Three Days In The Life

22 April 2012.  Sunday.  I am sitting on the veranda of our host family home in Boquete.  Thank goodness the veranda is covered, because the rain now pounding on the room sounds like the roar of jet engine—but much louder than you would hear from row 30. We wake up each morning to beautiful partly cloudy skies and very comfortable temperatures.  By the time we have walked the 2 kilometers (or so) into town it is mid-morning and we are hot and sweaty.  Around noon, more or less, the clouds have intensified, and by 1-ish it has started to rain—hard.  At 4 or 5 or 6 the rain stops for the day and the clouds begin to dissipate.  Usually there is lighting and thunder during the rain, but not a lot.  When it rains, it quickly cools down and a 1,000 frogs promptly break into chorus.  That is the way it has been each day—all three since we arrived.  The rainy season started about a week ago.  It will last beyond the end of our stay.

The village of Boquete is located in western Panama in a valley in the foothills of Volcán Barú, Panama’s highest mountain at more than 14,000 feet.  Several mountain streams rush through the valley.  It is green and lush here (remember the rain?) with lots of trees and flowers.  The bird life here is quite amazing.  For instance, in all of Panama there are 51 species of hummingbird.  So far we have identified only Rufous-tailed Hummingbird and the little Garden Emerald.  But we haven’t really been birding yet.  We’ve just watched from the yard and as we walk into town to explore, visit the school, and go to church.  Already we have 5 “lifers” here in Panama and another 8 along the way in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.  But the birds here aren’t all strange.  Yesterday we saw an Olive-sided Flycatcher and Yellow Warbler in the same tree.  In another month or so both will probably be singing to our friends in Alaska like they do every spring. 

Señora Rivera, her daughter and grandson are our host family.  Their home is very comfortable for us.  We have our own room with a private bathroom and entrance.  The rest of the house we share with the family.  Last night we watched the Bocas Tortugas baseball team beat the Los Santos team on national TV.  I watched the umpires pretty closely.  The plate umpire seemed quite good, but the man at first base was clearly having a bad night.  A batter called out at first who clearly beat the throw, and, much worse, he called a balk that wasn’t a balk.  I couldn’t understand the Spanish, but the body language was unmistakable.  After a long and vociferous argument, including some “help” (a no-no for umpires) from the home plate umpire, the balk was “un-called.”  The two runners were returned to their original bases and a run taken off the scoreboard.  Much embarrassment for the first base umpire.  Our first few days with the Roviras have been interesting and fun.  We haven’t been to a Spanish class yet, and the Roviras will not speak English to us.  But smiles, food, and baseball seem to have a universal language.  We are getting along just fine.

What next? Where next?

16 April 2012.  Our 9 month “season” of rest and reconnecting in the USA has at last come to an end.  Today we sit in Managua, Nicaragua wondering what comes next and where.

Well, in the short term we know what’s next.  By this weekend we will be in Boquete, Panama and enrolled as students in a Spanish language immersion program.  We’ll stay a couple months, Lord willing, and maybe, just maybe, we will go home semi-conversational in Spanish.  At least I think weeks of 4 hours of class a day should get us a little beyond ordering dinner at a taquería.

This part of “what’s next” is fun, at least in the anticipation.  I’ve been so excited about it that I’ve been using a few phrases I learned years ago in a community school evening Spanish class.  “Buenas tardes” I said to the official at Immigration.  “Hola” I said to Miguel, the taxi driver, and “me llamo Gordon.”  To the kind woman making up our room here at Nehemiah Center I even dared “¿Como te llama?”  She replied “Dora. ¿Y tu? “  I smiled, and with great satisfaction, replied “Gordon.”  But that and “gracias” is about the full extent of it.

So that’s our near future in a nutshell.  What about after that?  “God is calling me to some kind of justice effort.  Not like the American legal justice system,” I told the Nehemiah Center founder today, “but God’s kind of justice—something to do with the poor, the oppressed, and other down-trodden people God has so much concern about.  I don’t know what that picture of a justice ministry looks like when it’s finally painted, but that’s the basic outline of picture I see.”

Tomorrow we’ll begin to discover what some of the CRWRC's (Christian Reformed World Relief Committee) partners are all about and meet some of the people actually carrying out the work.  First we will visit with the folks at the Nehemiah Center in Managua.  The day after that we will visit the Christian Center for Human Rights and hear about their work all across Nicaragua.

We are very much looking forward to this.  But we are already hearing that as much as is going on here, similar ministries are also underway in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and El Salvador.  There are many opportunities—and no shortage of need for volunteers.

So as we go about learning our new language, we must also listen and learn to discover where we are actually being called to go.  Tans go!  Ok,  … but where?

Shall We Call It A Day?

30 June 2011.  It was two weeks ago when we both stopped working to prepare for our move back to the states and to say good bye to all our friends.  We used the whole two weeks, paring down our possessions and packing our bags.  And spending a few last and precious minutes with as many of our Tanzanian friends as we could.  Unlike earlier departures, there was no mad rush to get out on time—we had a leisurely morning greeting all of the last minute well-wishers.

Our departure today was for the last time.  Is the work done?  No, the work is never done, but there are times when one must move on to another calling.  We pray that our presence here will have a lasting impact—that  whatever work God has begun will continue until God says it is completed. 

We have been so blessed to share most of the last three years with our Tanzanian friends at the Africa Inland Church compound in Mwanza.  They showered us with love, and we tried to do the same in return.  It was hard to say good-byes.

So just let me share my parting with my good friend Byemero.  Over the years he and I spent countless hours together, working and discussing whatever cultural or doctrinal issues came to mind.   Each day when we had grown tired from our work, Byemero would ask, “shall we call it a day?” marking the end of that day’s time together.  And so it was today.  There was no good-bye from Byemero.  And none from me.  Our last words were simply these:

“Shall we call it a day?”

“Yes, let’s call it a day.”

Hodi! Means "May I Come In?"

4 June 2011, Saturday.  We plan a quiet day at home, but starting at 8:30 ….

Hodi!  Two boys, Kameli and Mkeno, arrive for computer “lessons” and play time.

Hodi!  Missionary Faith comes for help setting up Skype on her computer.

Hodi!  It’s Ephraim asking when he should come by to bake his birthday cake.

Hodi!  Prisca and little Rebecca and Naomi are here to wash the sheets and towels.

Hodi!  It’s time for Dehamu to bake a cake.

Hodi!  Neema is here to bake a cake for her family.

Hodi!  Samuel comes to ask what Ephraim should bring to bake his birthday cake.

Hodi!  Now Neema is back to finish up her cake.

Hodi!  Nashon is here to play games.

Hodi!  “Can we charge our telephone here?  We have no electricity” says Charlie.

Hodi!  Debora arrives with the telephone and plugs in the charger.

Hodi!  Neema is back again with her brother Saguda to pick up her cake.

Hodi!  “Want to buy some souvenirs?” asks Tito.

Hodi!  Jesca and Janeti come with a bag of their nicest clothes for fashion photos.

Hodi!  Neema is back again to water the flowers in the garden.

Hodi!  Ephraim says he must go get grass for the cows.  He’ll bake the cake later.

Hodi!  Elisabeth and Debora are here to get the charged phone.

Hodi!  Mama D. wonders why Jesca’s and Janeti’s photos are taking so long.

Hodi!  “Come take pictures of the newborn calf,” say Mama G. and Baba G.

Hodi!  “Can I print two pages on your computer printer?” asks James.

Hodi! finally takes a rest at 9:45.  A quiet day at home means Hodi!

A Break in Kigoma and Gombe Stream National Park

We ate breakfast on the morning of 17 May on the deck looking over Lake Tanganyika into Democratic Republic of Congo.  The mountains in Congo looked so close, but they are 6 or 7 hours away by boat, we were told.  The lake was calm and inviting.  Yet the battered rocks on the points suggested some serious wave action for generations. 

We were in Kigoma, preparing to go to Gombe Stream National Park to see chimpanzees. Kigoma is a nice town, but far from most everything in extreme western Tanzania.  The town and the area surrounding it are much, much less densely populated than Mwanza.  Also more orderly and organized.  Traffic is no problem whatsoever.  And it is cleaner, but still showing signs of habitual littering.

Our boat and captain

On the 18^th we boarded a modest wooden boat for a 2.5 hour ride to the beach at Gombe Stream National Park, northward up the lake shore.  The boat ferried us to the park, waited for two days in a nearby village, and brought us back to Kigoma on the 20^th.  The boat was lake-worthy, with a tarp canopy to protect us from the sun on the way out and rain that fell on the way back. 

Chimpanzees at Gombe Stream NP

Our visit to Gombe Stream was a lot of fun.  We saw 4 chimpanzees in total.  The first one I found by myself right behind the guest house.  The park staff and researchers all said they never see them so close to the guest house.  Indeed, they didn’t believe we had really seen a chimpanzee until we showed it to our guide, Sabas.  It was high in the trees and never came down, eventually building a leaf nest in a tree and resting there for some time.  The next day we saw three more.  We had to hike up into the hills to find them, and there we got much closer to them.  The biggest thrill was having to step off the trail to let this a mother and baby pass by, literally inches away. 

Baboons

The birding at Gombe Stream was very difficult.  In three treks, each of 3-4 hours, we saw and identified only 10 bird species, but 4 of them were life birds so I wasn’t completely disappointed.  It’s true what they told us.  Gombe is not a good park for birding.  Not that there aren’t some good birds there, but rather that they are quiet, extremely dispersed, and nearly impossible to see in the dense forest.  While looking for birds and chimpanzees we also saw many baboons and 3 other species of monkeys.

Sunset on Lake Tanganyika

We finally enjoyed some great swimming in an African lake.  Lake Tanganyika is much deeper than Lake Victoria, and perhaps that is why the lake is free of bilharzia, a nasty parasite prevalent in Lake Victoria.  So after the hot and sweaty hikes in the forest we would wade right into the lake and enjoy the clean, warm water.  They say the snorkeling is great in Lake Tanganyika—there are several hundred cichlids in the lake (think tropical aquarium fish)—but we had no snorkel gear and saw no fish while we swam.  Sunsets over the lake were spectacular.

Dr. Livingstone, I presume.

On 21 May we went to with our friends to the town Ujiji, site of Stanley’s famous encounter with “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.”   There was a modest Livingstone Memorial there under two mango trees, said to be descended from the very mango tree that Livingstone sat under waiting for death or help, whichever came first.  Nearby was also a nice, new museum building.  It was sparsely appointed with life-size paper mache statues of Stanley and Livingstone and a couple dozen replicas of paintings and old newspaper clippings or journal excerpts.  There was a friendly old man to “guide” us.  He was entertaining as he told us some history and the story of the encounter.

The ride back to Mwanza was a long 12 hours, almost as long as the 12 hours it took us to get there.  Some of the monotony was broken by the usual evasive maneuvers and running out of gas an hour from home.  It was a great 10 day break.

Chimpanzee Mother and Baby

BZZZZZAPPP

27 April 2011.  BZZZZZAPPP!!   So that, I thought, is what it sounds like when you plug a 115 volt computer into a 230 volt outlet.  We had just made the mistake of plugging in one of the new computers before switching the power supply to the proper Tanzanian voltage.  Yes, the computer’s power supply was fried, and who knows what else inside.  It caused a bit of distress at the time, but it couldn’t dampen our spirits for long.

Yes, the long-awaited donation of computers has finally arrived from America.  Nine of them.  Enthusiastic “thank yous” to Perkins Coie LLP and my friends John and Lucas for the great gifts that you have given.  Today Bahati and I had a grand time opening the boxes, converting the voltage switches (all but one!), turning them on, and installing antivirus software.  I marveled at how fast these computers booted and installed the antivirus software.  Oh, these are going to be a huge improvement.      

The students gathered around, trying to get a look at the new equipment.  The most curious one asked me to show him how to make the connections.  As I did, he asked questions.  “What does USB mean?” he asked.  It took me a few seconds, but then “Universal serial bus,” I said.  “What does that mean?” he pressed.  He got no answer from me to that one.  After the BZZZZZAPPP he asked, “Why is the voltage different in America from Tanzania?”  Again, I had no good answer.  It was a good time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

3144 Very Bad Viruses

21 April 2011.  As of today, the AICT compound is closed for the Easter holiday.  When combined with Easter Monday and a national political holiday on Tuesday, things won’t reopen until Wednesday.  So we get a whole week off for Easter.  Except Margaret—the clinic remains open on their regular schedule, so she will be working as usual. 

Recently I was told the computer shipment from America is to arrive today!  It is supposed to be coming by car from Dar es Salaam.  But since the business offices are closed until next Wednesday, I’m not sure what to expect.  It would be really nice if they do arrive today.  It would give me a few really quiet days to get them ready for use.

Yesterday my neighbor, an AICT pastor and leader, came by with his computer .  He had some virus problems he wanted me to fix.  I started with my usual routine, loading Avira antivirus.  But when I tried to connect it to the internet on my broadband DSL, the computer didn’t recognize the connection.  That was just the first of many things that didn’t work right.  So I ran Avira without the update—it was a very recent version anyway.  To my utter astonishment, it discovered 3144 virus infections and moved them all to quarantine.  When I then tried to perform some basic tasks in Windows , they failed.   After many frustrations, I uninstalled Avira and installed Avast, another free antivirus.  I ran a boot scan in Safe Mode, and before it was half-finished, it found hundreds more viruses.  The main culprit seemed to be called Win32:Vitro.  I did a bit of internet research and soon concluded it was hopeless to try to remove this vicious virus via a simple antivirus scan, so I terminated the scan and closed up the computer.  This morning I told my friend the bad news.  He must try to save all his files and documents first, then reformat and reinstall windows and all his other programs.  I know this is an enormous problem for him.  Like most computers I see in use here, this was a used computer that he bought—it came with Windows XP installed, but he has no disks for a reinstallation.  And the same is true for all the other programs he has been using. 

Since I had been using my computer and my flash drive to load the antivirus programs from my computer onto his computer, I was suddenly gripped with fear that I had infected my own computer with this nasty thing.  I immediately shut it down, booted in safe mode, and did a complete system scan with Norton.   It came up clean, so I slept easy last night.  But my neighbor may not sleep so well.  This morning he told me his Easter morning sermon (and everything else) is on his now unusable computer.  Pole sana!