Close to moving

I'm sitting here waiting for my office computer to load. Today I convinced these guys to cut part of a tree down because it was right in front of the satellite dish that supplies internet. I didn't want to do it, that tree was really thriving on the bandwidth it was poaching. But the more lovely and lush it became, the more dismal the internet was. The signal strength doubled when it was cut, so hopefully it was worth it.








In other news, the accommodation center that the American people paid for is ready for us to move in. So for a mere $1 million and only 3 months overdue, we get some pretty plush digs for 4 months or so. CENSORED So nice to contribute to the community! It's half a kilometer from Kibondo town, so not quite the short walk that the guest house is, but still close, I hope.




I've been trying to volunteer for some of the agencies out here, but some of them are pretty strict about it. The amount of politics and bureaucracy is mind numbing at times. CENSORED. I'm sure that's just a vestigial wave of paranoia that comes from living in a once communist country, but I'm not really that sure. CENSORED. See, the theory is that if refugees become aware of the opening of a transit center for the ones that will be resettled in the U.S., they will no longer want to go back home and voluntary repatriation will drop off. As with many things, there are so many sides to this issue that it comes to resemble a sphere. More like a jawbreaker right before you crack it. The other thing that the taxes I got a six month extension on taking care of paid for is about 400 brick homes for the chosen refugees to live in. The ones being resettled score these beauties partly for security, because they become kind of singled out from the rest of the refugee populace. The first time I saw these, they looked very picturesque and at the same time like the opening credits to Weeds. I got a very emotional feeling coming out of there, but I'm still not sure what it was. Lets just say there was no bile involved.

The dust is rising out here. It hasn't rained for a few days and people are starting to get coughs. The sun sets higher and higher each day because of the amount of dust in the air. When we are driving on the road, it takes less than 2 seconds for a bicycle to vanish in the dust rising from our passing. The dust is red, but it doesn't taste like iron. Someone probably said it is red from the blood spilled in African wars but then it would probably taste more salty. No, it just tastes like chalk, except at night, when it tastes like wet chalk.










I've been trying random eating options in an effort to have some variety. I like the samosas, but they are often cold and that's when the grease gets a little mucky. Samosas are triangular deep fried things with ground meat and veggies or just veggies in them. I've also tried something one place calls a pizza, but its really just a meat pie with pizza dough like skin and a boiled egg inside. They have veggie ones of those, too. So far, nothing has made me sick. A common roadside treat is some kind of meat on skewers and chips mayai. The skewers are typically, upon close inspection, bicycle spokes and the meat can have a kind of woodsy rancid taste after 4 pm. Chips mayai is just french fries embedded in scrambled eggs. Sometimes you get chapati on the road, which is kind of like a tortilla only more greasy and a little more bready. Chapati is the most likely to give you the runs, according to my informal poll. Suffice it to say that they reuse the grease. What they used it for in the first place I will gladly leave a mystery.

If the old rule of thumb about the cleanliness of restaurant kitchens being indicated by the cleanliness of the bathrooms applies, you do not want to eat in Kibondo. The typical bathroom, with its various nesting insects, patchy ruddy color from the dust and mud of which the walls seem to be composed, parts of small animals and birds in various stages of decomposition, floor (if there is a floor) festooned with bits of newspaper (not for reading) and tissue, and enormous maw that somehow still isn't big enough to catch all the human waste spewed at it, makes a very good appetite suppressant. And at most of these places you need an appetite suppressant. Beer, or "Bia" in Swahili (see, I am learning a language), also fills the helps stave off the hunger quite nicely. And it works in conjunction with the bathroom imagery, so the 2-5 hour wait for food seems like a mere 1 to 4 hours. You can order ahead, but then they act surprised when you get there an hour later, and won't start cooking until you've been there for 30 minutes or so. Actually, I'm basing this on only a couple of places. The roadside stands are more responsive. But we did wait five hours for Samosas once, until one guy went and stood in the kitchen until the food got cooked. We dined that night at around 11:30. You also commonly run into the situation where there is no more food. Most of the time you just have to keep asking and something will happen, but sometimes there is just no more food. So Ann and I have started cooking at home. We need to get a gas stove, because the charcoal habatchis that they use around here take a while to fire up.





Right now she is sick in bed. We live with the medical coordinator, Dr. Leul, who we also hang out with all the time and within hours of Ann feeling ill she had both kinds of malaria tests. She got the results back within a half hour of taking them (negative). For comparison, when I started showing symptoms in Seattle, it took 3 hours of waiting in the emergency room to get the test, and another 24 to get the results. There are some unexpected things going on over here, which I guess makes sense in the land where humans became dominant amongst 1 ton carnivores and the virulence that took them down.

Blind bowman

Ann met the president of Tanzania.





Well, things in Kibondo are OK. Every now and then, someone from one of the NGOs leaves and we get to go to a going away party. The majority of the people working at these NGOs are Tanzanian, and so there is a customary process, which involves many speeches, the giving of the gift , sometimes a line up to embrace or shake hands goodbye, food and then the disco. And then, after the disco ends, some people go to a local disco until 5am. Some people.



It is a little strange to be at a local disco as a minority of one, i.e. the only one who can't dance right, but at least you get a lot of room. Which helps because the floor is dirt and uneven and its pretty dark and pocked with ankle breakers.

Last night one of the doctors left, he got a posting in Tibet, I think, to help with the refugees from Bhutan. They meal started with soup, which I ladled into my bowl and took a spoonful without really looking at it or smelling it. Then Ann said "If you don't move that soup further away I will puke." At which point I caught a whiff and the after taste of the broth; that quality you'd associate with a certain ambiance. Somewhere between a slaughter house and a latrine. Then I noticed that the things floating in it looked like unscaled sketches from Gray's Anatomy. There was a trachea, oh and is that an esophagus attached? It is good to eat every part of the goat, but the parts that have some of the stuff the goat has eaten in them...I'm not that hungry. Not ready to experience that part of the culture. The barbecued meat parts of the goat were very good, though.



I've been trying to help with computer problems and network stuff for TCRS and Ann's organization IOM. Also, getting ready to do some teaching of Office applications to locals and Refugees. So I got a tour of Kibondo's Folk Development College. The IT Technician at TCRS, Innocent, took me there. They've got 12 PCs on a satellite dish and the teach Modern Computing, Mechanics (Cars and trucks or Gari's and Rollis in Swahili), and some textiles related stuff, I think. We walked around, checking out the buildings, and greeted some people. Towards the edge of the Campus, an old Kibondan walked by us, and I noticed he carried a bow and arrow. The little arrows. So I looked at him and said Salaama, and he kind of stopped and said something, and I realized he had no pupils or irises and one eye was all brown with some marbling and the other was kind of silvery. "He's blind," Innocent told me, after we'd walked on a little. "But he's got a bow and arrow," I said. Innocent was silent, leaving me to wonder and draw my own conclusions.



The ongoing construction of our future home and the IOM offices is going on. And on. Some of the construction pictures on my album illustrate the pace.





A lot of gravel is made by men with picks smashing rocks, which is then sorted by women into different sizes, including sand. Then the women, some of them with babies on their backs, fill up five gallon buckets and balance them on their heads.




This is how many tons of sand an gravel get transported. You know, I have a really good job.

They use the construction hard hats to mix mortar in, they're too hot to wear.





We went and looked around the other day after a sunset run.


Our house will be the second from the left.

Settling

THis is what we look out over when we eat lunch:



If I turn away from that, I am graced with this beautiful view:



We've both been working a lot. Ann has been teaching classes this week because they had a scheduling mishap and she had to pick up the slack.


Scheduling mishaps are pretty much the norm here. I was trying to find the swahili term for happy birthday but it turns out there isn't really such a phrase because it is impolite to refer to a specific date or something. Like celebrating a certain date violates some cultural more. Also a lot of people don't know their birthday. This is probably changing.



I've been helping with some IT stuff and learning about satellite internet. In exchange, I get to use the internet to keep up with my work for PMI. There aren't internet cafes in kibondo.


Also, we are taking swahili lessons every day and its starting to sink in a little.

Kigoma

We took a weekend trip to Kigoma, which is on the shore of Lake Tanyangika.



A gigantic, crystal clear lake which is between Tanzania and the Congo. The drive was 4 hours along a narrow red dirt road. I'd have to classify the drive as adventure travel. Our driver, whom Ann calls Mudi Andretti (Mudi short for Mohammud), hit speeds of up to 75 mph on this rutted track. It is barely wide enough to fit two cars, but because of all the ruts, huge holes, and streambeds cutting through it, there is rarely two lanes that are flat. Besides, on both sides of the road the are people walking and biking, carrying things. As we go screaming by, they are all vying for room in the ditches and surrounding brush. It's not nice.



Women carry 40kg loads on their head, children hauling logs, and the stuff they put on their bicycles is impossible. These heavy steel fixed wheels with iron racks on the back are their trucks. You see piles of firewood about 4 feet wide, 3 feet high, and maybe 3 feet deep. You see 8 foot wide bundles of sugarcane, which must weigh about 30-50kg. Those kinds of wide loads had a hard time getting out of the way as we drove by. I pointed out a kid, about ten, pushing a bike that had 3 50kg sacks of rice on the back. Thats 330lbs. I thought that was impossible until our friend Dr. Leul said he saw a full grown pig on the back of one of these bikes. Plus, sometimes you'll see a whole family on one. Pretty common to see a bike with two single mattresses strapped to it or fifteen or so chickens in a wicker cage.

Anyway, we made it after 4 hours with only one fatality, a chicken. The president of Tanzania, Mr. KiKwete, was there. Ann had met him and he had called her by name to say goodbye when he left Kibondo. So we were joking that maybe he could score us a decent pizza. Pizza is highly coveted by the people working in Kibondo, because the diet is pretty monotonous. The food seems OK to me, but it's kind of a universal gripe around here. I'm trying to get enough bricks to build a pizza oven, and we are starting to learn to cook over the little Hibatchi's you have to use. No electric ranges or gas stoves here.

But Kigoma was beautiful, and I put some pictures up before the server froze.

Ann was happy about the hot water:



It is the starting point if you want to take a boat ride to the GOmbe stream to see the chimps. We didn't make that ride, but maybe next time.




Our trip back was another adventure, trying to beat the rain on Sunday, because the roads become rivers when it comes down, and getting back would have been a definite maybe if we got caught behind the water. But we made it, again with only one fatality, one dove of a pair that dipped below the grill.

In

This morning we were walking to the office and I said 'beats rush hour eh?' there were kids running alongside us holding our hands, goats meandering in the road, and ladies with bundles of sticks on their heads walking by. We just had our breakfast at UNHCR where we eat every meal. It overlooks the most amazing view I have ever seen. The light here is amazing-there is something to be said for twelve hours of sunshine per day-my nails and hair grow like crazy here!
Last weekend was the first flight out for this group of refugees.



It was a very emotional day to see the people we have been preparing for life in the US actually getting on the plane and leaving. They are so hopeful and innocent-I know it is a better life but we still cant help but worry for them.



We will send some pictures-there were dancers and drummers





and the local villagers who look worse off than the refugees. The kids are literally wearing rags.

It is the same airstrip where we picked Reed up. Literally in the middle of nowhere the plane just appears in the distance and pops down on the airstrip which has to be cleared of cattle before landing.
It is great to have Reed here to share this with. We will try to take video of our jogging along with a pack of squealing little kids who chase us and want to hold hands and touch knuckles. They scream 'Mizungu' and come racing out of the bushes. The other day I was nearly gored by a herd of longhorn cattle while I was jogging! It was a close one but they veered at the last second-I felt like a bullrunner in Spain. We are still waiting for construction to be finished on our houses and offices so meanwhile we live in the guesthouse with other staff. It's like college-we all work together, eat together. This weekend we went to two UNHCR parties so that was fun to meet other people doig the same work form all over the world. Most staff is African with some Europeans.
Better run.

My work load is terrifically light. I supervise the staff teachihg the orientation classes five days per week in the mornings out in the camp since I am not teachinhg I have lots of down time. But I am going to get some extra classes going for women and youth.
Hope everyone is well-miss you and love you all.

Ann

In Kibondo

Short post, internet is spotty at best. Tried emailing pics with cell but connection bites the deep red dust before anything happens.

Reunited with Ann at the airstrip after a short hop from mwanza on a UNHCR two prop.

Been working on getting the internet here to work better in an exercise of enlightened self interest.

Hard to read anything on a turkish toilet.

It's getting close to lunch, when they shut down the power, so I better post this and move on.

2 gone

OK. Right now I'm at the Tilapia Hotel on Lake Victoria. Went to a reserve last night, Saanane Islad, means 8 o'clock islanf to check out some wildlife. There were kingfishers, egrets, ibises, cormorants, kites and eagles, as well as some little yellow bird tat weaves its nest together. Alo some free roaming Gazelles. Then there was a spootted Hyena and a Lion in cages.

Plus, some kind of party. Went over in a boat with 10 people, came back in the same boat with sixty people. A little sketchy, ut the chop was only a couple of feet so no big deal.

2nd 2 last am in Nairobi

Well, getting ready to go. Tomorrow, I'll be on a two hopper to Kibondo. Spending Saturday night in Mwanza on Lake Victoria.

Nairobi has been good. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Pindie and David, and we went out to dinner last night with Shana and Louisa. They are doing the same thing Ann did last year, having been chosen to check out the Cultural Orientation program. As we chowed down on Lamb, Frog Legs and Gnocchi at the Mediteraneo, I couldn't help but see something like Ann's present in their future. As well as something like Ann's past in their present.

I really have only left the house to go pick up stuff at Sarit Center. Been working, setting up possibilities for working remotely (using my cell as a modem) knocking back Tuskers and listening to the bullfrogs at night. To me, when the frogs get the call and answer thing going, it sounds like an asthmatic giant breathing.

Monday is going to be a national day of morning here in Kenya, for the people of the Kenya Airlies flight that went down en route Cameroon. I think it was David last night who pointed out how these deaths united the country, while as many Kenyans die in tribal war, there is no similar mourning. Hope lies is resolving this contradiction.

The enemy is the we that is they.

Nairobi

This is the second time I've been in Nairobi in the last four years. Pindie and David have opened their beautiful home to me, and it makes me feel totally different about Nairobi. The first day here, there was a little gathering here celebrating David's birthday, and I got to meet a few expats and got a real warm feeling. I thought six months in Africa was a long time, but it seems like a blink after hearing these folks talk about it.



Went down to the Sarit Centre, a shopping mall, to get a cell phone. Outside the mall, I walked by a blind guy reading a braille bible out loud right next to a guy who looked like he might be a leper. The power blinked out three times while I was in the mall, once while I was talking to a salesperson about a phone, and I saw no visible reaction. It happens a lot.

Arrived Nairobi

30 hours later, I'm in Nairobi. Trying to get cell squared away etc. Was a 7 hour layover at heathrow. Slept most of the flight from Heathrow to Nairobi, then took a cab to Riverside Park. half asleep now.

The Eve of the Eve of departure

In two days I'm going to Africa. I've been there twice. Once in Tunisia. And we went there because of a dream I had in Anacapris. It was the day after Ann lost a contact swimming in the grottoe(sp?) and we towed an Italian couple with engine trouble to dock. Still waiting for the promised free dinner. Anyway, one morning I was dreaming about being some jedi guy and I was sitting at a long table with a podium in the middle, and I had a feeling that behind the curtain lurked a spoiler. Because the event in my dream was that peace had been brought to the galaxy and I was the celebrant. I ended up fighting with some invisible guy whose only weakness was that his light saber only had a six foot extension cord to power it. I cut the cord and once again saved the galaxy, only to wake up in the world.

Rubbing my eyes, I noticed Ann was not in bed. It was morning, she was on the patio reading a travel book and catching some morning rays. I started telling her about my dream and said "I think I was Luke Skywalker or something." She said "Oh my god, we have to go to Tunisia. You are freaking me out. Read this." And she handed me the book she was reading with her finger on a section about MatMata, where part of Star Wars was filmed. The part about Luke before he realized his destiny.

So we went to Tunisia. There was a lunar eclipse the day after we got there.

Three years later, in 2003, we went on a safari in Eastern Africa. Before the safari, we landed in South Africa, in Johannesburg. As usual, we did exactly what all the guide books said you shouldn't, and took a ride from the airport with the first people who offered us egress from the airport. Spent the night by their pool on our backs watching a lunar eclipse.

Last year, April 20 something, Ann got honored with a Cultural Orientation appointment in Kakuma, Kenya. There was a lunar eclipse while she was there.