Through the Seasons

I’m so excited.  One of the biggest challenges here is church.  There are many Swahili churches to choose from.  But.  They’re in Swahili.  Haha.  Not only that, the teaching is sometimes…off…  (Such as…  One preacher claimed the point of the Good Samaritan is that you shouldn’t be out walking alone…) 

But we just found out they are starting an English Christian Fellowship which means it is run by the “ex-pats” (Westerners) in the area.  It will be every other week on Sunday afternoon.  Us mothers have a plan to maybe rotate kiddie duty so we don’t all miss the service every week.  I mean, we can still pay attention to the service but it would be a treat to be able to fully focus on worship for an hour a month.  (That doesn’t seem like too lofty a goal, does it?)

So I’m grateful to God for providing this opportunity for the English speakers in this area.  I pray the locals here who also don’t speak Swahili as their first language will one day be able to worship God in their own language as well.

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We have finally figured out how to get ourselves, our baby, our dogs, and our stuff to Mbeya from Dar, which is no easy feat! 

We know of no one making that trip around that time who we could ride with and because of how many of us there are now if someone was going they probably wouldn’t have room for us anyway.  We usually take a 16 hour bus ride but the dogs can’t go on the bus so that’s out.  Our car won’t be ours until June so that’s not an option either. 

So we hired a guy with a truck to take our stuff to Mbeya for us.  He should get there by the time we do so ideally when we get to Mbeya our stuff will be there waiting for us.  At worst, it will arrive shortly after.  That’s if we arrive on time ourselves.  The five of us are taking the train.  Our neighbors in Mbeya happen to also be taking the train the same time we are so we’ll all be together although we’ll each have our own sleeper compartments.

We’ve heard the train is both good and bad.  It’s much better than the bus because you’re not stuck in a seat for hours on end.  You can get up, walk around, use the bathroom, and get food from the restaurant on board.  (Unless they run out of food.)  The down side is that it’s hot, bumpy, and not always (or even usually) prompt.  (Of course the bus is also hot and bumpy – it just doesn’t last as long.)  The train ride should take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours.  The best part, besides freedom of movement, is the view.  We’ve heard it’s beautiful so that’ll be a fun experience.  I’m actually somewhat looking forward to it.  If I’m going to be able to enjoy it. 

We leave Charlotte at noon on Saturday the 26th and arrive in Dar at 10pm on Sunday the 27th after 2 short layovers and over 20 hours of flying time.  There is a 7 hour time difference between NC and TZ right now.  We then take a taxi (actually a small bus due to the bulk of us and our stuff) from the airport to our friends’ house where our neighbors (who are taking the train with us) are also staying.  The next morning we will get up and catch the train that is scheduled to leave at 11am (but who knows when it will really leave).  After the 24-48 hour train ride we get a ride or taxi or something from the train station to our home in Mbeya.  Yes.  Our home.  Aahhhhh! 

With all that traveling and jet lag with it, I wonder what of the trip I’ll even remember.  We should have our cell phones set up before we get on the train and that should give us internet access so we should be able to keep you updated as we go – but – that is all yet to be seen.  It will be a long journey indeed but the end result will be worth it.  I’m so looking forward to setting up our home and getting settled in.

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…I would panic.

But I’m not going to panic.

Asher’s birth certificate got processed so we went to the courthouse yesterday to pick up a certified copy.  Then we went to the post office to apply for his passport.  It should be ready in 4 weeks.  That’s April 21st.  We fly out April 26th.  Okay, so that’s tight.

Jonathan sat down last night to fill out the paperwork we need to get him into Tanzania.  He had some questions and emailed the branch.  She replied that we should submit the paperwork after we get his passport.  Um…okay…  So he asked if we could come while it’s in process.  She said that we should have bought our plane tickets after submitting the Tanzanian paperwork.  Well.  Round-trip tickets don’t quite work like that and we booked the flight out as late as we could based on the amount of maternity/paternity leave we get.

So now we’re facing an unreasonably tight timeline.  Will the passport come soon?  Will the Tanzanian paperwork get filled out and processed in time for us to leave on April 26th?  There’s no way to know but we pray it all works out.  I also pray that God keeps us relaxed and flexible to deal with whatever comes.

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As I think about going home I can’t help but think about some of the luxuries we’ll be experiencing again. I’ll list out some of those I’ve thought of so far…

- We can buy a piece of fruit or a vegetable – and then – eat it. Amazing. You really have to sanitize your fruits and veggies here. (I realize in the States it’s good to wash these things too – mainly because of insecticides and things like that. Here you’re not only washing but sanitizing and you’re trying to get rid of diseases and parasites.)

- When we want to mail something we can walk to the mailbox and drop it in. Convenient! Oh and we could probably bet on that piece of mail arriving to its destination.
- We won’t be sleeping under a mosquito net. These look kind of fun and romantic. Some people in the States decorate with them. But here it’s a matter of safety. It’s important that the mosquito net completely surrounds the bed with no openings, goes all the way to the floor, has no holes, no mosquitoes are actually inside the thing with you instead of on the outside, and that you don’t lie against it at all. And if you have to get out of bed it requires you quickly raising the net, crawling out from under it, and lowering it back down to the floor. When we’re in the States we’ll be able to just sleep, get up, sleep, get up…

- We’ll be able to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without scouring the area for unwanted critters that may have snuck in overnight. We could, technically, get up and go to the bathroom at night without turning any lights on. Here I keep the light in the bathroom on all night so I can search for bugs as I’m walking in. Oh. And I’m pretty confident there won’t be any geckos in the house in the States. Geckos are harmless but when you stagger into the bathroom half asleep and see something scurry away – it can give you a heart attack!!

- Fast food will be – um – fast.  The quickest restaurant here in town (1 of only about 3 restaurants total) is called “Hasty Tasty”.  The food is good.  But hasty?  Not by a long shot.  The service here in Tanzania is good – just slow…

- The temperature will be regulated about everywhere we go.

- There will be plenty of living, relaxing space to enjoy. As well as furniture! Since we’ve been at a campsite all this time, and I’m sure you wouldn’t expect otherwise, we have no couch to sit on. That means when we’re at the banda we’re either in a plastic patio chair or on the bed and either one can hurt your back after a while. It’ll be soooo nice to sit on the couch in front of a fire drinking hot chocolate. Mmmm…

- I will be able to pick up anything purchased at a store without having to worry about the sanitation of it or the need to wash my hands afterwards. Here, when I buy something – let’s say a bottle of ketchup or carton of milk – there’s no telling what has touched the container. So anytime I touch it afterwards I think of how dirty it probably is and quickly wash my hands afterwards to prevent any unwanted side effects.

- We’ll be driving a borrowed vehicle on beautiful, smooth roads. I saw a picture recently of an American road and gasped. I have almost forgotten what they look like! The main road here in Tanzania goes from coast to border and truly isn’t THAT bad – until you put it beside an American road. That’s when I realize the difference! I probably won’t be bounced around at all in the car while we’re home.

- Speaking of traveling, we’ll be able to drive down the road too without having to stop at police check after police check. I guess there are so many here because the police aren’t driving around everywhere. I really don’t know. I feel like we never get too far until we’re stopped again either by those police checks or big speed bumps in the middle of the road – or dodging a pot hole.

- There will be an abundance of things available to us in the States that we’re used to having. That will be a luxury and at the same time we’ll have to be careful. We’re already repeating to ourselves, “We do not need one of everything. We do not need one of everything.”

- Internet service will be reliable AND affordable – neither of which describes the service here.

- I can pick up the phone and make free or reasonably priced phones calls in the States. Not so here! Expensive. Expensive. That’s why most people here send text messages instead.

- Our clothes, dishes, and bodies will be washed in CLEAN WATER. At the campsite all of these are washed with river water. That’s right. Brown, stinky river water. Sometimes I wonder what the point is at all. But I realize there is a point so we still wash all these things. And in Mbeya obviously it won’t be like that. It’s just good old “camping life”. We do use bottled water for washing some things, for cooking, and of course for brushing our teeth but if I used it for everything I’d like to use it for (including showers) we’d be broke already!

- I’ll be able to brush my teeth with warm water from the tap. I don’t know why I like to do that but it’s something I’ve missed. It’ll be nice to have an abundance of clean water to drink, cook with, etc.

All this is not to say that being here is terrible for us. It’s definitely not. We’ve adjusted well and the African ways have become somewhat like second nature. Some things we didn’t even consciously adapt to. Some things just are what they are and we immediately became okay about it. Some of the things mentioned are also because we’ve been living at a campsite instead of our own home in Mbeya. We have things to look forward to there as well!

I think the contrast between the two countries has just become more apparent to me now and will be even more so when we first get to the States. The sanitation thing is probably the most drastic difference. It is always on my mind here. Everything I touch. Every hand I shake. I have to be careful not to touch my face or forget to wash my hands thoroughly with soap. It’s like always living during flu season. You think about it when you’re shopping, cooking, visiting, traveling…always, always, always. It’ll be nice to get that off my mind for a period of time.

I always knew that America was a comfortable, luxurious country full of conveniences but now it has become even more obvious. It’ll be interesting to see how “re-entry” will affect us. We really don’t know what to expect and hopefully it will be as smooth going back as it was coming here in the first place.

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(Good Safari)

Well, we got back from the safari to Ruaha National Park safe and sound yesterday afternoon.  We spent the evening unpacking and getting settled back in.  Today we dove back into classes and now we’re totally beat.

The trip was good.  It was interesting to see the scenery between here and there.  It was a 3 hour bumpy ride.  On Saturday evening we got to the campsite and cooked pasta over an open fire.  The next morning we got started at 5:30am.  The drive to the park was a bumpy 30 minute drive.  We saw a few antelope and giraffe on our way there.  (The animals don’t know where the park boundaries are.)

In the park we saw hippos, crocodiles, a fish eagle, giraffe, antelope, dik-diks (dwarf antelope – so cute), warthogs, monkeys, elephants, buffalo, many birds, and another big animal that we’ve yet to identify.  I really wanted to see hippos and they were the first thing we saw.  Everything else was icing on the cake from there although it took us a long time to see elephants.  We saw lots and lots of elephant poo without seeing the animals themselves.  And they’re BIG.  For goodness sakes.

We drove around the park (which was also extremely bumpy – and extremely hot) for over 7 hours before finally stopping at a lodge for lunch.  We were SO tired of being in the car.  The food was good and really rejuvenated us so we’d feel like driving for a few more hours on our way out.  The lodge is called Mwagusi and the price to stay there is staggering!  For residents it is $130 per night PER PERSON.  For non-residents it is $390 per night PER PERSON.  It’s a nice place…um…without air conditioning and electricity is run off solar panels.  The animals come right through the lodge areas though so that’s cool.  We were fine with our $20 per night tent outside the park.  (It had real beds in it and the staff was wonderful!  It was also quiet and peaceful.)  Maybe one day the rates will come back down for the lodges inside and we’ll treat ourselves to a vacation.

The park gate closed at 6:00pm and we went back to the campsite for another pasta dinner.  This time the staff gave us extra food to go with it and our little scraps became quite the meal.  Jonathan and I were in bed at 8:45 that night and slept until 8:30 the next morning.  We had our breakfast of eggs, toast, and cereal then hit the (bumpy, hot) road for the 3 hour journey back to Iringa.

It was really fun to see the animals in the wild and to see them so close.  All the bouncing around a vehicle though I got very tired of and the heat was draining.  I’m sort of glad to be back in a familiar place.  I’m not sure when I’ll get back in a car again! 

We took about 1,000 photos and a few videos.  Jonathan will post the pics on the website soon.  (Don’t worry.  He won’t post them all!)

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Okay, so campsite living hasn’t been nearly as bad as I feared.

At first it was extremely hard because we were in tents and they aren’t all that secure against critters. They were also cold at the time (now that wouldn’t be a problem – the weather has warmed up A LOT). Being sick during that time didn’t help either.

Then we moved to a banda where we stayed with another couple. That made things much better because we had our own bathroom so no more going outside with the “wildlife” in the middle of the night. Being sick caused challenges with that one too but overall it wasn’t so bad.

Now though we’re in a banda next to the river. A breeze comes through during the day to keep it from getting too hot for us. We have a bathroom and a kitchen. A stocked kitchen thanks to care packages!! Of course we can’t really make all of our own meals but we have a lot more flexibility with food than we did before. I actually don’t mind being there in the banda now. The only challenge we still have is the food they serve us just because 4 months is a long time to be eating the same things. And so many things have onions and bell peppers that I end up picking through things a lot and sometimes just opt out all together. I can handle those things every once in a while but not at every meal day after day for months. It just gets kind of old. I’m excited to be in our own home making our own meals. Those will also be repetitive but they’ll be ours.

The banda we’re in is nice and shaded too and in those trees there are tons of birds. There’s even a hawk nesting in one right next to us. One night coming back from dinner we saw an owl hovering just outside. We’ve had a lot of fun checking everything out. And it’s just a nice place to relax, read, study, and make egg salad, mac&cheese, grits, or PBJ. We feel the most settled now that we have since arriving.

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We’re back on for safari…  Now we’re leaving today (like – now) and coming back Monday.  Honestly, my personality doesn’t like this on again, off again stuff but I’ll adjust.  Spontaneous I am not.  Maybe this is a test…

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Well, we thought we were going on safari today but the guy we were going with is extremely sick so the trip is off.  Maybe another time…  I’m sort of looking forward to a weekend of relaxing since we were just traveling last weekend too.  I can also do some studying.  Maybe. 

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For the first time since arriving, Jonathan and I will be going on safari! We’re leaving this afternoon, spending all day tomorrow in the game park, then returning sometime Sunday. It should be a fun time away. Hot (very hot) but fun! The park is called Ruhaha and is 3 hours away from the campsite. We’ll camp about 20 minutes outside the park. We should see elephants, giraffe, zebra, birds, impala, warthogs, etc. And if we’re lucky we may see something like a lion or cheetah. I’d really like to see some hippos myself. That would be the biggest treat to me I think. Jonathan, I’m sure, will post lots of pictures!

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Let’s say Jonathan lends Kenny his pocket knife.  In Tanzania, it is now Jonathan’s responsibility to get the knife back.  If he doesn’t mention it again, Kenny will assume that Jonathan doesn’t need it so he can keep using it.  He will now have to ask for it back AND give a reason for asking.  Jonathan should state that he needs to use the knife himself now.  I asked the teacher, “So a good way to say it isn’t, ‘Please give me my knife back because it’s mine’?”  He said, “Oh but it’s not yours.  It’s ours.”  Ah.

There is a sense here of communal ownership.  There are some cultures where that would mean a person could just come in your house and take things without asking.  Thankfully, it’s not like that here.  But.  If someone we know were to ask to borrow something we couldn’t, well, shouldn’t just say ‘no’.  (In fact, ‘no’ is just never an answer in and of itself.  That’s extremely rude.)  We would have to say we aren’t able to lend the item and then give reasons as to why – even if the reasons aren’t quite… the truth.  They referred a lot to “white lies” which they acknowledged was hard for missionaries.  What a Tanzanian would do if someone asked to borrow something and they didn’t want to lend it is to tell them that someone else has asked to borrow it or they are going to need it for something specific and can’t lend it out or any other “white lie” they could think of.  And it seems that even asking for the item back doesn’t guarantee you’ll get it.  Loaning and borrowing apparently isn’t very successful here.

He then told us how the loan department of the bank works.  They are very careful about who to lend to and only do group lending.  That means that a group of families (usually 5-10) come together to share responsibility.  If the loan isn’t paid back they find one of them and lock them up in a room until the debt is paid.  You can see that room in town.  If we can somehow do it, we’ll take a picture one day.  The funny thing is that upstairs over that room is a church and they can get loud.  God works in mysterious ways…

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