Happy To Be Back In Mwanza

26 November 2010. After 5 months in America, we are finally back in Tanzania. For many reasons, it feels very good to be back.

For one, our Tanzanian friends make us feel so welcome. Take Charlie, one of our neighborhood friends. He's about 8 years old. The first day back when Charlie first saw us, he ran home and announced to his mother, “Margaret is back. Now we can eat cake again!” And it’s true. Charlie and his family have already had a banana cake baked by Margaret, and so have all the other kids and their families. We brought back from America some new picture puzzles and the kids have already put the farm yard puzzle together a couple times. We share with each other the English and Swahili words for the farm animals. But the kids don’t know a Swahili word for llama.

For two, it means a rest from medical appointments and procedures for a long while. We were blessed to have the time to get these things done and by excellent results all around. Enough said about that.

For three, it will suspend our well-developed American spending habits, if only for the simple reason there aren’t too many things here to buy. From the perspective of Africa, I better see in my own typical American life-style an enormous temptation to spend my time, energy and money on things of little importance—as opposed to dwelling on those true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable things the Bible (Philippians 4:8) encourages us to think about. For the next few months we’ll keep the plastic card quietly tucked away, out of service. Our lives will be slowing down, giving us more time to think about what is really important. That will be good for me, but will I remember it when I get back to the states?

For four, we can see changes for the better in Mwanza. The internet for example. This year it took only 2 weeks to get our internet reconnected and operating properly. I called the company every business day for the entire two weeks. Not to complain or express anger, but just to remind the man and keep him posted on the situation. I can tell from my visits to his office that he is very busy, and has a constant stream of distractions. The patience I’ve learned in the past kept me calm even when the promise of service “tomorrow” proved overly optimistic for nearly a week. He really tried hard to get my connection working, he followed up when he said he would, and I think he was more frustrated than me that it took so long to get working. But really, I am very pleased. We live in one of the poorest countries in the world, yet the internet service we have this year is very good, very fast and reliable (when the power is on, more about that in a minute). Things are noticeably improving and the price is coming down, too. What a difference from just 2 years ago!

And for five, we find joy in the oddities of life here. Like electricity. In the last two weeks, we have lost our power more than half of the days. Usually it dies for a few hours, and usually at night. When that happens after dark, we often just go to bed. But sometimes the power is off all day, like yesterday. It was Thanksgiving Day and Margaret had a pecan pie in the oven when the power went off about 8:30 AM. Fortunately the baking was far enough along that she just left it in the warm oven until it was perfectly done. That pie was delicious! We shared the pie and the holiday with a number of other American missionaries at one of their homes. They live only a couple blocks away. They had power all day, while ours was still off when we returned home after dark. It came back on sometime late in the night while we were asleep. So, we have learned to keep the candles, matches and flashlights always in the same handy places. When the light goes off, we can always find them, even if we have to grope in the dark. Last week we had friends from Nairobi staying with us. The first time the power went off while they were here, they laughed at how we didn’t even pause in our conversation when the house went dark. We just calmly stood up, reached for the flashlight and candle, and acted as though it were a normal everyday occurrence. And indeed it was. Even now, as I write this blog, the electricity is off and my computer is on battery power. So we adjust and get along with the electrical power, on or off. But the power outages do wreak havoc with the food in our freezer. We finally had to throw out some meat because it had thawed and refrozen so often. But there is good news even here—our freezer is only 10 inches wide and 4 inches high, so there wasn’t much to throw away.

We really are happy to be back in Tanzania.