Its Sunday, in the afternoon. (Colleen, that is for you!). A great breeze is blowing through the curtains whipping up papers on the desks; there are a lot of papers for the wind to catch (note to self, get through it this week). Beautiful (on the hot side) spring day here in Njiro District. The gate outside the window that separates the front yard from the dog enclosure isn't latched and it creaks, compliments of the wind, too. Can't move on without mentioning the dust. It is so dry and dusty the wind is finally, doing a great job helping to make everything dirty--always. At any rate, its a lovely, peaceful day around a place that is normally buzzing with 45 people every Monday through Friday.
I woke up to the askari's speaking (shouting outside my window) this morning while it was still dark. Ugh. They are either deaf or should have been born into a loud Jewish family. Even though they share the all-night guard duty they are always up just before the sun and always, it seems to be, just outside my window. What are they doing having a debriefing about the nights' watch? Paolo is Masai so it makes sense; to bed with the moon and up with the sun.
The last few days have been packed full of writing for the center, running errands in town and socializing.
Spontaneously, Caroline and I went to Boogaloo on Thursday after work. We had a couple of Kili's in us by the time Paul arrived with a colleague of his named Bernie. They had eaten dinner together on the other side of the complex. Bernie (Bernadette) was such a pleasure to meet! Irish, but having lived in London for the past 30 years, she is now here in Arusha working for the Archdiocese of Arusha. She is a hoot. I kept looking across the table and seeing Kay Harrison and thought the whole time how Dick and Kay should meet Bernie someday. Bernie has been involved with social justice issues in London for decades including the right to a livable wage and community advocacy. She is a registered nurse and works for the church building capacity in the health care sector including clinics, hospitals, pharmacies. She had the most classic jokes to say about some of the most classic, hysterical subjects. Thoroughly enjoyable and slightly intoxicating evening with these friends. I came home with a cooked kuku and devoured most of it before bed. Something about drinking that does that to me.
Paying for it on Friday was the drag. Ah, I didn't feel so bad but I can always tell when I have done it the night before. I did a couple of hours on the funding proposal and then Caroline and I set out with a student, James, with us, to go for a home visit to meet his mother, bring word to her about how exceptionally well her 19 year old son is doing in school. It had been a good week for James; he scored well on his exam and that morning been voted by his peers to be the class representative. He was beaming on the drive to his house. If everyone could see this smile you would smile for the rest of the day, too.
We hadn't been off Njiro Road (the main road to town) for more than 2 minutes when James said "this is a bad area. Do not walk here alone ever". Good advice from the local guy who said he wouldn't even walk through there at night alone. The area was rife with robberies gone bad and homicide. "Yikes", I thought. I see this area whenever I go into town and bad stuff goes down there, "so close, too close", I thought. We drove on dirt for about 10 minutes through rough road with deep erosion veining through it from side to side. We turned down a narrow alley between mud structures--one of them a shop. The alley led to a large open barren area with a few trees and kids running around everywhere. Somewhat in the middle is a water faucet for fetching water. A chicken ran around and clothes hung drying in the breeze. "Mazungu", I could hear come from one of the dozens of kids out, "mazungu", there it is again, I thought. "Mazungu" there it was again coming from the now crowd of little kids ranging in age from toddlers to early teen. A ball held together with string, rubber bands and God knows what else is being kicked back and forth between the kids with no sense of order or right to a turn for the youngest ones.
A lady came to the door when she saw James get out of the car. She was beaming saying "Karibu! Karibu! "Karibu! ("you are welcome") to us as we approached the door. We were invited into a small room made of mud and sticks with a corrugated tin room. The lady of the house had the place looking immaculate! The room, in addition to one more attached to it, was home to James' family of seven. His father was out working in a restaurant in the Serengeti National Park so Mom was home keeping things keeping on. There was a TV, a small stereo/boom box and a small ice box. The walls were covered completely from floor to ceiling with sheer, see-through (is that what sheer means, duh) material. Everything in the house was covered with this material, too. There was a bed and some benches (all covered as well and a coffee table, too. Some colorful and glittery plastic flowers sat int he middle of the coffee table.
James interpreted the message Caroline was delivering about James' success in school, his abilities, his and Caroline's desire that he remain in school and continue next year and his election as student rep that morning. I can see where James gets his smile. His mother was teeth from ear-to-ear. she was so excited she was wringing her hands between straightening her outfit. The bad news was that James' dad was leaving work at nearly 60 in December of this year which makes James as the oldest son and his 22 year old sister obligated to help support the family. We spent a few more minutes together and began to leave. I took some amazing photography of the neighborhood kids and of James, his mom and Caroline.
Caroline and I stopped at Blue Heron for lunch. I reclined into some pillows on a couch under a shady bush and we shared a vegetarian panini as the mid-afternoon sun started to raise the temperature. We were on our way to a meeting with Dr Linus who sits on the board of the Umjoa Center. Dr Linus is a respected doctor in the community working with and NGO called Society for International Change. He does HIV/AIDS work there. There was no reply from Dr Linus when Caroline called him to confirm time and place so she very quite non-chalantly said "He must of got it wrong". "What?" I replied "the date, the time, the place"? Caroline said "He could have gone to his village in the southern part of Tanzania or gotten the day wrong. who knows; it is like that here". We agreed to just keep going on our schedule to some errands and back to the center.
Paul sowed up right around 1700. "Must be time for sun-downers, " I thought. Caroline was in an interview with a student about what next year looks like to the student in the office next door. "Let's go, sun-downers!" Paul exclaimed. He had a baseball cap on and I just had a laugh. "He is so Norm from Cheers", I thought. One day I am going slip up and call him Norm! Such a good guy!
Caroline opted out of the sun-downer so Paul and I set out to the Backpackers Inn out by Shop Rite and right on the Dodoma Road. Paul is good with the back road routes so we were across town in about 15-20 minutes taking the road around Themi Hill. We had a great early evening beverage (just one!) watching the sun go down, the lights come up from the streets below our perch in the roof top bar and Mt Meru disappearing into the night. We talked about plans for the Christmas holiday and where each of us thought we would end up. A guy from LA named Seth came over, introduced his very-friendly-self to us ad we chatted for a bit.
Paul and I did CHINESE FOOD at the Everest Inn on Nyerere Road in Corridor. It was the hottest beef and chili dish I have ever eaten and that is something for me to say! I was mopping up the sweat from my brow and scalp as we drove home! Paul dropped me at the Center and I had a great night sleep. Ah, the weekend!
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