Ray's report to Family V

We then went to the local secondary school in Hagati.  We met the headmaster, Mr. M’bunda, who was fantastic.  He was young and energetic and this is his first headmaster posting.  It was he that organized the caravan to go over TERRIBLE roads at night to get out to Jenna and Joe’s body.  He stayed and helped Jenna who was in shock.  He communicated several times an hour with Salome  about their progress. We then met the Mayor and some prominent townspeople.  They had rented a car to go out with us. Together we drove out to the “rock”.

It was a dreaded time.  We could see the rock at Mbuji sticking up intermittently as we crawled along a terrible road.  On the way back we would have to tow the other car out in one spot.

As we got closer, Greg told us how he had taken some of his students  up the rock in preparation for climbing Kili.  He told us that at many places you were a misstep away from death.  

When we got to the village, the villagers came to greet us.  It was they who initially ran out to the rock and helped with Jenna and stayed with Joe’s body until help came. The local villagers close to the Rock didn’t even speak much Kiswahili, but spoke in a tribal dialect.  Maybe 20 villagers were there, men, women and children.  

Before we set off for the short walk to the Rock, they passed out cassava flour to make an offering to the local spirits.  There is an offering area right next to the Rock, and the Rock is spiritually important to them.  They feel ancestors and spirits live there.  It is the second largest rock in East Africa.

The rock is a single fairly smooth haystack or grayish rock that is totally separate from the surrounding geologic strata, which is mostly red dirt.  It is deceptively steep in has very few features, such as ledges or cracks.  It has a spme growth of short grass and lichen.  It has two sides that are almost sheer.  From one angle it looks like a mini Half Dome.

The surrounding country side also has no distinctive landmarks, so it is easy to get disoriented from the top as you only see farmland all around, and its shape makes it difficult to see the route of descent over the Rock’s shoulders. Joe probably made a wrong turn near the top and was immediately in danger.

He fell a long way, and we went to where his body lay.  What a terrible, terrible spot.  Everyone drew back as Donna and I were crying, and gave us some privacy.  We placed two ceramic dove ornaments that were given to us by Myra for our first Christmas together.  We kneeled down and prayed for Joseph.  We prayed for Daniel and Kyle’s safety.  Donna and I recited the Our Father and other prayers.  We stood and spread Joe’s ashes and then we knelt again and I kissed the ground where Joe died.  We turned and again thanked everyone for helping or son and our family and for being there when we couldn’t.  It was not appropriate to bury the time capsule there, so we will bury it in our backyard instead. Then we went on the long drive back.

We left Amanda there as she was near her site.  She will finish in August and move to Denver and maybe do HR along with her boyfriend Marshall who is an environmental volunteer in forestry down south near Lindi.  She had just gotten back from her older brother’s wedding, which is part of the reason we gave her a lift back to her site.  But she went out of her way to accompany us and help us and talk about Joe. The four of us then drove the six hours to Iringa and we stayed at the Heritage hotel.

The next day we were to drive 11 hrs to Morogoro, so as to be only 4 hours from Dar.  We had a flight out that afternoon to Zanzibar and didn’t want to be too far from Dar.

As we were driving, I found out the Joseph’s regional director, Thomas retired to Morogoro.  We asked he and his wife to dinner that night and they accepted.

Thomas was like Joe’s father in Tanzania.  He d would interact with him in regards to everything.  He knew Joe really well.  I know Joe felt comfortable with him, because Thomas knew how Joe could get snappy when he was tired or hungry. 

Thomas is also a kindred sufferer as he has lost two children out of five.  Joseph actually went to the service for one of Thomas’ sons.  His son died in America, and his body took two terrible weeks to get back to Tanzania.  His wife had gone to the USA but Thomas couldn’t go.  He as very well educated, going to U Conn and holding high level Education Ministry jobs before becoming a PC regional district person.  He, Saria, Salome, his wife and Simon all knew each other very very well.

The next day we drove to Dar and met Andrea briefly and said goodbye to Saria and Salome.  Another driver, Moshi took us to Andreas to clean and repack for Zanzibar, and then took us to the airport.

The previous week and a half was like a convoluted dream.  It was packed with tense emotions and the meeting and talking with so many people who wanted to help us, who had helped Joe and we wanted to thank.  It is amazing that it all came off without a hitch.  After all it is Africa.  But it was all because so many people, particularly Andrea, Jen Harding, Amanda and Salome came together to make it happen.  We can never thank them enough.

I told them all that the trip was actually better for me than for Donna.  Donna knew she had to go back.  Like Thomas, I was resistant.  I just couldn’t face seeing and touching the Rock.

But the trip was much different.  To see all the people touched by Joe.  To see all they had done for our family.  To be supported by them and then to thank them was extremely helpful.

ZANZIBAR

We got an earlier flight that afternoon to Zanzibar and called our hotel to get early pickup. Andrea had actually bought us a phone and loaded her number and all of the contact numbers into it.  She gave that to us on the first night.  It was so thoughtful.  Unfortunately it stopped working on the trip to Mbuji.  That’s Africa.  Thankfully, Coastal Airlines let me use their fax to call the Mchanga Beach Lodge.  The came to pick us up and we stayed with Gloria and Thomas.  She was from Hempstead, but had moved to South Africa for 30 years.  Thomas was German and they moved to Zanzibar and built the 8 rooms Lodge, 4 years ago.  As opposed to the Old Boma, it was very well run.  There were only two other people there the first night as it is still the rainy season and not many tourists come to Zanzibar or do the Kili climb or the Serengeti at that time.  They left the next day and three Americans came that evening but we never saw them.  It was raining when we first came.

They had great food, such as local octopus and shrimp, etc.  That evening the tide that runs 12 feet was low, so we walked on the exposed reef, while the locals collected seaweed to dry for Japan and China and hunted among the rocks for octopus and other edible stuff.  I local guy came by and we hunted around together.  I found a sea snake, which was orange and white striped.  I didn’t have the camera as it was raining slightly.  I asked if they were poisonous and he said yes.  Then he tried to flip it up and kill it with his pliers so he could eat it.  Thankfully it got away.  I found a small crab and showed it to him.  He put it in his pocket to eat that night.  It turned out he was from the shops nest to the large Italian hotels down the beach, and he tried to get us to buy things.  That was a bit irritating.  

The next day the weather looked spotty.  Donna was tired and needed some downtime.  She went for a run on the long and mostly deserted beach.  I went for a walk. 

I wanted to try to fish so I went out with Zanzibar Game Fishing out of Nungwi.  Chris Goodwin, who moved to Zanzibar from England 13 years ago, runs it. I went out on the SuliSulli with Ofsthman, the Captain and his mate Stone.  The captain was from Zanzibar, but Stony was from Tanga up the coast to the north.  We meet a lot of people from Tanga.

We trolled swimmers and ballyhoo on out riggers.  Had one runoff, probably a Wahoo.  Then saw tuna, but couldn’t get a strike.  Saw dolphins.  Then had a 20lb bull Mahi Mahi on that jumped and threw the hook.  We were all disappointed.  I was sad not catching anything and they were sad not eating fresh fish.  But it was nice to relax and talk to the crew.  Stone was very nice and we talked about many things including Joe.  He had some interesting views on concubines, raising kids, Obama etc.

Our last full day in Zanzibar, we wanted to go snorkeling.  It turns out that I met the Zanzibar Divers desk person, Fin when I booked the fishing trip.  He was from England who was a dive master, traveling around the world.  He spent 4 years at Sharma-el-Sheik diving in the Red Sea before coming to Zanzibar.  He was planning to dive Indonesia next.  I mentioned to him that we wanted to snorkel the Mnembe Island Marine preserve and he organized everything with Gloria.

That morning we took a taxi out to Nungwi, and were met by Fin. The motorized dhow came from their other dive shop with about 15 scuba divers and three other snorkelers.  Stoney was one dive master and Ofstman was the skipper.  

We met a kid from Florida, Mark, who had visited a friend in Kili who was on a mission, then came out to see Zanzibar.  He was in computer technology. He knew our name presumably from hearing it at the airport.

We also met some Canadian young men who had gone to climb Kili then went to Zanzibar for R and R.  Some made it up.  They were college swimmers in the recent past, some from Waterloo.

It was interesting to see the changes in Scuba diving equipment and procedures.  Some of the group was doing open water certification.  I realized that it was 40 years to the month that I was certified as a scuba diver and things had really changed.  The first dive site was too shallow and had current.  Plus, two of the snorkelers wanted life jackets.  The orange vests really hampered them.

I was disappointed.  However, it was a two-tank dive so we had lunch and moved to a wall site.  A wall has a deep drop off.  As such it was much richer in sights.  It was probably the best dive site I have seen for size, variety and numbers of fish.  The coral was OK and the visibility was good.  The water was warm.  Plus, the weather had turned sunny.  It was a nice day.  We got home and had another great dinner.

We woke and again ran/walked the deserted beach had breakfast and took the taxi to Stone Town.  We walked to narrow winding streets and saw the carved doors.  All the shops had the same stuff.  Amanda had told us of a sandal maker and we were hot to get sandals.  Initially, we couldn’t find the shop, and I told Donna just to get the sandals we saw in every shop.  But she persevered and we found it!  It was hot and we went to a restaurant, Archipelago recommended by Amanda and had octopus and shrimp and Tanzanian coffee.  Then the cab brought us to the airport and we flew to Dar to be picked up by Moshi and taken to Andrea’s.  

We cleaned up and she had a dinner party. 

One thins we talked about was Lolionde.  Lolionde is witch doctor that has “discovered” a bark that cures HIV and cancers when made into a tea.  He sells the stuff and it is terrible, because people rush to take the tea and forget safe sex and anti HIV medicines.  He links it to “faith” so that if you are not cured, it is because you didn’t have faith, not because the tea didn’t work.  The tea probably has some medicinal effect as the Masai have used it for years.  But it cannot cure like he says it can.

We got up early this AM and had breakfast with Andrea and Mustafa, got to the airport and are now on the 10 hour flight to London.

I realized that we have gone to the Dar airport more than any other international airport.

It was amazing that such a complicated trip with so many events and people involved and with such distances to drive and multiple flights actually came off without a hitch.  It is totally due to the help of so many people, but particularly Andrea, Jen and Amy Parker.

I am sorry this has been so lengthy, but the trip was important to me and I didn’t want to forget anything.  Donna has a diary, but this is easier for me with my poor penmanship.

Love Ray and Donna