Culture Shock? Perhaps just changes in culture

This is Matt, I am on the plane returning to Arusha after a whirlwind 12 day trip to the US for work meetings.  I was in California, Boston and Florida.  It was a good trip.  While in Monterey California for a TNC Marine meeting, I had an amazing private evening in the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Definitely a highlight  - the jellyfish exhibit is beyond description – you should all get there in your life.  Of course the highlight was to have 3 quiet nights in Watertown with Mom, Dad and Zard.  Mom and I had our own dinner on Thursday night – when is the last time that happened?  It was nice as were the family card game and pizza/movie night.  The height of the snow banks was crazy, but spring will come, as it always does – so be patient.  Then onto St Pete’s Beach, FL – an overdeveloped slice of the gulf coast – really in my opinion an example of how develop drives us and how despite all our planning and conservation ethic we often lose the battle. 

During this 10 day trip I kept a running list of the things I reacted to as different than our lives in Tanzania.  Here they are:

10. not saying “Asante” when you are given something – I find it just roles off my tongue

9. brushing teeth under the faucet rather than using filtered water from a bottle or a jug

8. products / services everywhere --- there is SO much (junk) available ALL the time

7. high efficiency – everyone is on smart phones and working constantly

6. being able to plug computers directly into outlets without finding the right adapter

5. not having to ask if we have power today

4. coffee to go

3. sidewalks

2. women dressing to attract attention

1. and my last is a negative one - what a litigious society we are in America.  People don’t talk to each other to solve problems.  They hire lawyers.  It’s wrong and furthers the breakdown of basic human relationships in America.  Thank god for FB to rebuild what America’s overly litigious practices destroy.

And of course the thing that always amazes me the most is Lisa.  She is a survivor.  She deals with the unexpected and keeps the kids fed, happy, engaged while still working remotely.  Police pulling her over for not having the right fire extinquisher, power going off, internet  fading in/out, shopping at 8 different stores for food, school drop-off/pickups… and she makes time to blog… yes she has Mama Jackie to help - but she is an amazing mother and partner for me in our journey. 

Celebrating Tierney’s birthday in style

Since we knew a long time ago that Matt was going to be gone for Tierney’s birthday, we floated the idea with her that instead of a birthday party (which is what everyone else seems to do) would she be interested in staying in a hotel for her birthday night.  She readily agreed as long as it had a pool and a television (in the room…she was very specific).  So after some research we decided to go to the new fancy Mt. Meru Hotel in town.  We even convinced Joey, Birch, and Cole to be our partners in crime. Despite the chilliest two days in months and also some rain, I think it was a success.  We swam, ate pizza and cake (that we brought from home..decorated my Mama Jackie), and watched tv in our room.  We really did splurge and got a junior suite, so the kids were on a pull out couch in the living room and I was in a separate room in a queen bed (with my own tv!). The kids haven’t seen a tv in a year, so when we turned it on the first show we saw was a Discovery channel show about helicopters.  They didn’t want to even look further and were totally happy learning about Apache helicopters for the next 30 minutes or so.  As an added bonus there was free wireless internet, so we came prepared with laptops to download as much as we could while we were there (still not super fast, but we didn’t have to deal with the 150MB daily limit we have at home).

Pool time

 

Presents and cake

View from our room of Mt. Meru

We stayed until the last possible minute and then went to a friends house for lunch.  We were all going to go to a free music/dance concert put on by the students of a local college (Tumaini University of Makumira University College) and it seemed silly to drive home to only head back out again, so I basically invited us over to their house.  The kids had a great time playing with all of Millie’s “baby” toys (she’s almost 2) and I enjoyed Roger playing with the kids while I sat and chatted with Rebecca.  It was a great way to end the weekend and probably would have been even better if the kids weren’t sleep deprived going in to it.  Their favorites from the performance were the African drumming and dancing.  I think they could have skipped the classical piano and jazz trumpet portions. 

All in all it was a great weekend and all the kids want to know when we can go back to the Mt. Meru.  Anderson says he wants to do that for his birthday, but Ashlyn was kind enough to remind him that he’s going to forget by then anyway. 

Happy 7th Birthday, Tierney!

 

Seven years ago today, Matt and I became parents.  We are so very lucky.  Happy 7th Birthday to our gorgeous, smart, curious, sensitive, and nurturing daughter, Tierney.  We love you, T!

Bats!

The girls had some bats hanging in a tree at school today.  We used to be able to see them there regularly, but they've been missing for awhile.  Today was the first day that we've noticed that they are back.  They're kinda cute.

Simanjiro Camping

Last weekend we went out with a full complement of kids and a lot of our good friends to go camping in the Simanjiro Plains about 2 hours south of Arusha (maybe just southeast of Loiborsoit on the map below).  You’ll notice the scale that it’s probably less than 50 miles…yep, took about 2 hours, but the roads were in great condition for being dirt the entire way.  We saw zebras, wildebeests, giraffe, lots of ostrich, gazelle, and a dead mongoose.  We were camped near lots of aardvark holes, but I still haven’t seen one.

It’s hot a dry, so we all decided one night would probably be enough out in maasai land with almost no shade and definitely no water.

(Nice shot of bridge under construction, Tanzania style)

7 kids between the ages of 6 11/12 and 4 on the roof of the car for a drive out for sundowners.

Our tent under an acacia tree….trying to find any shade we can. 

We found the perfect replacement for a missing leg on the camp stove.

The maasai game scouts that watched over our camp and fire and helped us eat our food (but they wouldn’t touch a chicken dinner…only goats and cows for the real maasai)

That termite mound must have been there a while.  I thought it was pretty.

And it wouldn’t be a true African adventure without our car breaking down at least once.  It just stopped running in the middle of the road as we were driving down a hill.  I’m sure the truckers truly wanted to help, but I also think they couldn’t easily get around us.  Thankfully (?) we’ve now had enough car problems that Matt is now a car fundi (specialist) and was able to reattach the correct wires enough to get us home.  Luckily we also have a real fundi that makes house calls and came as soon as we got home (on a Sunday).

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Matt left Sunday night for a long month of traveling.  He’s back in the U.S. (California, Boston and Florida) and then he comes home for 2 nights and is back on the road to Kenya…appropriate levels of sympathy for me, please. 

After school activities have started up for the girls again.   On Mondays, Ashlyn has decided on ballet and Tierney is taking Lego’s.  Tierney has private piano lessons on Tuesdays, and on Wednesdays both girls have decided to take Cartooning.  I’m proud of both of them for their choices this term.  I’ve also started back up with Swahili lessons…my New Year’s resolution was to use swahili more, so I’m hoping this will give me the confidence to go out and do that. 

Anderson’s Birthday Celebrations

On Friday, Anderson and I made a cake to bring to TGT to celebrate his birthday.  First, he was disappointed that he didn’t get to eat it right away, but we got past that.  After dinner the kids all gathered and started to sing Happy Birthday to Anderson…unfortunately, Anderson did not like the attention one bit and quickly ran from the table out onto the football pitch (soccer field).  We coaxed him back with sparkling candles. 

The kids (especially Ron and Anderson) enjoyed the cake.

Best quotes from his birthday on Friday:

Tierney:  “I didn’t know you could make frosting”

Cole (about Anders turning 3): “Now he talks gooder”

The real celebration was on Sunday when we gathered a few friends and went to Maji Moto. 

It’s amazing how quickly this:

  

turns to this:

This time we got a little bit braver and swam down the river (in above pic it’s center top).  We’d heard about how it opens up into another huge pool, so wanted to check it out.  Keep in mind that there are urban legends surrounding maji moto that a tourist was eaten by a crocodile many years ago, so it takes on a different feeling swimming down a reed filled river into the unknown.  The current is strong, but we made it and it was gorgeous.  Quiet and peaceful.  It’s probably 2 times as large as the pool above that we normally swim in.  The water is crystal clear and the bottom looks like a giant sand crater.  Matt and Tierney even saw a turtle swimming. 

Birch jumping from a tree

Present and cupcake time!

   

Ellesmere declared it “The Most Fun She’s Ever Had In Her Entire Life”, so I’ll call that a successful day.

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, ANDERSON!

Happy 3rd Birthday Anderson