeted us warmly and held up their training materials-- cards with clear pictures of women breastfeeding, and different food groups. (Most women and TBAs cannot read, so the cards are helpful when they disseminate the lessons to households.)

Exclusive breastfeeding and giving babies a variety of foods is not a common practice among the community here. We asked the TBAs why women were resistent to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months and they said the biggest problem is that their husbands do not want to give them time to do so after one month. They expect their wives to go back to work and leave the baby with others. The TBAs were very keen on us supporting a training for men to sensitize them to the importance of giving their wives time to breastfeed.

After leaving the care group meeting, we proceded back to the first village 'Irkeepusi' and got the facility birth data from the last clinic. By that time it was 3:30 in the afternoon and we headed back to the main gate, and then continued on back to Arusha. We arrived on Tuesday evening, fairly exhausted from the long drive the second day.

The rest of the week was fairly busy for me at work. I have been part of a grant writing team for a Govt. of Canada grant and spent several days working on a logic model and log frame for a multi-country project. I don't know if MCC will ultimately be successful, but it will represent a large effort by a number of people in the US, Canada, and various MCC programs in Ethiopia, Kenya, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Rwanda.

The weekend was fairly tightly schedules as well, Rebecca had a committee meeting at church in the morning, then we were invited to the wedding of a Tanzanian friend (a consultant we work with sometimes), at our church. I joined Rebecca at the church for the noon wedding, forgetting that a start time of noon really means that is the time you should start getting your nice clothes on before leaving the house. The ceremony itself began over an hour later. Bernadetha is Maasai, although she works in the Arusha and does not wear traditional garb herself. She and her husband were in a white wedding dress and tuxedo. But many of her relatives and 'grandmothers' from the village arrived in a bus and were decked out in full Maasai regalia. It was interesting to the mix of cultures. We were the only wazungu at the wedding but we were happy to support Bernadetha in her new life. (They are planning to come to our church as well as her husband is a member.)

Sunday I was teaching Sunday School again, and had two groups. Rebecca was leading music in the church and she put together a great worship team, Neil another former MCCer on mandolin, Alessando on drums, Rebecca played piano and guitar, and Jessica played the flute. It sounded great and I was sorry that I missed most of it as I was teaching Sunday School.

The past week has been fairly busy as well at work. We were approved to move forward on continuation and expansion of two of our projects which was nice, although we have to write full proposals for them. We are still having to do work on our residence permits. It is a bit vexing because we have our work permits, but Tanzania seperates the two processes so you can theoretically be approved by the labor dept. to work in the country and be rejected or delayed by the immigration dept to live here. The residence permit is now an online process, which should be more efficient but creates a challenge in communication when trying to find out what is delaying one's approval process. Unlike going in to the local office, sending an email does not result in any response. Rebecca was approved several weeks ago, but I am in still in limbo. Jessica is also having to provide other documentation and re-apply for a different class of permit in order to complete her process. I think it will all work out in the end, but it does create stress especially for me as I approach the end of validity of my previous permit and will cease to be able to remain in the country legally.

We continue to rehearse on Wednesday nights for choir and I am looking forward to our concert next Friday. That is the only regular variation in the week. While rehearsing this past week, I was able to deliver a new piece of playground equipment for our young Sunday school kids. A metal safari car which we put in place with the help of some of the stronger choir members.

 This past Thursday, however, Rebecca and I took a personal day for some reflection. It was nice to do some things in Arusha without the kids. We went and had breakfast a brand new hotel the Gran Melia, by far the most opulent hotel I have seen in Arusha, or anywhere else for that matter. A description cannot do it justice, but it is vast and even the grounds feel like one has entered into an isolated paradise enclave though it is right in the middle of Arusha. My favorite part was the pool which resembles a small lake over 50 meters wide, although not a rectangle. One long edge pours over into another even larger pool which pours into other terraced pools going down stream to a small river. It had the look of a watery paradise in a very dry town. From the edge of the infinity one looks up a  cascading amphitheater of a terraced tea plantation. Created and landscaped just to be a view from the pool and hotel room balcanies on that side. We overpaid for breakfast and spent a couple hours enjoying the grounds before returning home.

Poolside at Gran Melia

We were actually preparing for an interview that evening as we are in the 3rd year of our contract here and need to figure out what we will be doing next, either here or elsewhere next August. No decisions or hints yet, but we are trusting God that the right opportunity will be coming.

Generally we have settled comfortably back into our normal routine here and it is good to see the kids in school. They enjoy playing with friends, especially the Taylor boys who are their age mates. They were at a playground together last Saturday and share many common interests (especially around Minecraft.)

We are gearing up for a visit from MCC leadership. Our area directors and International Programs director will be visiting us beginning Thursday. I expect to being a lot of traveling over the next 2 weeks, and will give a full report in the next installment.

Karibu Jessica

Yesterday, Today, and Forever flowers in bloom in Arusha.

Oren had an odd nightmare last week. He  dreamed he was walking around the quiet suburban neighborhood where we own a home in Maryland. He was strolling down the road with two of his Indian schoolmates from Arusha when he heard the sound of loud machine gun shots coming from behind them. He turned to see a man driving a pickup truck with a machine gun mounted on it. An active shooter. The man started shooting at Oren and his friends, who dove for cover behind a hill. Later he learned that the shooter frequently drove through the neighborhood and had killed others.  Occasionally, the shooter showed up at the funerals of his victims and shot more people. The people in the neighborhood seemed to feel powerless to do anything about it; they just put up with it, and ran for cover when the shooter came around.

As allegorical as that is to the situation with second ammendment rights in the US, what really struck me about the dream was the sense of how much our home country once again feels like a foreign, and forboding place. Somehow, Oren has already internalized the sense of unease that many of his age-mates feel going to school back in the US, and he has shared that he's really happy to be attending school in a much safer situation. We are entering year 3 of our time in Tanzania, and while this could be our last year, we do hope to extend our term. I had the sense that we were 'coming back home' this year, different than the year before when we were 'returning to Tanzania'. The US seems further and stranger. Most of what we hear from home is in the form of extraordinary events, like mass shootings.

But it is good to feel like we are returning to something familiar, and even comforting. We do have a burgeoning community of our own here, built around our job, our homestead, and our church. It was good to be back in each of these settings.

We returned nearly 3 weeks ago now, and jumped right back into work. It is the season of reporting and I had progress reports from 7 partners sitting in my inbox when I arrived. This is not entirely unpleasant; it is interesting to see the update on progress although it does mean a couple of labor-intensive weeks to get them into our MCC database.

Morning, day 1.

Rebecca also had work to catch up on, and the fact that the kids did not get into school until our second week back made it a challenge. We were very happy after the first weekend to see them off to school on Monday morning and to enter back into a long absent familiar routine. Although the familiar routine still begins at 5am for me and involves us all leaving the house at 6:40am and driving to the office to meet the bus for a 7am pickup. Rebecca and I have continued our morning swim and did use our wetsuits on the first week back. But I was surprised to find the weather has already begun to warm up and after a few days we abandoned the wet suits and are once again swimming in our normal suits.

It was good to see the kids coming home the first day feeling really good about their classes. David has a new 'form tutor' (like a homeroom/primary teacher), whom he seems to like and who seems to be committed to make writers out of the kids in her class, based on the amount of writing they get for homework. Oren is preparing for O levels and is taking English Lit, Chem, Math, French, Computer Science, History, Geography, and Art. Even his art class is very rigorous, with an extensive text book which includes techniques in hand created art, as well as how to use computer programs for all the adobe graphics programs (Photoshop, Illustrator). Both are doing swimming as a 'club' activity.

The big event at work happened on the Wednesday after we returned. It was the arrival of our new YAMEN volunteer Jessica, an occupational therapist who will spend the year with us,working with Step by Step Learning Center, a facility for severely mentally disabled children. YAMEN is like the SALT program I have written about in the past. The main difference is that YAMEN volunteers do not come from the US or Canada. They can come from anywhere in the world, and usually they come from an Anabaptist church. Jessica is a Mennonite from France. She arrived last Wednesday afternoon from an MCC orientation in Rwanda. Rebecca and I picked her up from the airport.

Since then, Rebecca has been occupied with in-country orientation, processing residence permits, getting her set up with language study, etc. Jeassic has also been getting to know the MCC team and we have had several social events including a team meeting that included sharing food from our respective countries, and celebrating the birthday of Chrispin, our Ag. coordinator. This has given us occasion to take Jessica out for some local cuisine. She had her first taste of 'ugali' last week as well.

Our current team, Sharon, Jessica, Lucia, Rebecca, Paul, Chrispin.

Starting this past week, Jessica has been staying with us at our house, as she will not be able to move in with her host family before Sept 10th.

Jessica showing the Tian she made. 

We have enjoyed having Jessica at our house. Although she speaks English we have mainly been communicating in French thanks to our Rwanda/Burundi years. It is fun to practice using that language again. She is also a very good cook and has treated us to several delecacies of French provincial cuisine. (She is from Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of France.)

We have also been busy with a number of church activities. In preparation for the beginning of Sunday School (for which I am the coordinator), Rebecca and I did a half-day training last Saturday. We invited the previous year's as well as new teachers to participate and make sure we were all on board on how to teach the curriculum. It seemed to go very well and we had 4 new teachers --  what we needed to have enough this year. We began registration two Sundays ago and then began teaching last week. We had about 60 kids join us (in 3 levels). That is a good number, but from last year's experience I expect we could grow to 80.

We have been trying to do some improvements on the grounds as well. Our family brought back some new swings for the swingset, and we are ordering a new piece of playground equipment and more sand for the sandbox in the near future.

Choir also began 2 weeks ago, so we are going to practice on Wednesday nights. Jessica is joining us for choir practice. We have a concert at the end of September for our Harvest Festival weekend. We are doing some very nice pieces including a John Rutter setting of "For the Beauty of the Earth."

Getting back together with our small group has also been very gratifying. David and Oren were thrilled to see their Australian friends Harry and Sammy, as we were glad to see their parents as well who work at an Anglican Bible training college. We have about 4 families who seem to be coming consistently and over a dozen kids who seem to be able to play together nicely.

This weekend Rebecca and I hosted an ultimate frisbee game followed by a potluck and game night at our house for members of our small group and other families in our compound here. We had about 24 turn up for frisbee and had a great tournament with 3 teams rotating in and out. It was our best attended game to date. The potluck and gamenight that followed were really fun as well. We taught many games including 7 Wonders and One Night Werewolf. Jessica is also an avid gamer (being a Mennonite:-) She brought us a game as a gift called Pikomino, which has been enjoyed by adults as well as kids.

That is the news to date. This week I will be traveling up to Ngorongoro to visit our maternal and child health project with Sharon our Country Rep. More about that later.

Making the Most of Our Time at Home

hummingbird at feeder on Jean's porch.
I watched it every morning over coffee.

I had really hoped to have  a few hours of unscheduled time for quiet reflection in the week prior to, or just after our departure from the US and return to Tanzania. That was not to be the case. And that is not to say that things were bad, but those weeks were solidly packed with frenetically scheduled relational activities punctuated by brief periods of exhaustation and jet lag.

But I do want to try to squeeze in a few thoughts here as we are on the cusp of entering back into a more normal rhythm of routine. (The kids actually go back to school on Monday!) I had decided to write a single synopsis of our time in the US, so I will try here to pick up somewhere near the last entry.

We left Arusha on July 18th for a 4 week stint in the US. We flew Turkish Air through Istanbul and arrived in Dulles at night the next day. We were picked up by Rebecca's parents Dave and Jean Sack and planned to make our home in the US with them in Fallston, MD (near Baltimore) for the time we there. Fortunately my parents also live about 20 minutes from Dave and Jean's house and after a night's sleep we had our first big event, re-celebrating Rebecca's birthday with both sets of parents. Seeing them is one of the main reasons we go back in the summer so it was nice to spend time together on the first weekend.

Jon and Emma visit.

Most of the first week was spent making appointments to catch up with friends as well as doctors. It was quite a whirlwind as we have many families from our church as well as friends from our old neighborhood and long time family friends to catch up with. I think we did something with a different person every meal. Some of the highlights included Kate and James, the Hoards, Charlene, several families in our old neighborhood, Rebecca's brother and sister-in-law--Paul and Gwendolyn with cousins Miriam and Gabriel, Pastor Dave, and others.

We were also surprised by a vist at the end of the first week from my brother Jonathan and Emma and cousin Fletcher who came up from Nashville to see my parents. It was great to see them again and reflect on our amazing shared holiday on safari and in Zanzibar two weeks before. We were not expecting to see them again this trip. The cousins were thrilled to be together again. We also had some nice times with my parents who are in a lovely retirement home with fabulous grounds. We had a great time playing putt-putt golf and bocce ball as a family, and had a great meal together in their restaurant dining room.

Fort McHenry tradition.

Between visits, we also scheduled activities we like to do when we are home, that included visiting the aquarium, train museum, Fort McHenry, and doing fishing in the Little Gunpowder river and Lochraven reservoir. Sometimes we had to divide and conquer, or sent Grandma Jean with the kids on one of these outings as there were just too many people and places to see.

crab feast

Eating the foods we missed was also a priority those first two weeks. I think we had grilled salmon and Maryland sweet corn on the cob about 6 times in the first two weeks. Mint chip ice cream and rootbeer (not together) were also consumed in ample quantities. Among the gastronomical highlights I would also mention going out for sushi with newly married Kate and James from our former small group in Baltimore, who had come out to visit us in Arusha last year shortly after their engagement. The kids also wanted crab and we did do that once with Rebecaa's folks.

We saw other church friends as we were able to attend services at North Baltimore Mennonite Church three of the four Sundays we were home. We even had a lunch with Pastor Dave early in our second week. We also stopped by and visited our home on Jody Way where our Ethiopian friends are renting. They have been very active in our church as well, with their second son Israel playing a major role in youth ministry. It was nice to see them and to see our house in such good condition.

Another big surprise in our second week was a visit from some old friends who had left Poughkeepsie New York a few years after we did. 'Pastor Bob' and his wife Frances, who were in the process of moving to Wisconsin to be closer to grandchildren came to Baltimore and spent about 3 days with us at Rebecca's parents' house. It was great to see them and catch up after not seeing each other for many years. They are entering a new phase in life (his retirement from pastoral ministry) and as part of this change, relocation as well as her completion of a 3 year course in spiritual direction, Frances asked if Rebecca would do an immersion baptism of her. A small group of us, including me and the kids, Jean Sack and another close friend of Frances joined us for the ceremony which was done in the Little Gunpowder, not far from the Sack house. It was a meaningful rite followed by fun splashing around in the shallow river afterwards, led by David. Their visit was a highlight of our second week.

Week three was set apart from the others because it was the only one for which we planned to travel outside of Baltimore. We wanted to have some time with Rebecca's family, her brother Paul's family and her parents, away from the distractions of work in Baltimore. Paul Sack had booked an Airbnb in the Poconos (Pennsylvania). It was a resort condominium near a lake (and ski resort in the winter). Needless to say there was no snow, but no lack of things to do. There was a tennis court right behind the house which we used to play both tennis and pickle ball nearly every day. The lake was a long walk or short drive away, and we enjoyed swimming, and renting pontoon boats and standing paddle boards for sight seeing and fishing.

We spent the evenings playing board games. Paul and Gwendolyn are avid gamers and had brought quite a few new ones which they introduced us to. A particular favorite was called Quack, where you try to make a potion using ingredients you collect and draw out of a bag. The kids enjoyed playing many card and board games together as well.

We had two very special days on our trip. On Wednesday we went to a huge ropes course about 45 minutes from where we were staying. The kids and I did the course as well as Paul and Gwendolyn's whole family (cousins Miriam and Gabriel). Rebecca had pulled a muscle in her shoulder the day before and decided to sit out and take pictures. There were about 6 courses that varied in degree of difficulty. We were able to finish 3 of them in the time we had. They also had a zipline that went half way down a mountain. It was really fun, although I might have enjoyed it the most in our family.

On Friday we took another excursion, this time to an amusement Park. Again I think it was me that was most enthusiastic to go to an amusement park, which was always an essential part of any summer vacation growing up. Dorney Park was enormous, bigger than Hershey Park and also had a gigantic water park attached to it. We arrived at about 10 am and left at 10pm when they closed. I could not possibly describe all the things we did in the day, but David really loved the water park. Oren and David both liked rides that involved a lot of spinning. For me, I went on every single roller coaster (there were around 10). Some were absolutely insane to look at before getting on, but they were all fantastic rides. For the last ride of the night Rebecca and I went together on the highest one in the park. It was a blast.

We returned to Baltimore on Saturday, which gave us just enough time for us to prepare to give a mision moment in church the next day, and for Rebecca to preach a sermon at North Baltimore Mennonite. She preached on the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, but really managed to land a profoundly meaningful insight into the importance of the resurrection in the life on North Baltimore Mennonite. It was very moving to many as North Baltimore has been finding its way to reflect Christ in their committment to being a welcoming church, and a church committed to racial justice in Baltimore city. How do we let the reality of the resurection guide our mission, rather than letting our small agendas determine our understanding of who God is and what he is doing in the church and the world. (Here is a link ot the sermon.)

It was our last Sunday in Baltimore as we were leaving the following Saturday. After church we met Rebecca, and my parents as well as our family friend Charlene at Kathmandu Kitchen, a traditional after church lunch stop for our family where they serve a nice Indian food buffet. It was great to have this group together, for not the last time in the week.

The rest of the last week was kind of a whirlwind and it is hard to remember everything we crammed in. One highlight was a date night for Rebecca and I. Dave and Jean Sack have an apartment downtown they sometimes use when they don't want to commute home from work. It is close to Johns Hopkins as well as the waterfront. Rebecca and I went down and had a lovely dinner then stayed at the apartment while the grandparents divided and conquered the kids. (David stayed with my parents and Oren stayed with Dave and Jean.) David played many board games with my parents, especially Mousetrap. Oren, a WWII buff watched Saving Private Ryan with Dave and Jean. When we came home the next afternoon, the kids were very happy.

I appreciated seeing the kids help around the house. David loved to pick things, and there were almost daily bushels of tomatoes, a few blackberries, peaches and green beans which he would go out first thing in the morning to gather. Oren was not as much into gardening but did really like to mow the lawn on their large John Deere tractor mower. They both enjoyed helping my mom make chocolate chip cookies.

As we moved into our last 3 days, we took a trip down to Charter Hall, the retreat center on the Chesapeake Bay where Rebecca and now our kids have spent time in each summer since birth. We all love to go there and we enjoy canoeing down to an old railway bridge, fishing, swimming, kayaking, and walking around the edge of the estuary where it is located. We spent a long day, there but not the night as time was running short and we had many things to do.

The kids were also given 'last wishes' of things they wanted to do and David chose the Zoo while Oren wanted to go to Washington DC to see the Smithsonian museum. I took Oren to Washington while Rebecca to took David to the zoo. It was nice for each of us to have a day with just one kid. Oren and I went to the Air and Space museum, the museum of American History, and the Natural History museum before making our way back home.

Friday night we had our "Last Supper" with my family and Rebecca's family. It was a very nice evening and a chance to pray together in preparation for departure. I am glad we were leaving Saturday evening, because we had a lot of packing left on Saturday morning and were ambitiously trying to cram all of our camping gear into our 8 allowed suitcases. It was a tight squeeze but we made it.

Dave and Jean took us to Dulles airport on Saturday evening and we said final goodbyes, ritually eating some of my mom's chocolate chip cookies before making our way through security. I was pleasantly surprised to find we were flying back to Istanbul on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner! It really was quite a pleasant and fascinating experience. They very effectively create an internal environment using tinted windows that mimic a sunset, night, and sunrise the next day. Even if you are flying in broad daylight. The air seemed fresher as well.

The second flight from Istanbul to Arusha was a less comfortable 737, packed full, and one bathroom quit working about midway through the 8 hour flight. We got to Arusha about 5am on Monday and back to our house by 6. I was planning to go to work so I went to the pool at 7am for a freezing cold swim, then was at the office by 8:30. By 1pm I was so jet lagged that I almost fell asleep with my face in my laptop.  Over the next several days it got better.

The first week of work has been incredibly busy which is why writing a blog has been so hard. I have had to catch up on many reports and a new volunteer just arrived. We have been getting ready for the start of Sunday School as well next week, so we are kind of running to stand still, but that should smooth out the coming week because the kids go back to school tomorrow which means we have the whole day to work and not have to worry about what they are doing at home.

More about our arrival home next week...

Bonus Photos:

Rebecca and Jean at Charter Hall

Kate, James, and Sushi boat

bluegill on Lake Harmony

Dorney Park

Visiting with Charlene