Year 2--Back into the Fray

Rebecca writing again:

No smiling faces at 6am breakfast for day 1 at school.

This morning, reality hit. Our alarms went off at 5 am. The school supplies had been assembled. Bags were packed the night before with water and a snack. School uniforms had been laid out in advance. We left the house at 6:45. Not everyone was happy about it. Some of the younger members of our family had been enjoying sleeping in until 7:30 up until yesterday. Thus, there is no “smiling, walking out the door on the first day of school” picture. Just to be sure things got off to a good start, we drove the kids to school this morning. And, as of today, we have completed the two months of school break and (in my mind) officially started the second year of our assignment with MCC.

mourners at Upendo's funeral

Let me step back to last week. The biggest event for the community where we live was the funeral for Upendo, which took place on Tuesday. All weekend, our neighbor’s house was packed with visitors, mostly outside on benches, keeping the young widowed father of 3 company. I went over late on Monday evening and sat for a while with an older aunt and several younger women. Some of them were just sitting silently and wearily. A few were teary. The aunt just seemed to want to chat about all kinds of things with me, and not just about Upendo’s death. I guess the point of such visits is being present with those who are grieving – it’s less about having something profound to say.

On Tuesday morning, a large group went to collect Upendo’s body and bring her back in procession from the morgue, as a way of honoring her. I was watching my kids and the young children of some other neighbors on the compound, as a way of enabling them to attend the funeral and grieve freely. Paul attended the funeral as the official representative from our family. He may have more to say about it here.

Rebecca and Godliving birdwatching

Wednesday happened to be a public holiday, and we made very good use of the day out as a family. Through our church choir, we have gotten to know a young Tanzanian man named Godliving Shoo. He is a member of a birdwatching club and offered to take us out on a birdwatching trip. So, we did something completely new and drove out to a nearby lake, less than 40 minutes away. Lake Duluti is fairly small at just 1 km across, but it’s a crater lake (the opening of a collapsed volcano) and is estimated to be 700 m deep! There’s a nice trail around the periphery of the lake, and one could probably complete it in an hour.

Black crowned night heron

We took almost four hours, however, because there were so many birds to look at along the way. Godliving and his fellow club member Lina were very skilled at spotting and identifying the birds we saw. I know a lot of the families of birds I see, from experience in Botswana and Burundi, but I am still learning to identify the different species here. I was also grateful for the patience of our guides as they would point out a bird and ask me what I thought I was seeing and help me sort through the options to come to the right identification. Godliving had one of those bird-call apps on his phone and a few times he played it loud enough to attract real birds of the same species so that we could see and identify them. It was a bit funny to see the puzzled looks on the faces of the Olive-gray greenbuls as they tried to understand who was calling!

We also saw some impressively large monitor lizards, both sunbathing and swimming. A pair of blue monkeys were hanging out in a tree as we passed. David enjoyed trying his hand at fishing for the first time in Arusha. He didn’t catch any fish, but did get a large crayfish that grabbed his bait and would not let go. Oren was a good sport through the walk and bird watching. He would probably have preferred to just hike at a steady pace, rather than stop and look at things, but he was relatively patient.

By the time we were finished with our outing, it was almost time for choir. We grabbed an ice cream for the kids and then went straight to church to practice our music for the upcoming Harvest Festival at the end of September. Again, the young guys weren’t so happy to go from one thing to the next, but they have learned how to entertain themselves around the church property.

On Thursday, Paul went to work as usual, while the kids and I drove out to my bible study group in the West part of town. I’m glad that David enjoys playing with the other little kids who come. He also had lots of fun collecting guavas from someone’s tree. Oren brought his book and curled up in a bedroom to read for a while. I enjoyed a more intimate time to catch up with some of the members of our bible study. One woman is expecting a baby any day now. We are praying fervently for a safe, healthy, complication free delivery for her. It was a poignant reminder of the realities of childbirth that most women in the world face, as we also prayed for Upendo’s bereaved family. The birth of a healthy new baby is a gift and grace, and not an entitlement – something we take for granted in the west.

On our way back towards home, I attempted to get a few new uniform pieces for my kids. Sadly, the uniform shop at school had still not received the new stock. So, our kids went to school in their old uniforms – a bit tight, worn and untidy, but at least they had something to wear. I noted that this afternoon, the new uniforms still hadn’t come in! 

On Friday after work, we enjoyed sharing conversation and dinner with our friend Prof. Wilfred Mlay. He has served as the ambassador of the Great Lakes Initiative for Reconciliation among Christian leaders. I’ve known him since 2010 and have really valued any time we get to share together. He’s officially retired from the GLI but still very busy with it and it was lovely to catch up on the news of what is planned for next January. He had never been to Gymkhana before, so I was glad we could show him our verdant little get-away.

Most of my Saturday was taken up with church activities – a worship committee meeting, and then rehearsal for leading worship music on Sunday. I guess I’m crazy for enjoying church committees, but I find it stimulating to think through how things can be done well and faithfully in the Christian community. The drawback of this activity was that Paul was left alone with the kids for most of the day. I think they wore him out, because he really wasn’t feeling well by late afternoon when I got home.

I’m also so grateful for the young adults who have been willing to join me each time in being part of an ad hoc worship team. In the end, on Sunday, two women joined as singers and two young men played guitar and drums. It was a family service, and we’d picked songs the children had learned in Sunday school. Paul even led motions for the whole congregation on two songs. We had fun!

The one snag in our Sunday was that Oren also started feeling very unwell. It is still unclear to us whether he is sick with a parasite, or whether the start-up of school is taking its toll on his nerves. We would appreciate prayers for the anxiety he feels in starting this school year.

Bonus Photo:  Oren painting 'Foxy' on his wall to give make his room more his own.

Grounding and grief

Nasturtiums, cilantro and german flowers

Rebecca writing this week: We have been back in Arusha for a week now. Since we arrived in a state of complete exhaustion, jet lag was not such a big problem for us, although there was one night when Oren woke up around 4 am and couldn't get himself back to sleep. If it's only one night, that's not so bad, I guess. I was glad to see that my flowers in pots actually grew while we were away, and the gardener had done a good job helping a nice crop of beetroot to thrive. 


Paul immediately went back to work on Monday morning, after taking his freezing cold swim. He had a lot of reports to receive and read over, and didn't waste any time getting through them all by Wednesday. I needed to greet our housekeeper Nai and make sure things were OK with her on Monday morning. So I worked from home on Monday morning, and tried to keep the kids going on unpacking and cleaning their rooms in the meantime. It was a real joy to talk on the phone with one of our International Volunteer Exchange Program participants, right before he got on the plane to head to an assignment in Goshen, Indiana. Our second participant is still waiting for her visa to come through from Canada. It's a real nail-biter in her case.

Nai outside our house

In the early afternoon, I dropped the kids off at the Alliance Francaise, where I signed them up for French tutoring three afternoons a week. The kids were not very pleased to hear about this strategy for me to get some more work hours in the office and for them to get ready for school. However, we promised them a movie and slushie at the end of the week if they cooperated. And Oren really needs a little extra help. Despite having learned to read and write in French, back at the Belgian school in Burundi, he was able to completely forget everything he ever knew. It was the most difficult subject for him last year (not counting Kiswahili) and he will need to continue with it in Year 9. We are hoping that 12 hours of study and conversation wtih a real Swiss Francophone in these two weeks might begin to unlock the deeply buried knowlege that we trust is somehow still inside his brain... and at least make his life a little easier for the year to come.

Mt Meru from Gymkhana golf course Tuesday evening

I don't generally work on Tuesdays, and so the kids and I were able to have a more relaxed day. We started a game of Monopoly which we have yet to finish. Oren began work on a big artistic project which will involve transforming his room and making it more homelike for him. It was a truly glorious day, in terms of weather, maybe a bit like a crisp clear fall day on the East Coast, and so we took a few walks around the compound. David has really enjoyed reconnecting with our young neighbor Josiah and they've spent quite a bit of time playing around outside. In the late afternoon, we met Paul at Gymkhana and enjoyed some exercise there: David jumped in the pool (crazy kid!) and Oren and I used the treadmills. I was so proud of Oren for running a 5k voluntarily!

women's bible study

On my other non-office day, I took the kids along with me to Bible study. David was really happy to play with a few other kids who hadn't yet started school. It was really good to catch up with the other women after 6 weeks. Sadly, we were saying goodbye to yet another longtime member of the group. At this point I think there are only 3 people who are part of the group who have been in Arusha more than a year. This is a very transitory community! On the way home, we picked up three of Oren's school friends. They had a really great time reconnecting, talking a lot about video games, and just enjoying being guys together.

baptismal pool from our balcony

Alan and Simon baptize Adam

There were a few other fun things that happened on the compound this week, apart from the really refreshing walks that Paul and I (and sometimes the kids) have been taking every evening. On Thursday afternoon our little swimming pool was cleaned and filled with water for the first time, for the purpose of baptizing two people on the Joshua Foundation team. One young man was from the US and really felt the call to be baptized as an adult believer (he had been baptized as an infant). The other person was a team member from the local community. As renters, we are not quite on the team, but it was really nice to observe the baptism and celebrate with them.  After that, we all enjoyed a big potluck team dinner together and again, it was good to catch up with our neighbors. 

Playing cards at George's after church

In other news, we enjoyed our typical Friday evening at Gymkhana. We even all got into the pool. I was really happy to try out my new wetsuit and to find that it is just as wonderful as Paul promised! It's warm and bouyant! I hope I'll be able to swim laps again soon, as soon as the kids are back in school. On Saturday evening we invited another new family to come share dinner with us. They are starting a Young Life ministry here for third culture kids at the International Schools in town. I've been getting to know the woman, Mary Beth, in bible study, but it was great to spend time talking with both of them. Our kids enjoyed being with their little girls, too. Today, we enjoyed church again, and then a nice lunch at George's with former MCC friends here in town, Neil, Christy and her brother Dan. 

All of these good and grounding events have been taking place during a week of great sadness. On Wednesday, I learned that one of the women who cleans our office block had lost her husband. He was a young man, who happened to have a motorcycle accident. His injuries didn't seem that severe, so he didn't go to the hospital until two weeks later. By that time, he had developed some sort of serious complications and he died within two days. I have known far too many people already this year who have been killed or seriously injured after a boda-boda accident.

Even more shocking was the news we received on Friday at noon. The week before we returned, our neighbor Upendo had given birth by c-section to their third child. She worked as an accountant and her husband Archbold is the principal of the teacher training college here at Joshua Foundation. We would often talk with him early in our stay here, as he brough his 4 & 5 year old kids to play on the trampoline on the base. And then Friday morning, about 10 days after delivering, Upendo suddenly didn't feel well. Her husband got her into the car and they were on their way to the hospital but she died on the way. No one really knows the cause, but it was almost certainly a complication related to the c-section. I had to break the news to Nai, and she was absolutely devastated, along with all the other staff here on base who had known and loved Upendo. She and another housekeeper usually share lunch outside, but that day they shared only tears. 

Since Friday afternoon, there has been a steady stream of friends and relatives walking past our house and going to sit and spend time with Archbold and the extended family. Paul and I went over yesterday to pay our respects, and I think there were at least a hundred people there, just sitting and grieving together with the family. Sometimes we have been hearing wailing. Other times, fervent and loud prayers are drifting over the hedges. We didn't know Upendo well personally, and so I guess it's a wierd feeling to be immersed in so much communal grief without a deep personal connection. But it is just so horrible to think of Archbold now needing to raise 3 little kids (including a newborn) on his own. And it makes me very angry to know of yet another needless death, due to an inadequate medical system. 

Since coming back, Oren has asked several times: Mommy, why do we always have to go live in a developing country? I've tried the bigger picture: because development is the kind of work we do. The problems are big and complex here, and it's good to try to think through with our kids all the layers of development that need attention. Oren and I had a long talk about how if you need better education, you need better-trained teachers, and better salaries and resources to attract more qualified personnel. Classrooms size should be 30 not 200, which also means limiting family size, which requires changes in cultural expectations and behavior.  But maybe it's better to be more specific: we're here to help prevent the kind of suffering Upendo's family is going through now, if there is any small way we can do that. 

Vacation's End: Reflections on a High School Reunion and Charter Hall

David fishing at Charter Hall.

It's about 11pm here in Arusha. We have been back for a bit less than 24 hours and I want to get a blog posted before starting back to work tomorrow morning. A whole new set of activities will start then--more the feel of another beginning, and I want to savor the events of the final 2 weeks of our time in the US. I could say vacation, but returning home for an annual visit does not have the contours of a vacation. Often, a home leave after any amount of time away involves much relationship maintenance and rebuilding. Catching up with friends and family can be both physically and emotionally exhausting, yet the work put in, like cultivating a good vineyard, yields fruit over time for many years, and generations to come.

I don't think I can sum up all of the individual reunions we had. The time however, divided itself into four fairly even segments. As I mentioned in the last post, we spent the first week and Rebecca's parents' house and had time with my brother's family who came up and saw us from Nashville. The second week, we housesat for Rebecca's brother who lives in our old neighborhood and we had many opportunities to catch up with our 'homies'.

 The third week was a special treat as I had made plans for Rebecca and I to go to North Carolina for my highschool reunion. This was to be a trip for the two of us to Black Mountain and we were looking forward to having a little time together without the kids. Our parents very generously agreed to watch them for four days. Most of the time they were with Rebecca's parents, but twice they took turns visiting my parents and apparently had a blast and helped out with many chores and activities including, mowing lawns, making melon balls and jam, and picking apples and tomatoes.  We drove down in my dad's Honda fit. It would be about a 7 hour drive but we added a stop at a town near Winston-Salem to see my brother Mark's family. We got there in the late afternoon and saw Mark, Christine, and their daughter Grace. It was good to catch up with them albeit briefly. They made us beef brisket which
kicked off a long string of tasty Southern dishes that we partook in during our visit.

We headed on to Black Mountain in the evening and got there by 10pm. The reunion spanned 5 days at this very cool old YMCA resort. I will not forget walking into the lounge that connected most of the rooms and seeing over dozen older but familiar faces sitting around chatting. (No one had gone to bed.)

It might be a good time to answer the question of why a high school reunion would go beyond a single afternoon or evening. Or why people would come quite literally from all over the world to be at their 40th reunion. The answer is that I graduated from a school called Woodstock, located in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in a town called Mussoorie in Northern India. It was a mission boarding school that is now a well known International school. My classmates were an amazingly eclectic group of people from all over the world. I think 50 of us represented about 20 different countries. We were diverse in terms of social classes as well, missionary kids, diplomatic and military kids, kids of oil company execs, many children of Indian businessmen, pilots, doctors, statesmen. And kids of every faith-- Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim. We all lived together, and I believe that the time spent living together in this remote place without our familes, built us into a cohesive community. We were all family to each other, and going to this reunion, the fourth one I have attended, felt like coming back to see one's favorite childhood cousins. We don't keep up much beyond Facebook but when we are together, it is a special time.

We usually have reunions in India on the 5 year marks and in the US on the 10 year marks to accomodate as many as possible. I can only describe the time together as deeply renewing. One of the really fun things was cooking together. One of the alums from the class below us, James Hackney, offered to coordinate all meals and be head chef if we would be prep cooks and cleaners. It was fun to work together and James made some amazing meals including one of the best Indian meals I have had in the US, as well as a North Carolina barbecue, smoked for about 10 hours that was to die for.

Other activities we did included a hike--since hiking in the Himalayas was our 'screen time' at Woodstock. (That was the main activity we did when we were not in school.)  We found, however, that we were not as young as we used to be and ascending 2000 feet in two miles was far easier than going down, and many of us were staggering down with very sore knees. But we did have a great time doing it.

The best part were the 2nd and 3rd evenings (over the weekend) when most everyone was there. There were about 20 of us of our class of 50, and on thos nights we sat around a campfire and shared one-by-one what we have been doing, our successes, failures. It is probably anathema to most people to imagine going back to your graduating class to be completely vulnerable and share your heart. But with this group it was possible. I cannot describe what a moving and renewing experience it was.

I made one observation about our 40th reunion during my talk. It was that the past 2 I had attended, 20 and 25, we were all still looking at the arc of our lives and seeing that we were still on the side of it that was rising. (I used an image of us as arrows shot from bows in 1978.) Now at 40, we seem to have generally crested. The top of the arc is somewhere behind us. And that does not mean we are at the end of our life, but I think part of the capacity to be vulnerable comes from the fact that we are not in the phase of 'striving'. We are mature and able to 'take stock' as it were, of what is good, and what is not, and talk about it. In my own time of sharing I compared my life to a very ambitious hike a group of us did in our senior year to the source of the Jumna river, and then tried to summit a peak called 'Bundarpunch', which is 20,700 feet. It was on a glacier and we tried 3 times to climb it with only 1 pick ax between about 6 of us. It was crazy and we never made it, but we did get to around 18,000 feet on a glacier. In my life I feel like I have always been a striver. I generally have the perseverence to aim high--to summit, albeit ill-prepared and somewhat naively--a high peak. I had the courage to try again and again despite several failures, and like our ascent to Bundarpunch, I never made it to the top. But I do not regret the exhileration I feel from having stood at 18,000 feet.

My life continues to feel like an adventure and that climbing experience at Woodstock was a good metaphor for it. It was good to be in the company of some of those who were with me on that trip-- Mits, Mark Liechty, Stuart Gelzer, and remember it as well. It was also good to hear about the successes and challenges of classmates. Many have accomplished impressive things in their careers, several teachers, artists, engineers, academics, diplomats, policy makers, faith leaders, authors, nurses, health professionals at NIH and CDC, corporate executives, a radio personality, one even ended up in Hollywood--all of them shaped by their experience of being third culture kids. That is probably another thing that gives us such a feeling of family.

Rebecca even felt included in that group for that reason.  She has known some of them from past reunions, but also shares the experience of growing up out of one's own culture. Rebecca and I did have some time to do some hiking and swimming together without the group. I also was happy that my brother Mark came down for one afternoon as he was a graduate of the class of 1980 and knew most everyone there.

I left feeling very joyful, like I had had a faith renewal. And it was that although I don't think I can fully explain why. Perhaps because it is good to laugh and cry with people who you love and have not seen for a very long time. I look forward to going back to Woodstock for number 45 in 2023.

Rebecca and I retuned home on Monday of our third week and had to do a number of doctors appointments and other errands. It was busy. We also spent some time with our parents again going between homes for different meals including a Maryland crab feast! Dave and Jean joined us one evening at my parents retirement home and we had a great time with the kids playing bocce ball. There is a very nice court and we played for a few hours. It was good to this with both sides of our family. The children also did some outings with Rebecca while I attended a conference in DC one day. They went to the Baltimore zoo which is another old haunt we used to enjoy. I don't know if seeing the safari animals they see in the wild here was as satisfying this time around though.

On the following Sunday, our last in Baltimore, I did a presentation of the MCC program in Tanzania, then Rebecca preached a sermon. It was a very poignant message, I believe, that captured the challenge of what identity in Christ means in our country at this cultural moment, when identity itself has become somewhat of an obsession. She treated the subject thoughtfully and gently using a text from James 1. I am attaching a link to the sermon below if you are interested in hearing it. It will also be available in higher fidelity from the North Baltimore Mennonite Church website.

The last week, we returned to Charter Hall. I don't know if I can do this place poetic justice because I have described it in so many past blogs and cannot muster the metaphors at this late hour. But it is a retreat center on an estuary of the Chesapeake Bay of which Rebecca's parents are part owners. It has been a part of her childhood, a part of our whole married life, and the entire life of our children. It has a dock house and a lodge. We usually stay in the former and enjoy the simple pleasures like canoeing, kayaking, fishing, swimming, watching wildlife-- bald eagles and otters this year. To our children it is magical and one of the few things for which they will happily give up days of screen time.

We went up on Sunday afternoon with Rebecca's parents and stayed the night. On Monday we hosted my parents and some very old family friends (Louise, and Charlene) along with Rebecca's folks. It was good to spend time with them and remember our youth (since Rebecca and I grew up in the same circle of friends.) David spent every moment divising ways to catch minnows which he then used to catch bigger fish. Oren was content to be indoors more and we played, off and on, a 3 day game of Axis and Allies-- a WWII game that is quite involved. Each round of turns can take an hour. (I'm happy to say that the Allies did win that game.)

On Monday night through Wednesday we invited another family, Bill and Ashley, with their kids Liam and Oz to join us. Liam is David's age but Oz is only 4. Oren, however, really hit it off with him as Oz is very extroverted and quite funny. They spent much of one afternoon on a kayak with Oren paddling and Oz sitting crosslegged on the bow with a supersoaker which he used to squirt anyone in a boat who came near.

We had a nice time having some adult time with Bill and Ashley as well. The weekend was not complete without a campfire and smores on the last night. We departed in the afternoon on Wednesday and got home for dinner at Dave and Jean's that evening. (We wisely got the latest flu shot on the way home at a pharmacy since we can't easily get it in Arusha.)

Thursday was mostly dedicated to packing. We had to distribute the weight of all our new purchases for ourselves and friends between 8 suitcases. Rebecca is the master logician at that. (I pack them all into the van.) We had our last supper with Rebecca and my parents on Thursday night. It was a sweet time but it really felt like we had transitioned from vacation back to our life in TZ when we left Chareter Hall and started packing. We spent the time thinking ahead, rather than back in our conversations that night.

We went to bed late despite the fact that we had to get up at 5am and leave for Dulles airport at 6. The flight back was somewhat grueling. Again, the giant A380 was packed full and I was not sitting together with Rebecca and the kids. Fortunately the person next to me did get up frequently which allowed me to move and walk around. I watched many movies from the Marvel comic series in the 13 hours back to Dubai. We had a short layoover there but about 6 hours in Dar Es Salaam.

Dar was as bad as we feared it might be. Since it was our first stop in TZ we suspected we would have to retrieve all of our bags and go through customs-- we did. (Despite the fact that at Dulles we were assured that bags would be checked to Arusha, in our experience, you have to go through customs and immigration at first port of entry.) What was worse was the switch to the domestic terminal to get a small airline (Precision) back to Arusha. They were not able to check us in more than 2 hours before the flight so we had to hang out in the terminal by the gate where there was no seating, no restaurants, and 8 bags and two very tired cranky kids. (Hooray for computers and internet!) We spent about 3 hours on the dirty concrete floor sitting among our bags before could check in. The plane was slightly delayed to arrive but we left about 8:30 pm for Arusha and arrived and out of the airport by 10pm. Our taxi driver was waiting for us, and took us the last hour and 45 minutes home. We arrived around midnight, dead tired and slept easily through the night.

We did get up and go to church (because we never miss church;-) and then had lunch at George's Tavern so David could have seafood pizza. The kids have 2 more weeks without school, and I cannot say Oren was thrilled to be back. He really misses America. But I am ready to be back to work tomorrow, so I am signing off now. Thanks to all of you who read this blog and especially those who we were able to see in the past month in Baltimore and North Carolina.

Bonus link: Rebecca's sermon here

Summer Vacation-- Midway

Burj Khalifa displaying World Cup score.

This is overdue I think. I generally try to give a weekly update, although I am less inclined to do so on vacation, as we are visiting many of our readers. Also, for anyone who has come home for a short break from overseas. you know how over-programmed each day can be. We are about midway in our summer vacation at this point.

The first 10 days seemed like a whirlwind. But it is worth trying to go back and recount some of it, if for no better reason that being able to read over it in the future. Our journey home was a bit of an adventure in itself and may be pique the curiosity of others. We have been planning this vacation for over 6 months because getting on the work calendar and securing some kind of reasonably priced plane tickets takes quite a bit of planning. We spent a long time looking for a good deal and finally found one on Air Emarates. It involved a hop from Arusha to Dar, then another longer flight to Dubai, where we would be laid over for 10 hours then board a gigantic A380 (double decker plane) and fly to Dulles in 15 hours non-stop. It was daunting but the price was right.

We also decided that it would be fun to have a look around Dubai as long as we had a long layover. We knew it was the shopping capital of the world and wanted to see what it was like. We had to leave our house about 5 in the morning and got a cab to the airport. The first 2 flights were on an airline called Fly Dubai, which was by far the most cut-rate airline I have ever flown. the plane was a very old 737 on which nothing seemed to work. (In terms of all the in-flight entertainment.) It also needed a paint job. We only saw the flight crew pass through once, and offered no service unless you had pre-paid for something. The saving grace was that we were 4 of about a dozen people on the whole flight. It kind of reminded me of those Las Vegas flights that are super cheap to get you to the casinos. (I took one once for a job interview.)

The comparison to Vegas did not end there, because Dubai is like a super-gigantic version of Las Vegas (without the casinos.) It might be hard to imagine Las Vegas as a small provincial kind of town, but that is how it seemed. Like Vegas, Dubai is built in the middle of a desert. I don't even know how they create enough fresh water for it, but it has the feeling of a lush oasis, despite the 110F temperature we landed in at 6pm. I have to say, I have never seen anything that looks so big, super modern, and yet entirely Arabic. Every detail of architecture. It was like being on another planet.

It is also a very odd juxtaposition of traditional and modern, especially evident in the clothing of women there. Many were dressed from head to toe in  black burkas, completely covered. Others wore cut-offs and sleeveless shirts. All of them usually had noses buried in a cell phone or tablet.

We decided to take public transit, which was very nice to the Dubai Mall. But we were constantly flumoxxed about where we could stand. As a man, I was often in a separate section of the bus of subway from Rebecca and the children. It was also rush hour which made staying together tricky.

We finally got to the Dubai Mall which was like nothing I have ever seen, in terms of size. (And I have been to the Mall of America in MN!). The place had ice rinks, cinemas, and an aquarium the size of the largest tank in the National Aquarium in Baltimore, complete with sharks and numerous other sea creatures. Every brand name store in the world had an outlet there. The Apple store was 3 stories tall.

But the biggest attraction was right outdoors as the mall was right next to the Burj Khalifa. The tallest building in the world at 2700+ feet is over 1000 feet taller than the new One World Trade Center building in NYC. We were there in the evening and it offered an astounding light show that included all the fountains in the large ponds that surrounded it (gushing millions of gallons of water), and the tower itself had special effects lights from top to bottom. I included a short video clip at the bottom. The whole place is so absurdly excessive, it really has to be seen to be believed.

We returned by metro to the airport and got on our flight. Since the plane was so gigantic I was expecting that the flight would not be full. I was very disappointed to find that not only had every seat had been filled. But our family was not together. 3 were in one row, but we did not have the 4th seat. I sat in the row behind in the very middle of the middle with no aisle access. It was quite uncomfortable because I like to walk around on long flights but the guys around me were like logs and never moved-except begrudgingly-when I asked. Despite the more than 300 movies, shows, games, etc, available, it was not a good flight for me because I got sick on the way--fever, chills, cough. I arrived with a bad cold.

One of the problems with a flight that large, happened to us. Since there are more than 850 people on board, if 1 person has a problem, the flight cannot leave. That happened on the runway, someone was having heart problems. So the plane had to turn back to the terminal. Getting a medical crew then off-loading the person and also their baggage took an hour and a half and the plane also had to refuel. So we had to add that time to our 15 hours. I basically put myself into a state of suspended animation that I have learned from riding a very crowded bus for 16 hours across the Serengetti from Arusha to Musoma. I arrived feeling quite worn out and sick.

Building a bird house

We stayed up the first day since we arrived in the morning, and by the time we fell asleep we were able to sleep through the night. So we got on schedule pretty well. Our first full day was a Friday. The kids were thrilled to be here, we were picked up by Rebecca's mom, Jean and we stayed at Dave and Jean's house in Fallston, MD. We had dinner with my parents the first day at their retirement apartment, and it was good to catch up with them as my mom had been having issues with her eyes. They also gave us use of their Honda Fit which has been a Godsend to get around in. It was great to see them. David and Oren immediately got busy doing things they love to do on Grandma Jean's 'farm' including harvesting vegetables; David started work immediatly on building a bird house; berries were picked, kids helped with chores like washing the van, and driving the tractor mower.  A trip to nearby "Annies Playground" a neighborhood fixture close to Dave and Jean's house was also de rigeur on day 2.

My presentation at CCIH

Despite being sick, I spent the first two days attending a conference. It was the annual conference of the CCIH (Christian Connections for International Health). I actually planned this as two work days to extend our vacation so it was not unexpected and was very satisfying to be part of. It is always inspiring to be among some of the great pioneers of global community health. (Including my father who was there as well.) I was honored to present a paper on MCC's work in maternal and child health in Ngorongoro conservation region. It was very well received as some of the funding comes from a donor who was in attendance. I was very happy to have been able to get some data from clinics just days before I left as the project is fairly new and we are waiting to see results. The conference lasted 2 days and I felt very affirmed about the work we are doing, and inspired to see many projects at a much greater scale that are being done by Christian health and development organizations around the world.

My brother Jonathan and his wife Emma and son Fletcher arrived from Nashville on Saturday. We caught up with them on Sunday at church. (We went to North Baltimore Mennonite Church-- our home church on the first Sunday back.) It was great to catch up with many friends, and no one enjoyed it more than the cousins: Miriam, Oren, David, Gabriel, Fletcher. On Sunday evening we had a big Birthday gathering for Rebecca and Oren (who had had Birthdays), Rebecca's brother's family, my brother Jonathan's family, and both our sets of parents were there. It was a very nice reunion and we grilled a ton of salmon and corn on the cob and asparagus--things that we cannot get in Arusha.

Grandma Jean and kids
at aquarium.

We spent the rest of the week with my brother Jonathan and cousin Fletcher. Fletcher stayed the night with us at Rebecca's house several days. Going to the National Aquarium on Tuesday and Hershey Park PA on Wednesday were among the highlights. The aquarium was one of our favorite places to go when we lived here and it was great to see all the exhibits, pet the hermit crabs, and rays, gape at the sublime, gorgeously lit jelly fish exhibit , and cringe at the toothy sharks slowly circling in their gigantic aquatic rotunda, inches from our faces.

Oren and Fletcher
in line for roller coaster.

We took cousins Miriam and Gabriel with us to Hershey Park the next day. We spent about 13 hours of the day there from 10 am to 11pm. It was a blast for everyone. I even tried all of the most crazy daredevil roller coasters. I have to say, the technology has changed a ton since I was a kid and it takes nerve to be willing to strap yourself into a seat for most of them. David enjoyed the water park area the most which is quite vast as well. We ended the day with a trip through a model of the chocolate factory, then headed home and got back after 1am.  It was a hard drive back. Fortunately I was pretty wired after all the roller coasters.

 At the end of last week, we spent the last 2 days with my brother Jonathan and Fletcher (Emma had to go back early for work) at a house on the Chesapeake Bay. This was a place generously lent to us by Rebecca's cousin Dan (who was also a childhood friend of mine). It was a beautiful waterfront property with a dock. We had a very relaxing 2 days there, reading, playing games (Werewolf), swimming, kayaking, and fishing. Fishing was excellent off the pier and David loved to use his little net to catch minnows, then use the minnows on a hook to catch bigger fish. He caught a half dozen fish easily as he is quite a natural. We actually went swimming at a nearby beach as jumping in was possible right in front of the house, but there was quite a bit of sea grass there. We did go kayaking right off the pier as that was not a problem for the grass in the water.

David picking blueberries

We returned Friday night and had pizza with my parents at their retirement apartment, with Jon and Fletcher as it was their last night there and they left the next morning. David still had the fishing bug on Saturday and we went out to the little Gunpowder near Rebecca's parents' house to try to catch some trout. Rebecca and her mom took a very long walk in the woods in the area as well. What was amusing, was that we did this all despite a steady rain that fell the entire day. No one really seemed to care about gettting wet as it was not too cold.

Saturday evening, we made a move. We packed our stuff and came over to Rebecca's brother's house (Paul and Gwendolyn). They were going with their kids Miriam and Gabriel to a softball tournament somewhere down south and left us their house for the week. It is great to have a place to ourselves for a change, but even better, it is in our old neighborhood, about half a block from our own house which we are renting to some Ethiopian friends. It is good to be able to do some things we like in the old neighborhood. David immediatlely ran down to the stream and started catching minnows. We took them out dutifully to Loch Raven, a favorite fishing reservoir and tried to catch some bigger fish. It was not going badly, but we did get rained out again after about an hour.

We went to church again this past Sunday and Rebecca ended up leading music because of someone being sick. It was good again to see many friends, especially because people are in and out in the summer. We had lunch with the Stutzman's whose kids Jacob and Lizzie were some of Oren's best friends. They had a very good time together.

David Jack and Hallie

We have plans to meet with friends every day this week, pretty much every meal. Oren is currently playing with Roman, another neighborhood friend while David visits Jack and Hallie, two kids who lived across the street.

It is quite interesting to see how much children change in their age groups, everyone has become much taller and more mature. I am also struck that despite the difficulty. The move to TZ has been good. Oren and David did well in school and were able to make new friends there. I also see that many of the things that they had taken for granted or even treated as rights here, are now seen as the privileges and opportunities that they are. I hope, when we return for good in 2020, they can remember the simple things that are good here, like friends, family, sidewalks, properties without walls, playgrounds, parks, and long summer evenings.

Bonus Movie, Burj Khalifa light show

A Flurry of Visitors before Vacation

David and friend Samuel on safari.

Its a Monday evening and the last chance I will have to write before our 4 week departure from Tanzania. Actually we will leave this coming Wednesday (departing the house around 5:30 am), but Tuesday evening will certainly be busy doing last minute packing.

Although the kids have been out of school for over a week, nothing else about this time feels like 'summer vacation'. For one thing, it is very cold! (We consider night temps in the 50s to be cold.) We tend to wear sweaters or light jackets all day and have some small space heaters at the office to keep our feet warm at our desks. But it is not only the weather that does not feel very 'vacationy', it is also the work that has been quite busy in the last week. Sharon our country rep. did get back from her trip to Ethiopia so I am not filling in for her, but we are at the point in the MCC calendar year when new proposal concepts are due and this has meant scrambling to finalize these papers and do some prefunctory evaluations of projects in progress that are due to end.

I have been able to keep ahead of the jaws of the snapping wolves, but just barely as I need to finish all of these before we leave Wednesday. Many other things have been happening at the same time that are more relational, and consequently a bit more exhausting. Our friends Kate and James left last Sunday, but on Monday we were welcoming two new guests. They were Deus and Gladys, our IVEP volunteers for next year.

IVEP is an MCC program that sends young people from LMICs (Lower  and middle income countries) to the US and Canada for a year abroad to work in the context of a Mennonite community. It is an exciting program for those selected and the process for selecting Deus and Gladys was competitive although ultimately they were chosen by their peers as the two finalists. We invited them to Arusha (one lives in Dodoma, the other Dar Es Salaam) to have an orientation of living in an American host family. They both arrived by Monday evening and we brought them home with us, having just cleaned out Kate and James' rooms. They stayed with us until Thursday morning.

During our time with them we had a good time. We prepared them American food (like burritos:-), Rebecca took them to the office for 2 days for various types of orientation including meeting the MCC team and becoming familiar with MCC programs. They also had a chance to talk to a former IVEPer about the challenges he faced. (All the food tasted bad to him when he got there.) Relationships were a big topic. Here in TZ, being seen talking to a member of the opposite sex in public, if you are not married, is tantamount to announcing your engagement. We had to explain that in the US, a person of the opposite sex being conversational and friendly may not be expressing any romantic interest whatsoever. The IVEPers acknowledged that all the secrecy around dating and relationships here in TZ was often quite confusing.

One evening we went over to Gymkhana and watched the Switzerland /Sweden World Cup game. They are avid football fans and had a lot to say about the game and other teams in the quarterfinals. On their last night we played some card/board games and explained to them that many Mennonites love board games. They were excited about the prospect of learning some, but except for Scrabble and Chutes and Ladders which they had played in elementary school, they said that playing these kinds of games was not something they ever really did with their families.

Zoe with host mom and brother.

They left early Thursday morning and I went for a day of work while Rebecca had the kids. On Friday, though we went as a family to Longido to pick up Zoe our SALT volunteer who is just finishing her term, and brought her back to Arusha. We brought the pick-up to Longido and went and got her luggage at her host family's house, where there were tearful goodbyes. Then we went to the partner where she was seconded and said good bye there. When we got back to Arusha, we had a lunch with Zoe at George's restaurant for her and the MCC staff.

Zoe spent Saturday night with us, then Rebecca went with her to the airport on Sunday afternoon after church. It felt like a busy day because I did my last Sunday School teaching before our break. I had about 65 kids. It was nice to have the house guest free Sunday evening until the power went off and left us without lights for the night and part of the next day. It is hard to get off to work in the morning with no lights. Fortunately the kids did not have to go to school.

Monday was a busy work day as we had a group of Canadian Mennonites visiting TZ on safari, stop by for a brief 'learning tour'. I met them at one of our partner projects--the Step-by-Step learning center, where Margaret gave them an excellent tour and explanation about they serve these special needs children in such a resource poor setting. Some of the visitors were teachers and were fascinated to see what the children were doing. They spent several hours there and I gave them a brief synopsis of other MCC programs in Tanzania as well. When I got back to office in the afternoon, we had an early Birthday celebration for Rebecca since we will not be here for her real Birthday.

Besides this flurry of last minute visits, we had a few other highlights. We have spent several evenings in the last week at Gymkhana to watch various World Cup games. We tend to watch the early ones as the late ones are just a bit too late. With the kids out of school we have also been trying to keep them occupied. One of the activities they have done at Gymkhana is golf lessons as there is a pro there that offered to teach them for about $4 each for an hour and a half. They did a lot of driving, chipping, and putting in the past 5 days and are getting pretty good.

David also had a chance to go on a safari at a near-by game park with a friend whose mom owns a safari company. He had a great day and we sent with a camera on which he shot many pictures. (Most did not come out well) but he was very happy about the opportunity to go.

This will be the last blog before we leave, the next time I write we will be in Baltimore. We will be there from July 12 to August 12. Maybe we will see you there.



Bonus video of David driving:

Schools Out! and other stuff

Oren and friends after last day of school

When a blog has not emerged for over 10 days, it is a good bet that we are busy in some ways after work, because I usually work on it Monday or Tuesday evening these days. But it has not been a typical two weeks, either at work or on the home front.

We were entertaining visitors in our last entry and Kate and James, having returned from safari have been with us again in the past week. Oren was also heavily into exam week which he was relieved to finish last Friday. The last week of school was a breeze by comparison, and there were quite a few days of in-class parties and school ceremonies. They also got their results back and I was quite impressed with Oren's work. I think he was even taken aback given the difficulty of the tests. But in the British system they generally make the tests very hard and grade on a generous curve. Consequently an 80% can be a high A. Oren found that he had high 'A's in Math and Science, and A+ in History, and also Geography.

Before I get to the end of the week and last day of school activities it would be good to back up and recall some of the other highlights. Kate and James got back before the weekend and on Saturday we took them to Snake Park, a favorite place for the kids. It is a kind of herpetarium with every venomous snake one can find in East Africa. It is quite interesting and at the end you get to hold some animals including some of the non-venomous ones. The mole snake was one the kids liked the most as you can see by the photos.

Our guests also went with us to church last Sunday which was nice because Rebecca was preaching. She did an excellent message on Jesus calming the storm and began with a harrowing story of getting caught in a mountain storm on Kootenay Lake as a child with her family. When everyone was really on the edge of their seat, she said "that is how you should feel when you listen to this story". She asked the question about why God leads us into storms, (because it was Jesus' idea to cross the lake) but reminded us that he does go with us-- it is his trip, not ours, and when we remember that, we can have assurance that he is master of the waves and water. (I did not do it justice, and tried to record it, but the phone recorder app shut itself off after 5 minutes). Here is a link to the written form: Jesus and the storm. After church we took Kate and James to Georges, one of our favorite after-church restaurants. We met some fellow Mennonites there who had been in MCC in Indonesia in the late 90s-- Jim and Laura.

dinner at Khans

Monday was the last week of school and I am really relieved to have a break from getting up at 5:15 am. I do still intend to swim in the morning when the kids are out of school, but the super early wake-up was to allow me time to get their stuff ready, as uniforms and everything we need for the day has to be ready by 6:30. The pool is now around 58F in the morning, but the wetsuit is amazingly warm. It is very strange experience to swim in it because everything around you is really cold, but you just don't lose any of your body heat; even though you are completely wet in very cold water.

Rebecca and I had a pretty normal day of work Monday. I am still acting Country Rep. as Sharon is still in Ethiopia. On Tuesday, I went with Lucia, our finance officer to Longido, about an hour towards the Kenya border to do a financial review of one of our partners. A bit dry, but it is nice to get to do some work out of the office right now. We got back in the afternoon without any problems--and no traffic tickets which is becoming more challenging these days as there seem to be new road rules on a weekly basis.

On Tuesday evening we went to Khan's barbecue, an outdoor halal restaurant on Mosque street near the central market. They make excellent Swahili/Indian food and the owner is very friendly and gregarious. The kids love it, especially the Jelabis for dessert. It is a very unique cultural experience that our guests enjoyed thoroughly.

Wednesday during the work day Rebecca took Kate and James to visit the school for severly physically and mentally disabled children MCC supports in Arusha--Step-by-Step Learning center. Kate Luger is an occupational therapist, and James Long is a music teacher for special needs students, so we were really interested to hear their impressions of a special needs school in a very low resource setting. Personally, I think the school has been extremely creative about finding appropriate  therapies for the children they have using very simple materials.

James singing with Bryson

They spent a part of the day there and had a great time seeing the school, but also interacting with the children. They had some very good advice about finding a better way to restrain a boy, Bryson, who has CP and very little limb control, and even explored possible connections to donors who make special needs wheel chairs for lower income countries. Kate and James found it engaging enough that they returned on their own on Friday and spent another day working with Bryson and even took some measurements to get some consultation from colleagues in the US. My impression from talking to Kate is that it is emotionally hard for her to see kids with such challenges in settings with so little capacity to help them. But on the other hand, to recognize that a school like Step-by-Step is hugely committed to treating every child with dignity and the staff genuinely care for and do the best for the children with what they have.

We parted ways with James and Kate from Wednesday after school through Thursday evening--this time it was us who left. Rebecca, me, the kids, and Zoe, our SALT volunteer, loaded in the MCC landrover and headed up to Karatu on the way to Ngorongoro crater to visit the maternal and child health project that our Maasai partner (NDI) is implementing. I wanted to collect some data from the health centers there and do a spot check of the meds that had procured through our project. Zoe and Rebecca have both wanted to see the location and community where this program is implemented as it is very remote and on the edge of a game park. I had to get us permits before we left on Wednesday as entering Ngorongoro is a multi-step bureaucratic process (moreso than other game parks because it is a conservation region). I had to visit no fewer than 2 offices and a bank in Arusha and Karatu, then when we got to the gate, still had to get 2 more stamps from different officials before driving in the gate.

On edge of Ngorongoro crater.

We arrived in Karatu on Wednesday evening and stayed in a hotel. Rebecca and kids and I stayed in one room to keep it cheap, but it was fine, only very cold. (Karatu is higher than Arusha I think.) We left Karatu the next morning because the plan was to drive into the crater region, visit the project site, then drive all the way back to Arusha by Thursday evening. I did pretty well, driving there for the first time without any guide, and got through all the bureaucratic hoops without a hitch. The drive to the ward where our project is, is quite far--about 60 kms on very rough road around the lip of the crater, and down the far side. the project site itself is spread over another 40 kilometers where there are a number of villages and sub-villages.

The land is very high and open like highland steppes one would imagine in Mongolia. The panorama is incredibly vast, but it is cold and very green with short tufts of grass. It is not flat like the savanah though, there are gigantic depressions that rise to distant mountain peaks. The people are also very spread out but tend to live in small communities that one can see in the distance. It is very pictureque and we even drove up to Embakai crater as it is at the far end of the project site. Most of the day was spent driving and we picked up Laangakwa, our project director at one of the villages and he took us to Embakai then back to health centers where I was able to verify that their dispensaries were fully stocked with the meds we supplied. I was also able to get some data of trends for births and ante-natal care visits over the past 12 months to see what impact we are having. (I will be presenting some of these findings at the CCIH conference in Baltimore in July.)

The kids were surprisingly good considering what a hard day of driving it was in the park. The landrover airconditioner was also not working so we had the windows open. By the end of the day we, and the entire contents of the car, were covered in dust. We looked like we had been on a tractor plowing all day and the kids said they felt like they were suffocating from the dust they were breathing all day. We drove, covered in dust, all the way back to Arusha and got back to our house about 7pm. Zoey stayed the night with us so we had a very full house, and had to share our bed with David so Zoe could have his room. Needless to say we all had showers and had to wash everything.

We took the kids for the last day of school on Friday. It was also Oren's 13th Birthday. Actually both kids very happy to go back for the last day as there were some school celebrations involving candy. Oren also received two Year 8 awards at an awards ceremony-- for enthusiasm and effort in both Mathematics and History. At the end of the school day, Oren's request was that his two best friends Abraham and Abraham (one has a french pronounciation) could come home with him. We agreed and they all came back with us after school to Gymkhana to have dinner. There were no world cup games on that night which was too bad because Gymkhana, our 'country club', has a nice large screen TV. We had dinner and James and Kate joined us. It was a lot of fun, and when we got home we played a game called "Werewolf" which James taught us. It is a kind of group game that reminds me of the card game Killer, but with more roles. We all played and had a great time before going to bed.

The next day we had Oren's Birthday party with cake and a piniata (a family tradition). Oren wanted one with the face of "Chica" a character from a video game (don't ask). But we do our best to be creative and clever, so I made a pretty good likeness that they enjoyed smashing.

I can't say it was not a relief to have them finally go home. I feel like we have been running on all cylinders and next week is nearly as full. We are heading to vacation time which I will say more about next week. James and Kate leave tomorrow as well and should be back in Baltimore on Monday.

There was much to be thankful for this week--especially the answered prayers that our kids would make a transition to a new school situation and make new friends. Oren was particularly worried about these things and right now he is looking quite happy and successful.