What’s Going On?

How are things? Good friends and family want to know and we are grateful for their concern. The short answer is that everything is fine. No major accidents or injuries or illnesses to report. But there is a longer answer I can give, so I will for the sake of good friends and family.

Health: we are fortunate for overall relative good health and when we are ill we are grateful for medication that cures. All of our family has fallen ill with headaches, diarrhea, achiness, fever, occasional vomiting and general weakness. Not all at the same time nor the same symptoms. For the more severe we are grateful for Ciproflaxacin, the miracle drug of choice for gastro-intestinal illness. Wanda and I were hit with something just before we came out to Tanzania, then last week at EARM we were hit again. I took Cipro and Wanda got a stronger prescription from a doctor in Arusha. We’re both fine now but Amani isn’t feeling well. Now all this talk of health issues may make you wonder why so indiscrete? But anyone who has lived overseas in a 2/3 world country will tell you that when ex-pats get together it’s one of the first things to come up in conversation. It’s so common. But even more than that, one can more readily sympathize with the people we are serving who struggle against other, more deadly, diseases and illnesses on a daily basis. It makes me wonder how often the Ethiopian population actually feels healthy.

Animal news: When we left Addis all our animals were doing well. But we had a traumatic time with Princess Waffles, our female cat. It became clear in September that PW was pregnant. Who the father was, we don’t know for sure although we’d like to think it was Spot, our male cat. When PW was in heat though neighborhood Toms did come around and it was hard to keep her away from them. Wanda guessed that she might have kittens while we would be in Tanzania. But she had them the Monday before we left. Just 2 kittens, one DOA and the other should have been because PW rejected it. The girls were alternately thrilled by the birth event and then horrified when PW treated the kitten with contempt, biting it and throwing it up in the air. So our family separated mother from infant. But then it became our responsibility to keep it alive. All week long the girls, Wanda & I tried. We made PW lie down and tried to get the little kitten to nurse. It was hard since PW had no interest in the event. Hands had to hold her down and prevent her from grabbing the kitten and running off. We also tried to keep it warm by wrapping it in a wash cloth and holding it in our hands to stay warm. Then we tried feeding it with a syringe and later an eye dropper. In all cases short term success but ultimately failure. The kitten would cry and we tried to make it comfortable. But by Thursday we were losing the battle and it was getting weaker and in the night it died. It’s hard to say who was sadder, the girls or the parents. In the end Wanda & I tried to keep it alive for the girls’ sakes. Being invested meant being sadder. In talking about it afterwards Wanda & I both found out that we chastised ourselves for feeling something when all around us, every day in Addis, are sad, sad cases of people and animals who are in misery. One wee kitten dies and we are getting emotional? Yes, for in the end it is the personal that counts. That’s the way it works for all of us, isn’t it?

School news: Just before we left for Tanzania we sat down with the Grades 4 and 5 teachers. The good news is that our girls are very strong in reading and ‘riting. The bad news is that they aren’t in ‘rithmetic. They need to learn the multiplication and division tables which will make life easier for all of them. But in their reading comprehension and writing skills they are all at the top of their respective classes. They also seem to not be a problem in class behavior as well. So Wanda & I were grateful for those reports. It made it easier to travel and miss a week of school for this trip. But the girls did bring homework along with them to work on.

Piano and Lessons: Just before we left we bought a used electric piano off another expat family. It is a Kawai and seems to be good enough for the girls to use. We also found a young woman who is with her family who is at Bingham Academy this year. She graduated from university back in New Zealand and is willing to teach piano for the year for free! We are grateful for her servant attitude and look forward to the girls starting piano the week after we return to Addis. Will our girls end up like my sister Anita, who stuck to her lessons and is an accomplished pianist, or me and Lon, who took the obligatory lessons until we could get out of them and never looked back, until well into our adulthood. Yes, I wish I could play now. You were right Mom.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, Easter and then . . . Yes, we are looking forward to the various high points of celebration coming up but it is true that we are looking forward to June 2009 when we’ll be coming to North America on home leave. Let’s see, that would be 8 months from now . . .

In the meantime, we’ll try to keep up our correspondence with friends and family. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

East Africa Regional Meeting

Mennonite Central Committee calls for 2 meetings each year for Country Representatives. Our regional meetings are known as EARM, or East Africa Regional Meeting. Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda make up EARM in MCC (there is also WARM in the west and SACG in the south). This ‘fall’ (we still use North American seasonal names even though they don’t correspond to the African seasons) we met in Arusha, Tanzania in a Danish-Tanzanian retreat centre.

Mennonite Central Committee is going through a re-evaluation period known as New Wine-New Wineskins. This is both a North American and worldwide event over 3 years. The hope is that when all is said and done something new and fresh, both in structure and in relationships, will pour out of the work. The hope is to invigorate and point MCC in a 21st century direction. Toward that end MCC partners were invited to the meeting for 3 days. Jan Schmidt from Winnipeg led the proceedings. Small groups of our partners and the CR’s were used continuously and given assignments that met the Appreciative Inquiry guidelines (a ‘positive’ way to develop a shared understanding on what MCC is good at and how that can help us in thinking about the future direction). We were asked to share what personal accomplishments we felt good about and what MCC accomplishments we felt good about. In order to be creative we were asked to illustrate by way of drawing, story, skit or song to convey our message.



One exercise included colored pipe cleaners. It seemed a little juvenile to play with pipe cleaners to get a message across but everyone was still in good humor on day 1. Afterwards we were told by one of the leaders that in purchasing the large amount of pipe cleaners needed for the exercise, the vendor wondered aloud if MCC has a large group of pipe smokers! Of course, it was noted, add the New Wine-New Wineskins theme and outsiders might wonder if we are all big smokers and drinkers!

There has been a tug of war going on in North America over the “MCC soul”; is MCC to move towards mainly being a professional funding agency, thereby allowing overseas staff levels to fall to minimal levels for maintenance alone (more efficient use of money). Or is MCC to maintain the idea of being relationship driven which means building up MCC volunteer postings worldwide, particularly in Africa, which can be so important in building relationships between peoples? How important are church-to-church contacts, such as in Ethiopia between MCC and MKC?

How will MCC address the problems that were talked about? The situation in many areas seems to be the same all across Africa. Some things MCC can address, others are out of our control.
Education – too many children in too small classrooms. Not enough space, not enough teachers, not enough education materials (uniforms, textbooks, pens and paper). Motivation is low because teachers are poorly paid, students are poorly educated and there are more graduates than jobs. Education is the key to all other areas listed below.
Health – HIV/AIDs tops the list, but don’t forget about malaria, river blindness, sleeping sickness, tuberculosis and complications surrounding birthing. Not enough doctors, too many patients, not enough clinics and so on.
Agriculture – there are many areas that are food insecure or suffer from a water shortage, or both. Ethiopia is one place for both but the problem is growing in other countries as well, especially as the climate changes. How to care for the soil so it won’t become depleted or eroded, or how to bring the soil back from those conditions (a much harder proposition). How to feed growing populations on limited land?
Peace – It is no secret that war and violence are rampant in Africa on a larger scale than anywhere else in the world. When governments purchase the missiles, tanks, warplanes, guns to equip and train militias and armies, the next logical step is to use them. It doesn’t help that western and eastern nations (from the USA to Europe to Russia and China) are willing partners in crime, for there is money to be made. Merchants of death have never had any moral pretense in selling weaponry over the centuries and it certainly hasn’t changed. On a smaller scale both MCC and its partners agree that teaching about the things that make for peace, especially reaching across religions, is extremely important. Hearts and minds can overrule weapons only if love and trust replace fear and injustice. But even here, peace is a word that causes suspicion in some governments. They know their dirty souls and suspect that peace would target them. After all, the popular saying, If you want peace, work for justice, is tacitly acknowledged as true . . . and dangerous.
Political – this is also a sensitive subject in Africa. But participants affirmed the importance of CSO’s (Civil Society Organizations) that do advocacy work on behalf of the marginalized and voiceless. Government responses range from partial engagement to tolerance to outright hostility. Sometimes NGO’s like MCC can do all the relief and development work they want and still fail in the long term because at the end of the day the governing structures are so poorly designed and implemented. Corruption is rampant in all countries and the participants noted this (however, corruption is more visible in some than in others).

So we were told to dream of an ideal world 10 years in the future. What would it look like in the communities where the participants came from? What could MCC do to bring about that dream? Time and again we heard that MCC should be doing what it is continuing to do. Based on our resources and our size, it feels like we are at full strength. The peace and justice part could be expanded but everyone acknowledged that that could jeopardize MCC presence in their respective countries. Perhaps one needs to be selective, like Daniel or Esther in the Bible, and know when that time is come to speak up. Our partners would need to prompt us, like the Jewish communities of Daniel and Esther’s time.

EARM wasn’t all New Wine-New Wineskins. After 3 days our partners left and the Country Reps and MCC Africa Desk leaders from Akron stayed and spent an additional 2 days going through a laundry list of things to talk about. But it was more informal and relaxed by now, perhaps because folks were so ‘talked out’ from NW-NWS. There are new CR’s this year in Sudan, Kenya, Somalia (that’s still up in the air because of the political situation) and in January there will be a new layer of authority, MCC Regional Reps based in Nairobi. Bob & Judy Zimmerman Herr will take over many of the duties of Africa Desk directors Bruce Campbell-Janz and Melody Rupley. This is seen as a positive because they will be so much closer to the action in Nairobi. Akron is a long ways away in more than one sense. We all look forward to working with Bob & Judy.

Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge (written Oct. 22)

How much can one expect of lodging? Should one just expect high prices, indifferent service, uneven food service and sloppy maintenance (or none at all)? Our experience so far in Africa has been all of the above . . . with 2 notable exceptions: Sabana Beach Lodge on Lake Langano in Ethiopia and now Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge near Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. (http://www.rhotiavalley.nl/html/tented_lodge.html)

This was our safari tour’s second choice and after hearing that the first choice had a pool and this one didn’t, we were worried (for our girls’ sakes). So what about this ‘tented lodge’ that was off the beaten track through poor villages, up a mountainside? But I told myself wait, hold your judgment. It certainly looked nice enough but what was it like up close?


When the owner met us shortly after we stepped out of the vehicle I felt good. A Dutch woman who has decided not only to build the lodge but tie it in with a children’s home which will assist underprivileged children in the area. It’s brand new, opened this summer of 2008, and is a series of tented lodges overlooking the valleys and hills.


The owner has made the lodge and quarters just right. The attention to detail is amazing. Little things like a garden that you walk past on the way to your lodge, with the fresh produce on your table that night for dinner. Or the price of drinks being reasonable. Or the bottled water at the dinner table, gratis. Or having the system set up well to let people know when the hot water is on, when the electricity from the generator comes on and goes off. Or the layout of the tented rooms. Or choosing to bill one by exactly how much time one used instead of an exorbitant flat fee. Or coming back from dinner to find the tent flaps zipped up (keeping the room warmer, nights are cool at 1,700 meters) and hot water bottles in our beds.

But it was the hospitality of the owner who really set this place apart in my mind. She was interested in who we are and we wanted to know more about her project. I’m sure if we weren’t in a talking mood she would have stayed away but it was such a refreshing change of pace for us. So tonight we sleep in rustic luxury . . .

Tanzanian National Parks

Picture this; a lodge built on a ridge with a sweeping panoramic view where a ribbon of river splits the valley below. There are ‘tented lodges’ that are really half and half, half tent with zippers to enter and a tiled back part for a bathroom. There are bungalows that are rounded one room structures with a thatched dome roof which makes for a high ceiling inside. A partial wall separates the beds from the bathroom. The ridge is dotted for several hundred meters with these tented lodges and bungalows. A beautiful swimming pool is ready for all those who put in a hard day of safari in the hot, intense African sun. Cool and refreshing, a swim just like those European explorers took every afternoon after their safaris (not!). In the middle is a great lodge with a grand patio. This has a thatched roof and a vaulted ceiling and oversized chairs to sit in. There is a dining hall which is open, looking out over the valley.

And the valley is a place of action during the day as the animals come to the river to drink. Elephants, zebra, all manner of deer (from tiny dik diks to large impala) and the occasional giraffe. The landscape has been well-grazed and is left with dry grasses as well as dotted with trees from the baobab to the acacia and tamarind. The lodge is not fenced off so by day one can spot dik dik between the tents. Monkeys roam the grounds. Not far off zebra and water buck move. By night lodge guests are escorted by a man armed with a flashlight. No one should walk unescorted from the main lodge to one’s lodging, there could be lions or leopards about.


The first afternoon we went on safari. Now I know what a safari is. Basically one goes out in the morning and afternoon in a Land Rover or Land Cruiser or similar SUV-type vehicle. Most of the vehicles have roof hatches than one can open and stand up and observe the game while either driving or stopping. The vehicle also has three rows of seats, the last row slightly raised for that ‘riding shotgun’ feel. Our girls couldn’t see out in the middle and front seat so they ended up standing on the seats or the armrests or even on the headrest for the best view! So we would drive on the beaten paths through the game parks, never straying from the road (it’s against the law although, ironically, we saw game park workers flagrantly violating the law). No one is allowed to leave their vehicles in the game park so it was one long ‘Sunday afternoon drive’. It ended up being pretty relaxing overall, especially since I left the driving to someone else. But the sun beating down on us soon zapped us of our energy. We did lather up with sunscreen but the intensity was strong. So we drank our bottled water (no other options available, apparently). On long safaris we would have a packed lunch from the lodge we were staying in and stop at an official picnicking spot in the reserve.


Our driver Urio Amos was very laid back, in fact his demeanor and smile reminded me of the father of a boyhood friend. He tended not to speak unless spoken to or if there was something worth viewing. We did talk about some things, especially when we said we resided in Ethiopia; a little politics, religion, game parks, economies, etc. But for the most part he let us do the talking and basically said nothing as occasionally family dynamics played out (children that went from silly and happy to whining and complaining). The safari was for 5 days but we realized after 2 days at Taranguire that a 3rd day was not only unnecessary for our family but that we needed a break. So we cancelled the safari that day and stayed at the lodge swimming and relaxing. Urio was expressed mild surprise and suggested even a short drive. It seemed that he was disappointed which surprised me a bit, after 30 years of driving in these game parks I would welcome a paid day off. But then what could he do at the lodge? At any rate, he said no more and the next day inquired only once how our ‘day off’ was (it was great!).

Tarangire National Park is in Tanzania just south of Arusha town and Mt. Kilimanjaro. The park has both savanna and marshes which are mostly dried up during this time of year. In two days of safari we have seen a huge variety of animals. This park is full of giraffes, elephants, zebras, lions, ostriches, gazelle, impalas, water buck, water buffalo, warthogs, mongoose, a variety of birds and more. We haven’t seen rhinos or hippos but may in the other two locations we plan to visit. Here is a blurb from the internet about Taranguire:

Day after day of cloudless skies. The fierce sun sucks the moisture from the landscape, baking the earth a dusty red, the withered grass as brittle as straw. The Tarangire River has shriveled to a shadow of its wet season self. But it is choked with wildlife. Thirsty nomads have wandered hundreds of parched kilometers knowing that here, always, there is water. Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the dry river bed for underground streams, while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and eland crowd the shrinking lagoons.



It's the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem - a smorgasbord for predators – and the one place in Tanzania where dry-country antelope such as the stately fringe-eared oryx and peculiar long-necked gerenuk are regularly observed. During the rainy season, the seasonal visitors scatter over a 20,000 sq km (12,500 sq miles) range until they exhaust the green plains and the river calls once more. But Tarangire's mobs of elephant are easily encountered, wet or dry. The swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus for 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world. On drier ground you find the Kori bustard, the heaviest flying bird; the stocking-thighed ostrich, the world's largest bird; and small parties of ground hornbills blustering like turkeys. More ardent bird-lovers might keep an eye open for screeching flocks of the dazzlingly colourful yellow-collared lovebird, and the somewhat drabber rufous-tailed weaver and ashy starling – all endemic to the dry savannah of north-central Tanzania.

Disused termite mounds are often frequented by colonies of the endearing dwarf mongoose, and pairs of red-and-yellow barbet, which draw attention to themselves by their loud, clockwork-like dueting. Tarangire's pythons climb trees, as do its lions and leopards, lounging in the branches where the fruit of the sausage tree disguises the twitch of a tail. [Size 2850 sq km (1,096 sq miles)].




Manyara National Park is a mostly a ground water ‘rainforest’ which includes a large lake/ wetlands as well. It is abundant with wildlife and birds of all varieties, including those who fly south from Europe for the winter (they were just starting to arrive as we left). We saw hippos, but alas no rhinos. We drove under the canopy most of the morning and eventually over to the lake in the afternoon. Here is a description of the park:

Stretching for 50km along the base of the rusty-gold 600-metre high Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara is a scenic gem, with a setting extolled by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I had seen in Africa”. The compact game-viewing circuit through Manyara offers a virtual microcosm of the Tanzanian safari experience.

From the entrance gate, the road winds through an expanse of lush jungle-like groundwater forest where hundred-strong baboon troops lounge nonchalantly along the roadside, blue monkeys scamper nimbly between the ancient mahogany trees, dainty bushbuck tread warily through the shadows, and outsized forest hornbills honk cacophonously in the high canopy. Contrasting with the intimacy of the forest is the grassy floodplain and its expansive views eastward, across the alkaline lake, to the jagged blue volcanic peaks that rise from the endless Maasai Steppes. Large buffalo, wildebeest and zebra herds congregate on these grassy plains, as do giraffes – some so dark in coloration that they appear to be black from a distance.
Inland of the floodplain, a narrow belt of acacia woodland is the favoured haunt of Manyara’s legendary tree-climbing lions and impressively tusked elephants. Squadrons of banded mongoose dart between the acacias, while the diminutive Kirk’s dik-dik forages in their shade. Pairs of klipspringer are often seen silhouetted on the rocks above a field of searing hot springs that steams and bubbles adjacent to the lakeshore in the far south of the park.



Manyara provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife. More than 400 species have been recorded, and even a first-time visitor to Africa might reasonably expect to observe 100 of these in one day. Highlights include thousands of pink-hued flamingos on their perpetual migration, as well as other large waterbirds such as pelicans, cormorants and storks. Size: 330 sq km (127 sq miles), of which up to 200 sq km (77 sq miles) is lake when water levels are high.

On our final day we visited Ngorongoro Crater Park. This is an amazing park. A former volcano at the beginning of the long chain of ancient volcanoes that now make up the Rift Valley which stretches through Kenya, Ethiopia and into the Middle East, Ngorongoro was active about 3 million years ago. Then it became extinct and collapsed within itself, leaving a large plain that is guarded 360° by the ancient volcanic walls of Ngorongoro.

The Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest intact caldera in an exceptional geographical position, forming a spectacular bowl of about 265 square kilometres with sides up to 600m deep, the stalking ground of around 20,000 to 30,000 wild animals at any one time. The crater floor consists of a number of ecological environments that include grassland, swamps, forests and Lake Makat, a central soda lake filled by the Munge river. All these various habitats attract various wildlife to drink, wallow, graze, hide or climb. Although animals are free to move in and out of this contained environment, the rich volcanic soil, lush forests and spring source lakes on the crater floor tend to incline both grazers and predators to remain here throughout the year.

The Crater rim, over 2,200 metres high, touches swathes of clouds for most days of the year, with cool high altitude vapours that seem to bring a clean lightness to the air, and also a chill. These highlands wake up to a misty fog in most months, other than the high dry season during December and January.

More information on this amazing place can be found at the Wikipedia website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngorongoro_Crater

I’m sorry to say that I cannot add photos momentarily due to technical difficulties. My hard drive crashed about a month ago and even though I have a new hard drive much was lost, including my Sony camera software. We’re working on it, so you may see photos later, when this is all resolved.