#100 End of School and a Birthday

So in an inauspicious place at an inauspicious time, I arrive at entry #100. After 3 years since beginning this blog, we now have 100 entries, and the timing is fitting as we have just this month officially moved into a new role in our assignments in Tanzania, moving from more technical 'service worker' positions to Country Representatives. I say inauspicious because of the fact that we have not been in Tanzania since our departure at the end of March is disheartening. But we do have our flights booked to return on August 10th on Qatar Airways (barring any further disruption to air travel).  

Oddly, we actually just started our official 3 weeks of home leave on Monday. I say odd because we have been in the US for 3 months already, and yet none of this has resembled a vacation despite the rustic water-side setting. 

But the past week has finally felt like a change. The biggest driver of change has been the end of school and the grueling parental task of coercing the children into their google classroom assignment pages to complete their day's work. I will say it started our fairly well for Oren and he was motivated to keep up for the first 6 weeks or so, but the last 4 weeks we could hardly get him to go through his task list in each class to see what needed to be done. The fact that we were 7 hours behind meant that the kids missed most of their live sessions and I think it just felt less and less like real school. 

David never even pretended to be motivated by online lessons and rued every moment on the computer doing assignments. Most of the time one or the other parent (usually Rebecca) had to sit beside him to be sure he completed his work. The deepest of ironies was the award ceremony on the last day when David was given the 'online learning award' for term 3. (Rebecca claimed that prize for herself.) Oren also was able to eke out all As and Bs on his report card, and I suspect that averages went down for most everyone in term 3 and a generous curve was applied.

With the end of school, this past Friday felt like a huge burden off our shoulders, and that coupled with improvement in the COVID-19 curve in Maryland gave us the confidence to expand our horizons a bit. We have a number of friends that have wanted to come by and pay us a visit and we finally said yes in the past 10 days. 

The first to come by was Jennifer P. She was one of our service workes when we were MCC Reps in Rwanda/Burundi. Our team was very close-knit and many of us have remained fast friends over the years. Jennifer now works in Kinshasa with Mercy Corps, but like us, she was evacuated during the COVID-19 crises. She has been based in DC, but drove out to our Bay house (just 1.5 hours up highway 95) to visit us. Jennifer is one of the most vivacious people you will ever meet and it was really fun to catch up with her and hear all the news and gossip of old friends. She did stay a night with us, we talked, walked on the beach, canoed, and she taught us a new game of cards called Kobo that we all enjoyed playing together. 

Another DC resident that dropped by was Margaret, a friend of Rebecca's from her choir at William and Mary, who was also a bridesmaid in our wedding. She, her husband, and kids have been friends over the years and have joined us at Charter Hall in the past. On this occasion, Margaret came alone for an afternoon and we had a nice time catching up with her.

We also celebrated Father's Day with a visit from the grandparents on both sides and enjoyed a meal together.  Rebecca's mom brought a feast of ribs, crabcakes, and chicken parmesan from a local crab house. We had a great time together watching the sunset. Right at the end, the wind picked up suddenly and David ran in the garage and got a kite we had somehow ended up with. It was a picturesque ending to our time together. As a father, I got some nice gifts from my family including another 1000 piece puzzle (we have done about 10 since our arrival). We completed it in about 3 days. We also gave Rebecca's dad a birdbath which we brought out to their house for their new garden. 

Oren and David have enjoyed visits to Rebecca's parents' house (Papa Dave and Grandma Jean) where they get to earn money for chores including lawn mowing and berry picking. David is particularly enamored of picking berries and making jam! (All of us profit from these endeavors.)

The big surprise this month, however, was the visit from my brother Jonathan's family. We had planned, much earlier in the year to have a Mosley family vacation in July in Chatanooga Tennessee with my parents and two brothers' families. When COVID-19 was in full outbreak we realized that this would need to be canceled as travel for a number of us who are high-risk, particularly my parents, would be impossible at this time. 

We were not sure what to do but had considered driving out to Nashville where Jonathan lives (with his wife Emma and cousin Fletcher). This would have been a smaller gathering than we planned though. Last week Jonathan had a brainstorm of coming up for a week right at the end of school. We agreed to host them and they drove out in one shot from Nashville to our house on the Bay. They arrived after midnight, but without incident. 

Having a cousin in the house significantly changed the dynamic for our kids who I think had almost forgotten what it was like to have real-life friends. With the end of school responsibilities, we, the parents, have also felt far less stressed and more inclined to relax and have fun. 

The fact that Jonathan's family came here meant that my parents were able to see them as well, even though they did maintain social distancing and came and sat around outdoors with us. Our family has taken the moderate risk of sharing the space here recognizing that all of us have been very diligent about wearing masks and not going out to any large gatherings of people, restaurants, etc. It is interesting to talk to them about the culture of mask-wearing in different contexts. In Maryland, it is required everywhere when one goes out and not a point of contention. In Tennessee, distinguished as one of the most mask non-compliant states in the country after Texas and Arizona, wearing a mask is, sadly, a political statement. 

Jonathan is a health professional so being diligent for him and his family is essential but does not find much community support for masks when he is needing to leave home.

We had a great time together and the festivities really began on the weekend after their arrival. My parents and Jonathan's family had a huge picnic on the lawn by the Bay in the back of our house. They also returned on Saturday for an early Birthday Party for Oren who is now 15. (He has been enjoying getting to try to drive on the dirt road that leads to our house.) The Birthday festivities continued on Sunday with Paul and Gwendolyn Sack and cousins Miriam and Gabriel coming over. We were able to go back over to Charter Hall and use the kayaks and canoes as well as swim in the pool and bay. 

On Monday we had Oren's official Birthday and Jonathan's family, and both sets of grandparents came out to celebrate. One of the highlights was a game of croquet with a really nice set of official size croquet mallets, wickets and balls. We set up the field under a large shady tree. Papa Dave (Rebeca's Dad) is quite a croquet shark and slaughtered us all with great ease. (He finished about 6 wickets ahead of second place.)  We had a birthday cake (this was a Coldstone Creamery ice cream cake) after having a traditional cake the day before. I think we had enough American cake for all we missed in Tanzania in the past year.

I had to take Jonathan to the airport Monday evening as he had a clinic and needed to return for Tuesday. Emma and Fletcher will stay through Friday.

So that it is the end of the school year and the beginning of summer vacation. It has been a long strange trip thus far, and I am not sure what we will do with so many changed plans in the weeks ahead.

Here are some bonus photos from the past 2 weeks.

New Jobs

Paul engaged in Home makeover

We have been gradually transitioning into the role MCC Representatives for Tanzania since we signed the offer last October. But on Friday, we officially moved from the back seat to the driver’s seat. Today, we felt the full force of Rep email descending on us. We are grateful that we are near the end of emergency online education because we will need to be giving a lot more time to our roles as Directors of MCC’s programming in Tanzania.

Meanwhile, there are other side jobs to tend to as well.

Haircuts in the garage 

Like most people in lockdown, our hair has been getting a little unkempt. Last weekend, our set of hair clippers finally arrived, and I found myself trimming my mom’s hair, and then David’s. I need to figure out who I am brave enough to ask to trim my hair…

We have had a larger side task to tend to after work and on the weekends in the past month. We found an arrangement to stay rent-free in a lovely, vacant vacation home on the Bay, in exchange for painting. It has turned out to be an interesting and substantial job. Fortunately, we have a coach / site manager with all the equipment we need. Last weekend, Don dropped off a power washer, which enabled Paul to blast the old paint and stain off of the lower sides of the house, as well as the moss and weeds off of the patio and the concrete walkway down to the beach. 

Powerwashing 

On Wednesday, he brought a truck with a lift. By Thursday night, Paul had blasted clean the high front wall of the house.  By Friday night he’d stained the entire high section, and on Saturday, he and I worked as a team to stain the rest of the place. David even pitched in to paint a low section of boards where the stain just dripped into the bushes and didn’t do any harm. We made it festive by blasting the upbeat tunes from “The Greatest Showman,” a current favorite with our boys. It was great to finish this part of the home improvement contract before our Rep role really got going. Now we just have a couple of doors to paint, and some mulching to do.

In the midst of these various kinds of labors, our nation is facing yet another crisis. Is this a moment of opportunity? On May 31, when we last wrote, we could hardly imagine that any other crisis could surpass the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic disaster in our country. But then the system of racial injustice in America killed George Floyd. People have had enough. And now we are in the midst of urgent labor, as a nation, some of us trying to deliver justice. Or will it be a miscarriage, once again? It truly feels different this time, and if there is anything we can do to push our country towards change, we need to do it. The trouble is, we are staying out in the boonies, and we also are wary of being exposed to the virus in crowds, since we are essentially “quaranteaming” with our older parents. 

Demonstrating on Rt 40, Cecil County

We decided to join with a movement for systemic change, the Poor People’s Campaign, to remembering Floyd’s killing. We stood on the sidewalk near our local Food Lion grocery store and demonstrated for a couple of hours, and then knelt to observe 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence. This county is very Republican. Mostly pickup trucks drove past, and so we only got a handful of supportive honks every few minutes. But that’s OK – it’s important that we all realize racial justice is a moral issue, and people in every corner of the country are calling for it. About 20% of the drivers we saw were African-American, and we hope they know we saw them. David came with us for that first round. Oren was very apprehensive about the potential for some kind of violent confrontation with a right-wing person who might be offended by our expression of our constitutional rights. But we had no conversations or confrontations. We just smiled and waved and were present in the community.

I was also struck by how easy it was for us to put our signs into our car and return to anonymity once more. In our church service the day before, one young man of color reminded us, with deep emotion, that racial injustice for him is not an issue, it is his reality. What will it take for all of us, especially Christians of European background, to make this struggle for justice our daily reality, not just a cause or an issue to take up when we have the luxury of a little spare time?

We continue to enjoy visits with each set of grandparents every few days. Paul's parents really are grateful to leave their closed retirement community to go for a drive into the country. We are able to sit in the yard, in the fresh air and share lots of stories, as well as debate what on earth needs to happen to fix our country. 

 In the beginning of June, David and I went to enjoy a special overnight with my parents. We picked up fresh strawberries along the way and I felt inspired to bake a fresh strawberry pie. 

Family strawberry picking

In the morning, my mom took David and me for a visit to Ladew Topiary Gardens, right there in their neighborhood in Harford County. It was the very first day they welcomed members by reservation, and we were so glad to revisit those gorgeous flower gardens while the peonies and iris were still blooming. 

David especially enjoyed finding all stages of tadpoles in the little ponds and fountains, giving us older people the chance to sniff the roses.

Both David and Oren have had special overnights with my parents, which always involve productive yard work (and pay!). Oren has mowed their grass at least 6 times by now. David accomplishes all kinds of odd jobs, including leaf blowing, seed planting and cutting the suckers off of the bottoms of their fruit trees.

David wielding the leaf blower

My parents have been stuck at home for the entire lockdown, so we invited them to come out to stay one night with us on the Bay. We forbade any computer work! My Dad started reading a memoir about the Bay, and my mom and I took a canoe trip with David up the Principio river. The river is always lovely and refreshing. But overall, the trip was a little longer and harder than we planned. David needed to take a turn at paddling – steering the canoe. And as we returned, in higher wind and waves, he got very tired, but somehow I was able to urge him to keep going, since we really did not have a choice about switching positions to relieve him of his duties. It was a good lesson in endurance for him.

David with bags #13 and #14

David has also been going through a great unit in environmental education in science class. This has coincided with a sudden interest in picking up trash off of the shore around where we are staying. This particular shore had gotten very junky after the two big storms in April, which washed every possible kind of trash up from the south and deposited it directly into the marsh next door. We are able to gather and separate what we find (shoes, styrofoam, and endless plastic bottles) into trash and recycling. 

Gramma Jean and Oren

Oren has also enjoyed more personal time with his grandparents and is finally at the stage where adult conversation can be actually engaging for him. He has had several sleepovers and has watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy with my parents. We are glad for the ways that he is able to appreciate this time to be with them. 

We have another two weeks of school to get through, and we will need to focus well on getting our real new job off to a good start. And who knows what else might happen. This is a time which will call for a lot of endurance. But we are also surrounded by many small wonders, and many good fruits of our little labors.

Bonus Photos:

David and Koi at Ladew Gardens

Tiny turtle we found in a swimming pool

Enjoying my dad's hot tub

David catching a catfish

Staining the house

Horse country in Harford County

Grief and Fruits of Consolation

Once again, the end of the month has snuck up on me and I want to get one more entry in for May. I admit it is getting harder by the day to feel that the posts are relevant to the blog's title, the longer we are away: Paul and Rebeca Mosley in Tanzania? Not so much. This marks the end of our second month out of the country on a completely unscheduled stint back in the US. And yet, it hardly feels anything like our annual summer home leave as we live in a kind of limbo between worlds. Although truly this limbo can feel like a kind of paradise, isolated in an estuary of the Chesapeake Bay to watch the arrival of spring and summer, it really does not feel anything like a return 'home.' We really don't go out to public venues at all, and only allow ourselves visits to the home of Rebecca's parents. 

It is a strange time here, as the weather finally begins to warm, there is a temptation to look at the slowly downward sloping death toll from COVID-19 here as a sign that, with the return to life in nature, we will all be able to emerge from our hibernation and go about business as usual once again. And many Americans clearly want to embrace this myth, to believe it was all a bad dream or some political mischief that put us in this predicament in the first place. And yet for us, it has been a fell season. We know several people personally who have been afflicted and even died of COVID-19, here and in Arusha. As some restrictions are lifting in Maryland we have allowed ourselves to visit more regularly with grandparents, but still are quite strict about social distancing in public, and have not made any trips as a family to a mall or restaurant, and are not likely to do so in the near future. Thankfully the Sack grandparents recently offered us a 24-hour overnight to process all that is going on, taking the kids for a sleepover. Later, we had a fun, spontaneous afternoon gathering with both sets of grandparents (outdoor, distanced) on Memorial Day. But we have had a lot to discuss and digest...

We have had several big events transpire in the past 2 weeks that need to be documented. The lesser of the two was a move 2 weeks ago to a new house. We had been staying in a lodge at a retreat center owned by a group of families from Rebecca's parents' church. It is usually quite busy with rentals from April through the end of the year. All these bookings had been canceled at the time of our return to the US (fortuitously for us) . With the approach of Memorial Day and the loosening of restrictions in Maryland, we knew that we had to find other accommodations--groups would start to want to use it again. We were very happy to find that a property just a half kilometer down the coast was available --  it was primarily a summer vacation house for a family living in Pennsylvania, who weren't planning to spend time here til later in the season. 

We talked to the owner and made arrangements to rent it until the end of June. (Actually, we are going to do some painting in exchange for use of the house.) The house is not quite as big as the 8-bedroom lodge we were in, but is quite comfortable. It has a Swiss chalet kind of feel-- a large A-frame with a vaulted ceiling over the open plan living room, dining room, kitchen, and 2 bedrooms in a loft space accessed by a spiral stairway. There is also an office, master bedroom, and a large enclosed sunporch. The Bay-facing wall of the A-frame is all windows top to bottom, so it has a great view. It was built in the late 1970s and is well appointed for the era. Notably, every square inch of it is carpeted in deep shag. This includes the bathrooms. With the spiral stairway and the furnishings, it feels like the house one sees in the Brady Bunch. I know I would have envied this place when I was a teenager.

Despite the retro decor, it is all in really good condition, probably because it was mainly a vacation home. Sadly, the dock over the bay was beaten up pretty badly in the last two squalls we had this spring, and several sections are missing. 

We moved in and set up places for kids to do school. We also found that the internet connection (through our phone hotspots) is not as good as our former residence; some connections for school have been a challenge. We were lucky that we have only had one week of classes in the past two weeks: we just finished a week of half-term break. We start up again Monday for the final 4-week push. I will confess that doing school online from home is very exhausting for parents and puts a considerable amount of stress on our family emotionally. (Lots of arguments and coercion to motivate kids to work.) We really dread the thought that this might still be necessary when we return to Tanzania in the fall. But we are beyond the point of planning ahead at this stage of unpredictability in life.

There is news of another move to share, this one far more significant and frankly shocking. It has been a major focus of our work in the past month, but not one I could speak about publicly. The official word is out now so I am at liberty to explain, but before I can, I need to back up and give some context.

Last year, Sharon, our country Director (Rep), let MCC know she would be ending her term this summer. MCC started a search process at the end of last year, and after much prayer and discernment, Rebecca and I put our hats in the ring and applied for her position. Long story short, we were selected to succeed Sharon when she finished her term in June. This was an additional three-year commitment to being in Tanzania for Rebecca and me. There were a number of factors to weigh, including stability in the kids' school situation. It meant Oren would graduate in TZ with the Cambridge system before going to the US for college on our return after year 3. The fact that Oren and David really seemed to feel at home at St. Constantine's International School was a great weight on the balance in favor of continuing to work in Tanzania. Our involvement in our small group and church, where we were finally making a community were also factors in favor of staying. Most importantly, we already knew the MCC program and partners very well and understood how to work within the program that had already been built. We would require no in-country orientation or language study to switch into a leadership role.

The disruption of our voluntary evacuation because of COVID-19 was disappointing in terms of timing since it fell during the transition period when Sharon would be working most closely with us on the hand-over of the program. 

We watched, from isolation in Maryland, the effect of lock-down orders in the US on the economy and were warned by MCC that we should expect to make cuts in our programs as deep as 25%. But it was not until we were asked to join a Zoom call with our International Program Director that we understood just how bad things were.

We were told at the end of April, on that call, that MCC needed to make deeper, longer-term, cuts to its international programs. One of the hardest decisions was to 'consolidate' the MCC Kenya and Tanzania programs and run all projects in both countries out of the Nairobi office. This would mean closing down our office, selling all assets, and terminating all MCC staff positions (including our own) by the end of the calendar year. We were also told that our programs and partnerships needed to be reduced by about 75% in order to be manageable for the Kenya Reps. 

I have to say, the news was so devastating that I was not even able to experience it in the moment it was being told us. It was like a strange bad dream that I believed I would awaken from. We had just put a new roof over our front porch and set up a basketball goal at our home in Arusha in preparation for a longer stay. How could we be leaving? And most grievous was the thought that we were just stepping into the role as country Reps., bristling with fresh ideas and vision only to be told that our new mandate as Reps would be to terminate all staff, close the office, sell off everything MCC owned, including our household goods, tell most of our partners that we were precipitously ending their projects, and leave by December. 

We made a strong plea with as many influential people as we could to save the program, but were plainly able to see that the decision was not made lightly and the financial position of MCC did not leave them with a lot of choices. Not everything could be saved. 

MCC did, however, have something to offer us, given that they do try to reassign service workers who are laid-off due to a cut in position. The role of MCC Rep. for Ethiopia was coming open in February, and they asked if we would be interested in taking it. 

I will say that at first, the idea sounded almost repugnant. To leave a 'lived-assignment' -- not merely a job -- where we had invested years to build a new community, and be transplanted into an entirely new context to do 'the same job' in a new place, seemed callous to say the least. But that was not at all how it was presented to us, and in truth, I am very grateful that MCC makes such efforts for its staff.

Rebecca and I needed prayer, and the discernment of others to make this decision. Fortunately, we have a prayer chain and many people who could speak into this. What was important to me, was that accepting this new assignment needed to be done with an attitude of excitement and enthusiasm. It could not be seen psychologically as a 'consolation prize', especially because the Ethiopia program is huge and will require a tremendous amount of energy and commitment on our part to offer it good leadership.

I am happy to say that God did work in our hearts. Once we had done all we could to try to save the Tanzania program, we came to peace with the decision to close it, and with that peace came a slow willingness to look beyond. After two weeks, we were able to accept the offer with integrity and gratitude. 

We realize that there will be enormous challenges ahead in the next 12 months. Many are logistical:

When can we fly back to TZ? Our tickets on Qatar Airlines are for mid-August. Will they fly then?

How do we dispose equitably of MCC assets; many will want to acquire them?

How do we help our national staff have a soft landing when their positions end?

What do we do about school? We need to start enrollment for the Ethiopian International School ASAP to begin in  2021. We have permission to finish the school year in Tanzania, but one of us will have to be going to Addis for months at a time between Feb. and June while we are in transition between our two roles. 

These, as well as other questions, need to be answered in the months ahead. We are already in regular communication with our partners sharing the very difficult news of the consolidation of our program with Kenya, and the end of most of their projects. There is a lot of work to be done in the days ahead, and more unknowns than knowns it seems. Still, I am glad that even, amidst the thorns of grief, we can see early blooms of some fruits of consolation. 

I leave you with  one of Rilke's poems from Sonnets to Orpheus:

XVII

WHERE, in what ever-blissfully watered gardens, upon what

trees, out of, oh, what gently dispetalled flower-cups do these

so strange-looking fruits of consolation mature?

 

Delicious, when, now and then, you pick one up in the poor

trampled field of your poverty.

 

Time and again you find yourself lost in wonder over the size of the fruit,

over its wholesomeness, over its smooth, soft rind,

and that neither the heedless bird above nor jealous worm at

the root has been before you.

 

Are there, then, trees where angels will congregate,

trees invisible leisurely gardeners so curiously cultivate,

that, without being ours, they bear for us fruits like those?

 

Have, we, then, never been able, we shadows and shades,

with our doing that ripens too early and then as suddenly fades,

to disturb that even-tempered summer’s repose?

 

here, now, in this...practicing being present

Scarlet Tanager

I realize that half the month of May has past and we have not posted anything this month. Looking back over several years of entries from Tanzania, and Burundi before that, I do appreciate the meticulous chronicling we have been practicing over our time in these assignments. But life here, the stillness we are experiencing, is hard to put down in words. I know Thoreau was able to write an entire book about his life of solitude at Walden pond, but perhaps I am not as observant as he is. I suppose he also was not trying to homeschool his two children and keep up with rapidly changing events at his job online, so perhaps I can be forgiven.

Flower Moonset, 6 am

We have been able to watch the change in season come in a way we might never have experienced had we not been here. The last time we experienced a North America spring, we did not know it was a "last time" so we are noticing every detail this time. Granted this has been an unseasonably cold spring; even mid-May has only offered a few warm days, but we have seen new life spring into being in the flora and fauna in this relatively remote estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. Sadly, the last few weeks are a reminder of the fragility of life. After the excitement of seeing new life in the early weeks of our return--goslings, and fox kits a daily sight, we have witnessed a number of young animals dead or dying. David found a gosling, abandoned near our porch and brought it into the house in a shoebox, shivering. Despite trying to feed it back to health, it died in a few hours. One of the fox cubs, a runt, was seen limping badly before they all disappeared from the hole near our driveway.

Wave jumping, not typical Charter Hall activity

We had another squall this month, worse than the first one. The water pushed up to within inches of some of the lower doors of the cottages on the property. The front yard was completely underwater. Waves crashed over the seawall feet from our porch. The front dock was almost completely unmoored but somehow survived with limited damage. We spent a full day cleaning debris off the property and pushing driftwood trees off the lawn back into the bay.

indigo bunting

 Several days later we found over one hundred dead fish along the beach by the house at low tide. They were all the same species and not familiar to me--they looked like they came from the ocean, about a foot long and white (in death) with small mouths. I think they might have been shad. I don't know if this was a natural process, perhaps spawning up in the Bay and dying, or if this was a result of toxic algae bloom from sewage overflow after the flood.

Rebecca has been enjoying the bird migration of late spring with an astounding number of species passing through the marshland here. Among the highlights are indigo buntings, scarlet tanagers, northern orioles, blue grosbeaks and a number of species of finches.

David and I continue to enjoy the ever-improving fishing season as the weather warms. The many lures he has scavenged on his beach walks have proved to be still quite viable and we have caught a number of big large-mouth bass off the front dock in the past several weeks. (We have thrown them all back lately.) Despite the coolness of the air and water David and I finally ventured a swim! I will say, being a swimmer in Arusha has inured me to chilly water, although the bay in May was certainly a new test. We went in slowly from the beach accustoming our legs and feet before dunking our midriffs and finally heads in the water. I would say it was in the low 50s. We ended up splashing around for about half an hour before coming out. I will confess that after the past 2.5 years in Arusha swimming daily, I seem to have developed a bit of a fetish for the icy chill of dowsing oneself into very cold water. There is a strangely satisfying tonic effect that one experiences (maybe a dopamine rush?) Probably an acquired taste (not for everyone).

David baked his own baguettes

We have taken a few canoe trips in the past several weeks, although wind has been a factor as well as the hazard of cold water. (We can't risk capsizing). We also had a cookout outdoors with s'mores and hotdogs, although many days we have preferred inside activities, like baking bread and doing puzzles.

Henry and Bunny visiting

Despite social distancing, we have had the chance to see our parents several times this month. Both sets have come out to Charter Hall at different times. It is about 50 minutes away from where both sets of parents live. My mom and dad came out last week. We have to be especially careful with them because they live in a retirement community and have very strict regulations about leaving and going out. This is because they live with over 1000 other people over 75 and there is zero-tolerance for a coronavirus exposure. (We are not even allowed to go onto the campus to visit them.) We have really enjoyed seeing them out here twice, although one day we were sitting outside in a 50mph wind. The second time was sunny and calm though.

cookout by the bay

We have been to see Rebecca's parents almost every weekend at their house, They are in the midst of spring gardening and even added a large new garden in their front lawn (where they took out a bunch of weed trees). We have helped them haul horse manure to fertilize their vegetable garden, mowed the lawn, weeded, planted, and David and I have been building a brick pathway through their new front garden. We usually have dinner with them afterwards on their back porch and enjoy seeing the bluebirds, red-winged blackbirds and other species that gather at their feeders while we eat.

On Mother's Day, we enjoyed a lot of social time: a Zoom gathering of our international Bible study spanning 4 continents got us started off at 7 in the morning. We had a Zoom church service mid-morning, which includes the opportunity to actually share prayer requests with our community or offer reflections on the sermon. We shared an online Mother's day lunch with my parents (on Zoom once again), that included my brother's family also. In a great act of generosity, the pastor of our home church here drove all the way out to see us and sit 8 feet away with a mask on so that we could talk and pray together. And finally we enjoyed a lovely end of the day with Rebecca's parents coming out to walk, share a cup of coffee and conversation on the sunny lawn, and then have a ham dinner together.

Bird migration puzzle

Work-life, although all online, has been momentous. I am not at liberty at this time to talk about all of the changes that are going on at MCC related to the coronavirus crisis, but it has required us to be diligent in preparing contingency budgets and plans for our program and projects. It is very hard, in this time of uncertainty, to plan effectively with so many 'unknown unknowns'.

We hear optimistic, probably 'too good to be true,' news from Tanzania. The President wants to open schools and sporting events and has lifted quarantines on international travel. Tourism is supposed to return fully by August. It is hard to know what to believe, there are no more official reports about the number of cases or fatalities. I would like to believe they have passed through the epidemiological curve and are in decline, but have no data to confirm this. We are still planning our return for the beginning of August.

I think school remains the biggest challenge and we need to get through the end of June with the kids before they have a break. We will keep you updated in the weeks ahead. This coming week, we will shift into another empty vacation house on the same peninsula, as we need to vacate the retreat center. Maybe groups will be allowed to use the place again soon.

I am posting a photo essay of life here in the past few weeks with some captions.

Great Heron

Bald Eagles

Black Racer

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