Kenya and the Kudu

The last few days have taken some unexpected twists and turns.  I was planning on attending the CRWRC East Africa Team meeting in Nairobi during the second week of September.  My coworker and my boss and one of our local partner staff were planning on leaving on the 23^rd to attend a training on Results Based Managment in Nairobi for a week and then spend two days visiting programs in Kenya.  My boss would then visit her family before attending the EAT meeting, while my coworker and the partner staff person would return to Dar.  I was planning on taking some language lessons and getting some other work done in the office since it would be very quiet.  On the 22nd, the day before they were to leave, the partner staff person informed us that she would not be able to attend after all.  Since the spot was already confirmed and booked, it made sense for someone to fill it.  This training is very relevant to my work, so I volunteered to go.

So, with less than 24 hours notice, I cancelled my plans for the next 2 weeks and packed up everything I have here and checked out of the guesthouse where I live.  It was a bit stressful, but on Saturday morning all was well and we were on our way.  Peter, Margaret and I were accompanied by Margaret’s 5 year old nephew, Kevin, who has been staying with her for the last 3 weeks.   After about 8 hours of driving, we arrived in Moshi and spent the night in a guesthouse on the side of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  The majestic mountain only peaked out from behind the clouds for a few minutes, but we enjoyed it while we could. 

On Sunday morning we left at 8:00.  We were hoping to arrive at the border by 11:00 and reach Nairobi by 2:00.  The road from Moshi passes through Arusha and then on northward to the Kenya-Tanzania border.  The road passes through a variety of landscapes including dry, dusty areas and areas with thick bush where elephants, giraffes and zebras can sometimes be seen. It was as we were driving through this bush area that all of a sudden, a Greater Kudu (basically like a deer only bigger) leaped out in front of us.  We hit it with the front left corner of the vehicle, which was just where I happened to be sitting.  Thankfully, Margaret maintained her cool and we stopped shortly after about 1 kilometer.  None of us were hurt, but the front corner of the vehicle was smashed and the radiator was broken and leaking badly.  We knew that we could not drive any further.  After a short time a tour operator stopped along the road to rescue us.  We were only about 15 kilometers from the border, so he towed us there.  It was a scary tow since we had a short rope and he was driving fast, but we were thankful for the help. 

After arriving at the border we had a long wait ahead of us.  First we had to make a police report and the police had to go back to the site to verify our story.  They took a pickup truck to go look for the animal and were really hoping for some meat.  No such luck though.  Margaret said that right after we hit the animal she looked in her rearview mirror and saw a few Maasai people running toward it.  They were excited.  Free dinner!   After our story was verified and the police released the vehicle, we had to cross the border.  We had to wait for the vehicle to clear both sides of the border and then had to wait for the wrecker to come from Nairobi (3 hours away) and get the car.  Thankfully, we were able to get the insurance representative on the phone and he was able to help us with this process.

Margaret knows a pastor in the area, a man whom she briefly worked with as a potential partner for CRWRC in Tanzania before he moved to Namanga.  He helped us to organize transportation and invited us to his house for tea while we waited for the wrecker.  When the wrecker came, they were starting to load the vehicle when the winch broke.  I thought we were never going to get out of there!  After trying to fix it for a short while they gave up and let the crowd of onlookers (and quite a crowd it was!) help to push the vehicle onto the truck.  Margaret signed off  on the vehicle and we took our hired vehicle to Nairobi.  We finally made it to the training venue at about 10:30.  It was quite a day! 

I am now at the RBM training and have enjoyed the first day.  It is wonderful to meet people working with CRWRC and our partners throughout the region.  I can learn so much from these people who have been doing this work for so long.  It has also been neat to see my former coworkers from Kenya again.  I praise God that I am able to be here despite all the craziness of the past 3 days.  I am so thankful to Him for our safety.  Things could have turned out very differently.  Thank you to each person who is/was holding us up in prayer!

 

Early August Update

As I write this blog, I am watching the Olympics. It is neat to see how, despite our differences, the world can all come together for an event like this. The longer I am here in Tanzania, the more I notice some of the differences between my culture and this one, but it is neat to see how each culture has something to offer. Living in a guesthouse and attending an international church has given me the opportunity to meet people from many different countries and cultures. Unfortunately, the fact that it is a guesthouse means that many people leave after a short time. It has been sad to see my new friends leave so soon after I meet them. Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to see them again someday. Hmm… maybe a world tour is in order.
The month of July and the first part of August have been pretty “ordinary” for the most part. It is amazing how easy it can be to settle into a routine. I continue to enjoy my work, especially field visits. Since our local partners have many different community groups, I still haven’t seen them all. With 2 of our partners we did an excercise where we ranked the capacity for leadership, ownership, resources, networking, vision and planning of each of their community groups. Stepping back and taking a look at these 6 areas will help us, and them, know how we can best work with each of these community groups and also set a baseline that we can look back at a year from now.
Another project that I’ve been involved in is helping a few of the groups that we work with find and apply for grants from other organizations. One of the reasons for this is that we are not able to fund everything that they want to do. Another reason is that we eventually want them to be completely independent of us. Now we just have to wait and see if the proposals are funded!
Last weekend I got the opportunity to see part of Tanzania that I hadn’t seen before: Zanzibar. Since Zanzibar is “Spice Island”, it was only appropriate to go on a spice tour. I got to see how pepper, cinnamon, tumeric, cloves, vanilla, and many other spices grow. It was really interesting. I went to Jozani rainforest where I got to see endangered Red Colobus monkeys, and also visited old Persian baths and a cave where slaves were held for another 17 years after the slave trade was outlawed. I stayed in Stone Town which has many old buildings and narrow streets and alleys with shops everywhere. Unfortunately, some of the excitement of the town was taken away by the poor maintenance of the buildings and the people who insisted on following us around trying to sell us stuff and refusing to take no for an answer. It was a good trip despite these frustrations.
That pretty much covers what has been happening here in Tanzania for the last few weeks. As always, I appreciate every prayer that is offered on my behalf and every note of encouragement that I receive. My current prayer requests are as follows:
-Safety while driving, and in general.
-Choosing the right housing option (I have to move sometime in the next 2 months)
-Continued good health
-Good relationships and not feeling too homesick