A Family Cycle of Safaris

David returns from his week away camping.

An interesting cycle was completed this week. David went away for a week beginning this past Monday and returned on Friday. It was a school camping trip for his class as part of developing 'round square' values. I believe they were working on Adventure and Service. They camped on the west side of Mt. Kilimanjaro in a game park of sorts. David came back with mixed reviews. The cycle, that was completed was somewhat accidental, but beginning about 2 months ago, every member of our family has left and gone away alone for a week, then we have had a week of togetherness, followed by another excursion by one family member. It began in January with Rebecca going to the Great Lakes Inititiative in Uganda for a week (GLI). Then after a week together, Oren went to Kenya for camping and white water rafting in Savage Wilderness camp. After a week together, I went to Western Tanzania (Mwanza, Musoma, Mugumu, etc.) and got the flu, but returned after a week. After the final week together, David was off to West Kilimanjaro.

There almost seemed to be a kind of spiritual dimension to us leaving the fold one-by-one. I think Rebecca felt her experience was the most rewarding in terms of what she was doing, and Oren did enjoy the numerous activities and friends at his camp. (They also stayed in cabins, not tents.) David camped in a tent and generally felt that teachers and leaders were quite bossy (not surprising given that they were in charge of a group of hyperactive 4th graders). Also camping in a tent meant that he got rolled over frequently by tent mates who slept diagonally across mattresses by the end of the night. He definitely seemed very happy and grateful to be back. We enjoyed an outing at Gymkhana where he bought several chocolate bars as a reward for his perseverence.

I, as mentioned in the last entry had the roughest time since I was very sick during the trip. I have continued to have a slow recovery to full strength and am almost, but not quite back to how I felt the week before I left.

The past two weeks of work have been interesting but labor intensive in a somewhat tedious way, as I have been coding the transcipts of many interviews and focus group discussions to learn more about decisions and preferences around delivery of Maasai women, traditional birth attendants, and their husbands. There are some fascinating discoveries that could effect our project. One significant find is that most of the women end up delivering at home, not because of a preference to do so, but because of sudden onset of labor and concern that they will deliver on the way to the clinic. When asked if they had agency to give birth where they wanted, women confirmed that they could make the decision but added that God ultimately decided because labor came on before their due date.

Other questions led to other discoveries. I was not expecting to find that men expressed a desire on average for less children than women. Most women answered the question about the number of childre desired by saying 'as many as possible'. Men overwhelmingly answered in economic terms based on the number of cows they had. The average for men was 3 and no more than 4. They also felt responsible to make sure there were 3 to 4 years between children through abstinence, withdrawal, condom use, or 'the standard days method'. They generally did not want their wives to be in charge of fertility regulation because of fear of infidelity. (The men are nomadic in certain seasons and away from home for several months at a time.)

There is a lot more to say, and hopefully it will be written up in an article by the end of April. The problem right now is that text based qualitative analysis is slow, methodical work and I have trouble doing it for more than 4 hours in a day without going crazy.

There were some highlights in the past two weeks for Rebecca and I. One of them was an early celebration of my Birthday. I took last Thursday off and Rebecca and I dropped the kids at the bus, then went swimming, followed by brunch at a resort hotel called River Trees. It was very nice and we spent an hour walking around there before heading over to Lake Duluti for another leisurely walk. We finished off at Coffee Lodge before surprising the kids by picking them up after school. It was a very relaxing day and a good opportunity for Rebecca and I to reflect on the question of what the 'manna' is that God is giving us during our time in Tanzania. (We realize it can be easy in a cross-cultural situation to kvetch about small problems and miss the work that God is doing in our lives.)

Over the weekend we hosted a movie night at our house for neighbor kids in our compound and watched the new Wreck It Ralph movie. It was fun to have two other families over to enjoy our mini projector which really makes our living room feel like a movie theater.

The following week, David went on his camping trip, and oddly, everyone working in the MCC office was either travelling for work or on vacation, so Rebecca and I were there alone. (I was completely alone on Tuesday and Thursday.) Because of the research project mentioned above it was not an altogether bad situation to have the uninterrupted time. We did go out on Monday evening for my Birhday with Oren to an Ethiopian restaurant. (Something David does not enjoy.)

Wednesday Rebecca and I had a very interesing field visit to our partner Step by Step Learning Center. Here is Rebecca's report on the visit:

This past week, Paul and I were able to share a very positive and encouraging work experience. I had scheduled a visit to the Step by Step Learning Center, an MCC partner offering appropriate education to a small group of special needs students. I wanted to talk with them about future volunteers, and the possibility of recruiting an older adult volunteer Special Education specialist to come help mentor their teaching team. Paul, as the education coordinator, wanted to pay them a visit as well to hear about their new developments.

We arrived toward the end of circle time, which is a wonderful beginning to the school day for these students, offering routine and affirmation. They sing songs, answer questions about the date, the weather, and so on. And then, they have a session of very simple reflexology. All of the teachers make their way around the circle of 15 students, giving individual attention and love to each child as they gently massage and warm up fingers and hands. As they do these hand massages, they also sing together, recognizing each child:

                             “This is how Hans oils his hands,

Oils his hands, Oils his hands

This is how Hans oils his hands

Early in the morning”

The children love it. Even children on the autism spectrum, who are wary of stimulus, welcome this positive touch. Some children struggle with very tight muscles or twisted hands, and the massage helps them to make more progress during the school day. It is incredibly special to be part of this time.

After the children went to have their morning tea, the head of the school, Margaret Kenyi, took us on a tour of the school grounds. With a small grant from a local donor, she has been able to fence most of the sizeable school grounds. Donations of rolls of chain-link from local hardware wholesalers have taken the project even farther. This fence is important to protect students who might wander, as well as the growing herd of goats. It was incredibly gratifying to see how MCC’s seed money for small animal husbandry has expanded. Four years ago, a grant from our organization provided for 2 goats and a handful of chickens. Now there are 22 goats and 70 chickens, as well as two ponds for fish-farming.

Another Scandinavian donor raised money to build a new 2 bedroom staff house, next door to the original 1 bedroom house. Margaret asked if we could come and pray for the new occupants of each house, and she recounted these stories.  For a number of years, a faithful caretaker guard had been living in that little house. Last year, tragedy struck his family: his wife died of an illness, and their young daughter was then taken to live in the village with her grandmother and cousins. Meanwhile, the school has one student, Bryson, with severe cerebral palsy, but a lot of intellectual capacity. Bryson’s father took off soon after his was born, so he was raised by his mother, who was scorned and ostracized because she had given birth to an atypical child. Her life was hard, and she struggled to make ends meet, but in the end, took to drink and died almost two years ago. Bryson’s young half-brother, just 20 years old, took over his care. They lived together in a tiny place in an urban slum. It was an incredible effort to carry Bryson to meet the school bus every morning, and then meet him mid-afternoon to bring him home. Bryson’s brother Simon couldn’t work a regular job and Margaret could see that the situation was unsustainable. So, Simon has now been hired as a deputy caretaker for the school, to help with all the livestock.

In the past week, the head caretaker moved into the new house, with space for his daughter when she comes to visit. And Bryson and his brother (and the brother’s own wife and child) moved into the original little house. It was amazing to meet all these people, and to see how, out of broken and tragic family situations, a new little community is being formed on the school grounds. It was just a small taste of new creation, of God revealing the ways that he can heal and restore. It also pointed out for me the ways that you can’t help a single person with special needs here, without recognizing the problems of the whole system and working on a holistic solution.

After praying for each home and its new occupants, we went back to the school and sat with the team of teachers. It was very good to talk with all of them together about the different options for inviting volunteers through MCC and to get their opinions on what would be most helpful to them. The teachers have few resources and are trying to do a lot with the experiences and informal training they have gained over the years, with oversight from Margaret (who does have a special education degree). An older volunteer with training and experience would be a real blessing. We left the visit very glad to have spent time with one of our partners and the people they are serving.

That is all for now. The kids have half-term break this week so they are home all week. We are planning a camping trip of our own next week. Hopefully the rain will hold off where we are going, but there is not doubt that the rainy season is upon us. It is a pleasant change from the hot weather we have been having. But I do remember last year, the mud, mold, and cold became quite a trial. Hopefully it won't be quite as wet as last year.

Bonus Photo: Oren, David, and some of their friends from our small group.

What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

Lunch stop Tarime. Mishkaki na chipsi.

Sometimes. in looking back at the activities and challenges of the recent past, it is daunting to even know where to begin and what to cover in a single blog.

Eight days ago, last Sunday morning, Sharon- our country rep., Chrispin our agriculture coordinator, and me got on a flight to the town of Mwanza in Western Tanzania. It was the first stop in what was to be a whirlwind tour of the 5 diocese of the Mennonite Church in the Lake region of Tanzania. We had 5 stops on our itenerary over 7 days-- remote towns, in the Serengeti and Mara region-- The route went from Mwanza to Mugumu to Tarime to Shirati to Musoma and then back to Mwanza for a final meeting before catching a flight back to Arusha.

Mugumu Bishop looking pious.

The purpose of this odyssey was a goodwill tour of sorts for MCC to visit the Mennonite bishops and remind them of what we do and how we do it. MCC is an anabaptist peace and development NGO with strategic priorities in Tanzania focused on food security (through teaching low tillage agriculture), health, (particularly preventive and maternal and child health, and people with disabilities), education (focused on teacher professional development, and child protection) and peacebuilding. We work with partners that are doing projects in these areas. They do not have to be Mennonite, or churches, but since we are a Mennonite organization we try to show goodwill to the Tanzania Mennonite Church (KMT) and partner with them when there is an appropriate opportunity.

Often it is a challenge because the church has an older missionary based model of foreign aid where they present a list of needs (roof for a school, or church building, borehole, vehicle) and the mission would decide which one to pay for with little oversight or accountability. It is hard for them to move into a grant based model involving proposal writing, approval, then reporting on outcomes, and close tracking of a budget.

By visiting each diocese Sharon hoped to reinforce their understanding of our process, and have them meet the strategic area coordinators.

Sharon exiting plane at Mwanza.

We did not get off to a great start when Chrispin arrived at the airport sniffing and feeling bad, saying he had 'the flu'. The flu can be a catch all term for any respiratory virus involving coughing and sniffing here, and while I felt sorry for him, I hoped it would pass me by or would not be too severe. I have had the flu shot every year for decades including this year and had not actually had the flu since I was in my 20s.

The Precision air flight to Mwanza was uneventful and short, about 1.5 hours in the Bombadier turboprop. We were met by a driver with a nice white Landcruiser (ac broken), who was to be our chauffer for the trip. I was grateful for this as doing our travel by bus would have been intolerable. The first town we drove to was Mugumu, about 5 hours north and east into the Serengeti above the park of the same name. Like everything here, it had the look of a parched, dusty, southwestern (US) town. We were taken to the only hotel there, the Giraffe Hotel.

Metal vendor enroute. 

We were to spend the night, a full day, and the next night in Mugumu to visit the Bishop as well as a Mennonite hospital and nursing school. We had dinner, and went to bed. The next morning we went to the Diocese office and met the Bishop. I noticed Chrispin was looking pretty bad that morning. He did not join us for the afternoon session at the hospital and nursing school.

I found the latter one of the more interesting places as the director of the college Magiri, has a long history with MCC. To see the challenges they have to stay certified amidst incredible shortages of just about everything is daunting. We toured the facilities and saw ways in which they made do with make-shift mock clinical rooms equipped with donated dolls for doing various types of exams.

Magiri (right) showing the whole library.

The computer room had 40 desktops, but no internet. The $850 annual budget for broadband for the campus is currently out of reach. The library had a few dozen books, no texts, and resources on pharaceuticals that dated back to 1980 (nearly before ARVs!) There were nonetheless, students dillengenly working and learning. (Note to Jean-- no Hinari). Magiri, a medical officer has been working for many decades in this milieu, making improvements where he can, through fund raising, gifts, and some support from KMT and the ministry of health. He is looking tired though, and talks with some fondness about retirement.

That evening, after a long day of discussions on how they might meet some of these challenges, we went back to the hotel. I laid down for a few minutes before dinner and woke up hours later feeling physically deflated, and a chill coming on. It felt like the beginning of a very bad virus. That night the first round of fever started. It broke for a bit the next morning and when I went out to get some fruit and juice for breakfast, Sharon said it had started for her as well. We managed to work in a short visit to girls safe house that morning who were interested in a partnership, then headed to Tarime, about 3 hours north, near the Kenya border.

We got a hotel there, although we had some trouble finding one with rooms. Tarime is more bustling more than Mugumu which seemed more like a sleepy stagecoach town in the old west. Tarime was more like the 'big city' nearby.

By the time we got into the hotel I was dead sick and spent the rest of the day and night in bed feeling like 'Don Juan' on a peyote-induced vision quest in a Carlos Castaneda novel (some might know the reference). The fact that I was in unfamiliar surroundings is what seemed to make it feel so surreal. The splitting headache kept me grounded in reality though.

I was aware, during that time, that I was at least 2 days from Arusha (absent a $10,000 airlift) and we were still very early in a long week of traveling and meetings.

At my worst, about to go into Shirat hospital.

The fever broke in the morning and I was able to participate in the morning meeting with the Bishop and his staff. We spent a half day with them, then loaded back into the car and drove to Shirati, which actually sits on Lake Victoria. We got a particularly uncomfortable hotel which had no fans or AC, (and no working toilet in my room.) By that point I had not eaten for 24 hours so it was OK as a place to be unconsious. The night brought so much of a head ache that I asked Sharon if there was a hospital I could go to in Shirati. I said that with some trepidation here as there is always some risk that the treatment will be worse than the disease around here.

I talked to Rebecca when I could. Fortunately I had cell service. She told me that while I was sick in the Lake region, she was dealing with David who had developed strepped throat and had to miss school. This is really hard when you are single parenting. He was miserable with very high fever as well. This began to feel like a divine tribulation at that point.

Sharon told me about the Mennonite referral hospital in Shirati and said it should be quite good. Although entering into it that morning and seeing long lines of people standing, sitting, and waiting outside various clinic doors, was disheartening. I could not imagine I could live through sitting in a yellowing wall hallway for half the day to see a doctor. Because we were guests, however, a doctor did come to see me and got me a blood test which revealed that I did indeed have some kind of infection--possibly atypical pneumonia. He started me on an antibiotic and gave me some relieving cough meds. They did provide some relief.

Squat pot and water bucket for you know what. 

I missed the visit with the bishop that day because I was in the hospital. I caught up with Sharon and Chrispin in the afternoon and we proceeded on to Musoma, about 2 hours heading back down south along the lake. We stayed the night there at a nice hotel on the lake side. I still had no appetite and went without a meal for a third day. I did sleep a bit better as the intense headaches I was getting with the fevers at night had subsided. One other complication were the occasional bouts of diarrhea at inconvenient times. Often the squat pot was the only available option during our field visits.

General Secretary and KMT staff members.

The next day we had a long series of meetings in Musoma at the diocese office with the bishop and his staff, then the office of the General Secretary, and finally at the office of another partner (One World). I was pretty much shot by lunch time, which was an exhausting experience in itself at a very crowded local cafeteria. We finished up around 3:30 pm and made the 4 hour drive back to Mwanza from which we would fly back to Arusha.

We stayed in a hotel there I had stayed in before which was nice, the obsequious service not withstanding. (At breakfast as I made my way to the buffet table, the overly helpful waitress quickly prepared me a massive plate of spaghetti, white sweet potatoes, 2 crepes, a hard boiled, egg, water melon and a bowl of chicken soup before I could refuse.) I almost wretched to look at the plate and went another morning with nothing more than a glass of juice.

Best hotel name.

Our flight was at 1pm and we planned a 2 hour meeting with the Mwanza diocese before going to the airport. Not surprisingly it took every minute and we were afraid we might not make it to the airport. I think the Bishop felt slighted that we did not stay to share some food they had brought, but unfortunately planes don't fly on the more flexible 'Africa time' schedule.

All three of us had been experiencing a similar course of the disease and by this stage the fever was mostly gone but the weakness, fatigue, and hacking cough was still there. We sounded pretty bad on the flight back.

a lighter moment with General Secretary and staff.

It was good to finally get back to Arusha late Saturday afternoon and catch up with the family. David had missed 4 days of school but had returned Friday and seemed much better. We watched a movie on Saturday night and went to church Sunday morning followed by the annual general meeting. We had our small group after that and it was nice to debrief with them as well.

It was a rough trip and reflecting back I felt a bit like Jonah in the belly of the whale. Being away from family and sick with fever, there are things that seemed to be stripped away. The state you come back in is not the state you left in. I have felt fairly calm and quiet, I think I had felt more agitated and impatient before I left. It helps to think that God used the time of my separation and delirium to do some healing work mentally, and to appreciate the good health I often take for granted.

Came home to find David and Oren playing
Axis and Allies.

Pre-Script:

One activity that happened last Saturday, the day before my departure, is worth logging. Rebecca and I organized an ultimate frisbee game on our compound. We invited people on the compound as well friends from small group and some other people we know. We had about 14 people show up including our whole family, 2 New Zealand families from the compound, Joerg and his kids from our small group, and another father son duo, and 2 Tanzanian teachers from the base. There were quite a few decent players and we had a great set of games. (We could only play 20 minutes at a time because it was sweltering hot that day!) We hope to try to keep this up at least once per month.

A week without Oren and a Glimpse of Young Einstein

Eagle owls have returned to roost in the tree above our trampoline.

I realize the problem with passing through a place and season for the second time, you begin to lose your sense of wonder. More precisely, it is harder to sit down every week or so to write an account of our life events in Tanzania, now that it is not so novel to us. We have completed the busyness of the holidays, Rebecca has returned from her trip to Uganda (the second time in as many years), all family has left, the kids are back in school and they are well into their second term, as we are with MCC in Tanzania.

January and February here are the hottest months of the year, which is saying a lot for Arusha, which generally is cool and even cold during the winter (southern hemisphere June-Aug). In the heat of the day it can get up to 90, although its flat high plateau landscape means that it is cold at night and in the morning when we are heading to school a light jacket is comfortable. This is the short dry season in between the two rainy seasons, one ended in December, the other is expected in mid-February. It will strart to get quite cold after that.

Rebecca and I continue to observe the same routine we began over a year ago. I get up about 5am and make coffee, breakfast and prepare snacks for the kids for school. Rebecca comes down before 6 and prepares some lunch for us to take to work. We make sure the kids are up at 6 and they are now able to get all of their uniform pieces on (as long as the parts are all in their rooms). Oren is given a reprieve from wearing a tie between December and February because it is warm. They eat breakfast while I load up the car with everything for the day. We leave the house by about 6:40 and drop the kids off at our office by 7am where they meet the school shuttle and have another 45 minute ride to school. Rebecca and I head to the pool at Gymkhana. Even in the warm season the air is quite chilly and usually overcast at that hour and the first plunge in the water seems quite uninviting. Fortunately the water temp. is not cooler than the air. We spend about an hour swimming and changing for work and are at the office by 8:30 am.

The kids get dropped off at our office at 4:30 pm from school. (which ends at 3:30) We all get home around 5:15 pm. On M, W, F, we come to a fairly clean house as our housekeeper Nai works on those days. We often take a walk around the base at sunset then make dinner, while the kids do homework, then clean the kitchen and it is time for bed.

Rebecca has observed that we are out of the house about 11 of our waking hours during the day. I wish we had more daylight hours at the house, but travel takes time around here. Fortunately Rebecca has Tuesday and Thursday off so she can be at home some of the time.

I have been working quite a bit on a qualitative study of one of our projects this past month. We are trying to understand the factors that affect maasai women's preference to deliver at home rather than at a health facility. We have a research team that finished data collection (in depth interviews and focus groups with women, traditional birth attendants (TBAs), men, and nurse midwives at clinics) in December and I just received translations of all the transcripts last week. Now I begin the long process of coding and data analysis. My co-principle investigator is a Maasai professor who is currently in the UK finishing his doctorate. He is from the ward where the study was located and will be a great asset in understanding some of the cultural nuance.

I am not that far into reading interviews at this point, but did hit on one intriguing detail about practices around home delivery in the ward. If a woman is having difficulty in labor, the TBA will bring a baby cow into the boma (house) for the woman to look at. Seeing the baby cow apparently provides some motivation for the woman to deliver. (More when the analysis is done.)

Of course our purpose in doing this research is to find ways to improve our community health project to encourage women to go to facilities for their births where there are skilled attendants who can respond to basic obstetric emergencies. (although I don't think we can ask a facility bring a cow into the delivery room.) I am looking forward to really digging in this week.

One big event this week was the absence of Oren. St. Constantine's is a 'round square' school which means they have a number of values that are taught outside the normal curriculum, it includes things like service, courage and adventure (like Boy Scouts). As part of this experience, each class goes on an activities week which differs every year. Some of the offerings are quite exotic, like climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, or skiing in the Swiss Alps. Oren's class went to Kenya last week to an adventure camp called Savaga Wilderness. It included activities like white water kayaking, rock climbing, archery, ziplines, standing paddle boards, and other water related activities.

He honestly was not too excited about going and there were some complications in preparing him since he had to cross an international border which meant his residence permit and visa had to be in order in his passport. The trip the year before was a lot of camping, hiking, and service activities and he was worried that it would be more work and discomfort than fun. He did get on the bus last Monday morning though and headed off. We would hear from them via email from the school head master from time to time so knew they were still alive :-). He got back on Saturday afternoon. He looked worn out and a bit shabby, but he gave a good report about the things they did and it sounded like he had some good connections with friends (who could share his 13 yo sense of humor.)

David will be going on a trip in February. (We were disappointed that both kids were not gone at the same time, but c'est la vie.) He did have a school event this week though. His class put on a skit about 'inquisitiveness' (a round square value) at a school assembly. David was kind of the star and the skit was a 'who am I' riddle to figure out who he was. (He played Albert Einstein as a boy.) His whole class had parts and David did very well, seemed comfortable, and made good use of my round spectacles to look a bit Einstein-y. The attendees in the assembly solved the riddle fairly quickly after watching the skit. I was happy to be able to attend because I had brought him to school from a dental appointment and was able to stay around and watch.

Oren missed a bit of excitement around the base where we live. A new family from NZ has moved to our compound with 3 girls and a boy. They are younger than Oren, but hopefully become friends with David over time. (They did not start out too well, with David and one of the girl's getting into a fight with sticks during a welcome to Tanzania pot luck gathering.) But they have a year to get be better aquainted and are likely to see each other quite a bit on the base.

The other exciting event on the home front has been getting our underground water tank cleaned out. We get water from different sources depending on the season. When it rains, it is primarily run off from our roof. Other times it comes from a well on the base. It is collected in what seems to be at least a 10,000 gallon tank under our back porch. Over the past 3 months we started to notice that our water was getting browner. We suspected that the tank was getting dirt in it and this was confirmed. When we found our water filter could not filter out the color completely we asked the landlord to get it cleaned out. There are some photos of the water David was bathing in the week before they cleaned the tank. It took about 2 days, and they removed a lot of sludge, but I am happy to say the water is back to normal.

The other center of activities, church, has been going well. I was happy to lead music worship with Rebecca this week as there was no Sunday school this Sunday. We bought a djembe the day before so I was able to accompany on some of the songs we sang.  Teaching Sunday school has been going well generally this term, although the size of the Sunday school group continues to grow and we are really beyond our physical capacity with about 80 kids. We start together for children's church and then break into 3 groups. But we exceed the space we have in every classroom. No solution for the time being but prayer. The kids seem to really like to come.

It is time to get ready for the start of another week. I am travelling in the first week of Feb. and may not be back on this blog before that is done.

The heart of reconciliation

Community Center for urban refugees in Kampala

Rebecca writing this week: Ten years ago, in January 2009, Paul and I attended our first gathering of the Great Lakes Initiative (GLI), as we helped to host this very new movement in Burundi. This year, I attended the GLI Leadership Institute for the 7^th time and I am overflowing with gratitude that I have been able to be part of it for all these years.

The annual gathering brings together East African Christian leaders from many different walks of life, who are involved in peacebuilding. But what happens is quite unique. In most peace-building training sessions, the key question is: “how can I hone and develop my skills as someone involved in peace and conflict resolution? How can I do what I do better?”

 

The GLI begins with an alternative perspective:  Reconciliation is the mission of God. We are invited to join in God’s mission, as ambassadors of reconciliation. But ultimately, God will finish the work of reconciling all things. This perspective keeps the focus on the saving work of Jesus and gives us courage to continue in the hard work of helping to reveal God’s new creation. Otherwise, if it were all up to us, we would have every reason to give up.

GLI participants on Pilgrimage

With that as background, let me share a bit of my personal experience of being involved in the GLI Institute this year. As Paul wrote last week, we enjoyed a wonderful time of rest on the coast with my parents over New Years. When we got back to Arusha, I had two days of turn-around time to finish up my office work and prepare for the trip to Uganda. We had a couple of nice evenings with my parents back at home, playing games and watching a movie together. But then I had to say goodbye to my dad before I took off – the time together felt too short!!

Wilfred and Faith Mlay

I took a super-early morning flight to Kampala, Uganda and was so delighted to share that journey with a very precious couple from Tanzania, Wilfred and Faith Mlay. Wilfred has served as the GLI Ambassador for several years, heading up the board and giving direction to the movement; this was his retirement project, after leaving a top position in World Vision Africa. Wilfred describes himself as Joshua, and his wife, Faith, as Moses – as long as she was lifting her hands in prayer him, he found himself winning the battle. I’ve known them both for many years and I am thankful for good conversation every time our paths cross.

With Chartier and Acher, old friends

From the moment we arrived at the Institute venue, a Catholic seminary in the outskirts of Kampala, it never ceased to feel like a wonderful family reunion. Many Burundian, Rwandese, Kenyan and Congolese pastors and church leaders, whom I’ve known for years from our past work with MCC, have leadership roles in the GLI. In the past, I served on the GLI board with many of them and it’s hard to describe the waves of love and respect that come over me when I can interact with those dear people again. I even became reacquainted with a few faculty from Duke Divinity School (one of the GLI partners), whom I had first gotten to know when I served as worship facilitator at their Summer Institute on Reconciliation. I was so thrilled when I learned that finally a new executive director had been named to replace Wilfred, and allow him to really retire: Acher Niyonizigiye, an amazing young Burundian leader, who was our pastor when we lived in Bujumbura. After seeing him grow into his pastoral role those years ago, I know God will equip him for the challenging work ahead of him.

Saturday afternoon included some space for rest and prayer and a few hours of good bird-watching. But on Sunday morning, I needed to begin attending diligently to my task for the week, namely helping to facilitate worship for the 6 days of the Institute. Thankfully, I have a trusted co-worker in this, Josephine Munyeli; she and I have collaborated now 5 times in leading worship, and it has been a joy each time to see how our background and gifts can complement each other. 

Josephine Munyeli and I

The challenge of worship is that most of the time, we all choose to attend faith communities which speak the same language and have the same preferred worship style as ourselves. At the GLI, participants come from a wide variety of church traditions, ranging from Catholic to Pentecostal. We need to use both English and French as the common languages for people coming from this region (former Belgian or British colonies), but of course almost everyone has a different mother tongue as well. The musical styles preferred by Protestants from South Sudan are quite different from Congolese Catholics. It’s a beautiful challenge to try to help everyone come before God in worship, in a way that connects with their heart. At the beginning, we tell people – “be patient! At one moment, the worship may be speaking to your neighbor and you won’t feel comfortable. But at another moment, the worship will connect better with you.” This is what it is like to practice for heaven, when every nation and language and tribe will celebrate together before the throne of the Lamb.

As you can imagine, neither Josephine nor I have all the gifts and experience needed to lead everyone in worship. And so, the special challenge is to carefully plan a framework of worship services that connects with the theological reflection of each day, while still leaving space for people to come forward and offer their gifts in worship. It’s a combination of careful planning and spontaneity that I absolutely love! And this year, more than ever, we were just overflowing with people who were delighted to sing, to bring new songs to our attention, to play the keyboard, to read scripture or to pray. In addition, a number of plenary speakers cancelled their attendance at the last minute, one because the election unrest in Congo prevented any communication or travel. But the Holy Spirit prompted the right people to fill in and speak and we were richly blessed.

Dr. Colon-Emeric on
New Creation

The week began with deep reflection on our foundations: reconciliation is the mission of God. From the beginning, God made all things good, and as Christians, we already know the end of the story: God will reconcile all things – ALL things – to himself (Col 1:15-20). When we say yes to Christ, we become part of this new creation, and we are invited to become ambassadors of reconciliation. But if we want to really be reconcilers, we need to have the same motivation as our God. God took initiative and, with compassion, crossed the distance between himself and our unrepentant world. Our hearts also need to break, not just at the suffering of the innocent, but at the suffering of our enemies. Dr. Colon-Emeric, a Duke Professor from Latin America, challenged us with examples from his experience in another part of the world. Like Archbishop Oscar Romero, we read the vision of new creation in Isaiah 65, but then we work for tangible signs of new creation in the community around us. We understand that the church must share Christ’s message of reconciliation. Yet especially in contexts of great suffering and violence, it can be hard to see how God’s justice and God’s mercy go together and are part of one heart. What about justice for killers in South Sudan or rapists in Congo? Bringing justice and mercy together requires conversion from our human values to the new creation values. On Monday, we heard from a variety of witnesses about the situation in South Sudan, which has finally entered a tenuous, imperfect peace. We began to understand the need for purification of memory: not negating the past, but also not allowing the past to dictate the future God has in mind for us.

On Tuesday, we turned our eyes from the new heavens and the new earth to the question of what is going on around us. And when we look honestly at the situation in the world around us, we can’t help but cry out, “How long, O Lord?” Witnesses from four parts of DR Congo shared the anguish of their people, from senseless violence (“every weekend, people are being killed like goats”) and Ebola in Eastern Congo; to politically motivated unrest in Kasai, where 1.4 million people are displaced in what used to be the most peaceful region of Congo. Sometimes we are afraid to lament because we fear others will think we have no faith, or that we doubt God’s power; or we think God will punish us if we question his ways. Dr. Celestin Musekura from Rwanda shared deeply from his own experience of lamenting together with suffering and displaced people, and the healing that comes from honest and intimate conversation with God. We lament because we know this is not the way God wants things to be, and it is a tool to navigate pain and sorrow as we pray in hope that God will change things.

Mural by Burundian youth

The theme of the week was “Christian Leadership for reconciliation in contexts of forced displacement,” a timely focus in this time in world history when more people are displaced than ever before. On Wednesday morning, we took a pilgrimage to look for signs of hope. We visited a community center designed to support urban refugees in Kampala. Apparently, refugees are pouring into Uganda from almost all the surrounding countries, and some elect to remain in the city and try to earn a living. This center offers training courses and social support, including a three-month tailoring course, a workshop to make long-burning charcoal bricks and stoves, several handicrafts groups, and a day care to help single parents who need to work and don’t have other family support. 

charcoal bricks and stoves

A refugee drivers association teaches people English and the Ugandan rules of the road and helps them get valid Ugandan licenses, so they can work in the transport business. A thriving youth ministry helps young people recognize the gifts of their cultures and even make a living from them. We met Somali women who earn money doing henna and traditional dancing for weddings, as well as young men from Burundi who have formed a traditional drum troupe and are hired out almost every weekend for events.

crafts made by displaced people

Theologian and artist Jeremy Begbie helps us understand how lament and hope can co-exist: we hear two songs playing at the same time, one aggressive and unpleasant, and the other sweet and melodic. The first one never totally drowns out the second. We saw many signs of hope among the diverse gathering of refugees who have fled violence and left everything they know, even as they co-exist, encourage each other and mutually respect one another. In the evening, Faith Mlay explored the story of the burning bush. She noted that we are standing on holy ground when we investigate situations that seem to be burning destructively – and yet somehow, something remains that is not consumed. This is a miracle that calls us to draw near and notice how God is at work.

Marion and Acher, leaders to follow

Having considered all this theological background, the big question remains for us: how can we be the kind of leaders who really follow God’s heart as reconcilers? Dr. Musekura held up the example of Nehemiah, who was a leader of his people, even as a displaced person. He lamented deeply and repented on behalf of his people. Then he prayed for several months, and during that time, rather than growing bitter, he made a list of what he would ask for on behalf of his people, if ever he had the chance. In fear and trembling, he prayed for an opening with the king, and finally he had the chance to speak. He was afraid, but he still spoke up; sometimes for our people, hope looks like a leader who is willing to say yes. Hope looks like Queen Esther, who accepted that she might be in her position “for such a time as this.” We need leaders with a prophetic voice,  but too often church leaders are muted by a “bone in the mouth,” like watchdogs who are distracted from their duty by thieves (politicians) who toss out a choice piece of meat. The final big question involves our own hearts: how can we keep going when things look bleak? What is a spirituality that will carry us through the valley of the shadow with integrity? These are hard questions that each of us must wrestle with.

head table of celebration

In between all these sessions of theological reflection, we had meals together and time to catch up over tea breaks. I was so thankful for each good conversation I had during the week. I’ve written in the past about “Fractured Ubuntu,” the sense of a divided identity that one gets when one moves around too much. I felt this past week that many parts of my identity were put back together and restored.

On Wednesday evening, we enjoyed a magnificent celebration dinner for Wilfred and Faith Mlay – an occasion to celebrate all they have done for the community, and to allow Wilfred to officially retire as Ambassador Emeritus. We were exuberantly led through the evening by a brother from DR Congo, Jean-Serge Lumu. He brought out the best in the African spirit of singing and dancing and ululating. The food was wonderful party food, like pilau and skewers of barbequed pork. We had speeches of course, but they were warm and funny and wise, rather than boring. 

cake cutting and response

There was an enormous cake for the Mlay’s to cut, and when they were asked to respond with some words, they had only a few: “To God be the glory!” We ended the evening with a joyful, spontaneous dance party, singing, “I know who I am!” It was just a little foretaste of that banquet we will all enjoy one day at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

We wrapped up the week on Friday evening, and on Saturday morning I flew back to Arusha. I was able to have another two days with my mom before she left on Sunday evening. It was great to share about the week with her, and to hear about my family’s week. The kids had gone back to school on Tuesday, Paul was back in work, and my mom had spent several days training people on how to access digital resources for research. On Sunday afternoon, we loaded up my mom’s taxi, sent her off. We have just begun a second week of “normalcy,” and I’m grateful for the time today to reflect on all the rich blessings since the beginning of the year.

Putting my mom, Jean Sack, on the plane home

Christmas and New Year's Festivities and a Trip to the Coast

Letting two weeks go by without a blog entry over holidays was probably a mistake. So much has happened in the past two weeks that it is hard to keep track. Fortunately there is an ample photo record. It is a sad irony that when there is more going on, there is less time to write, and that has certainly been the case since the holiday season began.

In my last entry around mid-December we had just returned from a team retreat in Zanzibar. By the time we returned the Christmas season began moving into high gear beginning on the 21st with an evening of lessons and carols at our church. Our choir, of which Rebecca and I are a part, has been rehearsing for quite a while for this and we had 4 special songs to share during the evening. The event was on a Friday of the week we returned and it was a fitting end to a very busy week of reviewing quarterly reports from all of our partners and getting them into our database. Despite the flurry of productivity, the office seemed relatively quiet as Chrispin was on vacation and others were in and out. 

The Lessons and Carols service went very well, and I thought we sounded great! There were many parts to the service including Sunday school children singing Away in a Manger, many favorite Christmas hymns, a brass quartet, harp solo, and a soloist singing Rejoice O Daughter of Zion from Handel's Messiah. Grandma Jean and the kids came and endured arriving an hour and a half early and watched patiently. Oren seems to be developing a real sense of ritual about certain traditions. Although it was a few days early, it stood in for our Christmas Eve service since there was not going to be one on the 24th. 

We did go to church on the 22nd though as it was a Sunday and Rebecca was preaching. She did a fabulous bit of theologically correct performance art by portraying the Blessed Mother looking back on her life and remembering her betrothal to Joseph and visitation by the Angel Gabriel. I could not do it justice by description but it had a big effect on the congregation, especially because she did not begin by saying what she was doing. It started out sounding like she was talking about herself. One poignant turn of phrase was when she remembered fretting about getting older and still living at home-- 18 and not yet married! "I was no beauty!" (she confided to the congregation.) I asked her about that statement and she told me that the idea of Mary not being beautiful was like T.H. White's portrayal of Sir Lancelot as having a hideous face in The Once and Future King which we had listened to a month earlier. Also it paralleled Isaiah 53's description of Jesus who "had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."  I think Oren even liked it. 

Christmas Eve was eventful nonetheless as we waited for midnight clatter of our taxi driver bringing Papa Dave from the airport, arriving on the KLM evening flight. We watched the Polar Express, the last and favorite of our Christmas movies as we waited. He arrived on cue laden heavily with gifts in two enormous suitcases from many family members back home. (We late into the wee hours of the morning to get them wrapped and under the tree.)

Christmas morning came early for the kids despite the late eveing waiting. They were up around 6, and I told them they had to wait to get the grandparents up until at least 7 before opening Christmas gifts. I finally let them open a set of legos to help them pass the time. 

We had our traditional Christmas cinnamon rolls (made by Jean several days before) for breakfast, then began the daunting project of opening our many gifts. (Having 2 sides of the family sending gifts from the US meant there were quite a few. )

The kids were thrilled to get a number of legos and STEM type craft projects along with many new family games and books. (A real group effort to come up with things that would compete with screens.) They both got deeply into building lego technics sets by mid morning. 

Rebecca led the adults in preparations for our Christmas dinner to which we had invited our friends the Taylors, and a new German family who is joining our small group as well. Rebecca had prepared a ham, as well as several side dishes. 

The kids and I had worked the day before on what was to be the coup de gras, a gingerbread train--steam engine, coal car, and box car. We have a tradition of a gingerbread construction each year, usually a castle or church, but this year we were more ambitious. Rebecca and I looked up good reciptes for construction gingerbread (without leavening). I added my own touch (extra treacle) to make it actually taste good. We also looked up recipes for eggless royal icing (since one of the guests was alergic) we did find a good substitute that used corn syrup in place of egg and it worked well. 

before decorating

The design and construction went well enough. Our convection oven made baking fast and allowed for multiple layers of trays to be cooked at once. I used the molten sugar for epoxy to put it together, and in the early stages it looked good. We covered it with icing on the boiler and roofs of the cars to look like snow. We used chocolate chips for coal. (the boiler for the engine was actually a chocolate muffin mix baked in a can to make it round. We added candy and decorations and for about an hour it looked great. But, the integrity of the gingerbread with all the weight on the wheels and the humidity of Arusha during this season began to slowly melt it. By the time it was served the next day it had pretty much collapsed. A bit disappointing but we did have some pictures before it fell apart. Since it was falling apart it made people more bold in destroying it to eat it. The taste was excellent!

Our guests arrived mid-afternoon bearing many other side dishes including a Christmas cake (fruit cake) and an icecream cake made out of Christmas cake which was delicious. (The Taylors are Australian and these were traditions down under.) The kids had a great time playing together. Adults visited and we had a very nice Christmas dinner.

The party seemed to continue the next day when we all got together as a small group at Pamoja, a compound where one of the family's live. This was a lot of fun and included a staggeringly large collection of kids the ages of both David and Oren. It was great to see Oren hanging out with 6 other young teenage boys. The event was a potluck and we brought many left overs. Dave and Jean had a good time as well finding common ground with a number of the parents and grandparents gathered there-- all with extensive cross-cultural experience.

After the festivities of Christmas and Boxing Day, we found we had one free day in Arusha before we were to leave on vacation on the coast. So we booked a tee time at Gymkhana and Dave Sack, the kids, Rebecca and I played 9 holes of golf. It was really quite amusing. We had 3 caddies between us and had to rent everything. But the cost was under $100 for all of us and rental of clubs. David Sack had the most experience and it showed whenever he drove the ball in a straight line off th tee. David Mosley was probably second best with regard to consistency. I could hit the ball quite far, but usually missed 2-3 times and when I did hit it was not unusual for my ball to land in the middle of a neighboring fairway (or even 2 away.) The caddies were very helpful with coaching. I am hoping we have more opportunities to do this in the coming year. 

The zenith of our Christmas break was to be our trip to Pangani beach on the East coast of Tanzania. We had gone last year with Dave and Jean and were looking forward to a return trip. In order to make the 9 hour drive a bit more bearable we rented a van in hopes it would be cooler than the MCC Landrover. Sadly the airconditioner on the rental van as well as the sliding door was not working so we were pretty hot going down. We did listen to Artemis Fowl on the trip which was good though-(highly reccommend for kids).

We got to Peponi Beach Resort in the late afternoon where we spent 5 days and nights relaxing on swinging beds by the beach, swimming in the ocean and pool, snorkeling, doing water colors, reading, and enjoying delicious seafood meals every night. New Year's eve was not too exciting for us but the hotel did have a lovely banquet with many tasty dishes. I am including a selection of photos below to catch the atmosphere, and will leave it at that for now.

We are back in Arusha again and Rebecca is preparing for her trip to Uganda for the Great Lakes Initiative where she is leading music. She will be gone for a week and I will be home with kids. Fortunately Grandma Jean will stay for the week as well, so it should be manageable. More news later.

PHOTO highlights from Peponi beach. (more can be seen at: Pangani photos)