Edgemont Book Club

Last week we met at Marsha's for a bookclub. We read "The Dark Room", about WWII Germany from the people's perspective. Good book for discussion.

Joseph loved to read; from the time he could crawl he would happily sit in our laps. "Good Night Moon","McElligot's Pool", "Where the Wild things are", "I Spy", "one fish, two fish", "good night, good night" etc. etc. Every night for years. And Joe listened intently. Ray read him the Toilken series all the way through by the time Joseph was six. The comic strip "Calvin and Hobbs" was a favorite. When he got to high school, "Odysseus" sang to him. In Africa we (aunts, uncles, friends) sent him hundreds of books. He loved "In the name of the rose", "king leopold's ghost", and Paul Theroux. The Economist and Science were favorite journals in Africa. He was always a voracious reader.

In the spring of 2000 I had to choose a book for book club - always a competitive offering. Joseph was a freshman at Fordham Prep, and he suggested Chinua Achebe's "Everything Falls Apart" for the book club. He insisted that if we read it, he had to be part of the discussion. So when the evening came Joseph came and sat through, and participated in our book discussion. I was so proud of him that night. He was the only child who ever came to our book club meeting for the whole discussion.

When he died the head of Peace Corp Tanzania commented on the amount of classical music in his ipod, and the number of books at his site.

then we left

After we got the wart hogs, the driver drove up in the all terrain jeep and we piled in and left. I still think of Ndanda as a safe place; I had been so happy to go there and realize that Joe had landed in a good place. There was a pool, there was an organ, the merchants knew him, the school loved him, the volunteers at the hospital loved him, he was comfortable there. And safe.

After the unrest in Kenya we thought that he had had his adventure and here he was in a nice backwater where everyone knew him. He was underfed, and he had none of the amenities of modern life and he was lonely but he had learned alot about himself, and he was safe. At least we thought he was safe.

The last morning Ndanda

We were leaving Ndanda on Tuesday morning. Joseph was feeling very guilty about leaving his students for so many days, so he was busy with last minute class room duties. Before he left for the school, he took us over to the small park across the street from his house, where the local woodcarvers met in the morning to try and sell their wares (I have no idea who they were selling them to, as there are very few non natives living in the town, and the ones that are there are aid workers.)

Joseph asked us what we wanted, and we tried to spread out our purchases among all the vendors (there were four or five). Finally we came to one vendor, with whom Joe had a history. The year before he had bought creche sets for all his aunts and uncles. He brought them home in Sept 2008. One set was not complete, and he told us that the carver had promised to fix it for him when he got back. Well apparently that never happened. Also, we found out, Joe had lent the man money, and he never repaid. So that morning, Joe started arguing with him over the the wart hog we wanted to buy. Bargaining is a way of life in tanzania, but Joseph was not very good at it. Finally he threw up his hands and said "I'm out of here" to Ray and I and walked off. So Ray and I walked off from the wart hog. An hour later the carver showed up at Joseph's door and told him (in swahili) that he did not want him to be mad at him, and would he take some carvings for no payment (Joseph really had already paid for them!) Joseph took them, and the wood carver went off happily.

The animal carvings are displayed on our front windowsill, where the dogs happily knock them down every time they bark at something out front.

Joseph's House for dinner

Our last night in Ndanda Joseph decided to bbq some pork and had invited his Japanese co worker over for work. It was an emotional evening because the co worker was going home that week and Joseph was leaving for the safari with us. Things were about to change for both of them, and I guess they were nervous. Irina decided not to have dinner with us.

Cooking in a kitchen with no modern appliances and not many utensils was an interesting experience, and I am sure we all got a good dose of the local flora that night. Joe used some kind of gelled fuel to start the stove, he just poured it liberally on the stove and threw a match on it. The flames climbed the wall as we watched in horror! Joseph told us not to worry, the house was built of cement and there was nothing to burn anyway! Anyway, it maybe sterilized the cooking area.

In the fall of 2008 I had called Joe one sunday and he had told me about his and Irina's attempt of having a chicken dinner. Unlike pork, chicken is a rare treat in Ndanda so they had to catch the chicken, kill the chicken, prepare the chicken and then cook the chicken. They only did it once, too much work.

During the middle of dinner two of Joseph's student friends came by to hang out, Moses and Goodluck (common names in Tanzania). We spent a pleasant hour talking with them.

I discovered google archive today

http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20061115/101456.shtml

YOU Have to go to the site to see the photos - but many of Ruby's family made the trip to China for this opportunity. Ruby, and I, almost went in 2006 but it was too much in November. This picture was taken in Shanghai in front of Sun Yat Sen's house in Shanghai - the resemblance was greater than the picture shows.
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Relatives of Dr. Sun Yat-sen pose for photographs in front of the huge granite archway that is carved with two golden characters, "Bo" and "Ai" (meaning universal love) that are represent those written by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, at the revolutionary's Mausoleum in Nanjing on Tuesday, November 14, 2006. [Photo: Xinhua]

Some 120 people including relatives of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, representatives of overseas Chinese, and celebrities from Taiwan paid homage at Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum in Nanjing on Tuesday.

The granddaughter of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Sun Huiying, who is in her early 80s, laid a wreath on the statue of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen.

Sun Huiying said it is her third time participating in this commemoration event, and she made a special trip from the United States to pay homage to her grandfather, who was the forefather of China's democratic revolution.

Taiwan's New Party Chairman, Yok Mu-ming, also took part in the activity, calling on people to follow Sun's endeavours and ideological contributions, and make greater efforts in the great course of national reunification.

Born in 1866 in what is now Zhongshan City in south China's Guangdong Province, Sun Yat-sen is known across the country as a "great revolutionary and statesman" who fought against feudalism and imperialist aggression and for the independence and freedom of the Chinese people.

Related story:

·Commemorating Sun Yat-Sen 140th anniversary of birth

·Hu Jintao praises Dr. Sun Yat-sen at 140th birth anniversary gathering



Editor:Lu Yuying

　

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January 2008 Joseph email to friends

Mambo,
Mom finally convinced me to send out an email informing you all that I am, in fact, alive and comfortable, waiting out Kenya's turmoil in Dar es Salaam.

In training we had one session where our teachers, all from various tribes, described their cultures and the stereotypes about themselves; the Luos were the academics, the Kikuyu were businessmen, the Nandi could run fast, etc. At the time we all laughed and the teachers didn't take themselves too seriously; however I realized over the next couple weeks a strong undercurrent of resentment among even the most educated Kenyans. The politicians never even mentioned the tribes by name and created grand names like Party of National Unity or Orange Democratic Movement, but their support came entirely from monolithic ethnic voting blocs. American analysts predicted the election would involve some violence, although not as much as those of '92 or '97. Observers believed that the elections could be a watershed for Africa and the entire country was hopeful.

Thirteen of us gathered for the holidays in Kakamega forest, the last remaining rainforest in Kenya, and ate Christmas dinner in small outdoor bandas where Colobus monkeys stole our bananas. The next day we returned to Kakamega city, where one volunteer lived in a gated compound with electricity, running water, a gas stove, refridgerator, DVD projector; all the comforts the rest of us wished we had in our own homes. Even so I wanted to leave before New Year's Day - the boys in my village were finishing month-long initiation ceremonies and their extended families would be celebrating. The elections, on the 27th, went smoothly but the Electoral Commission was slow to release the votes and people became anxious. The thirteen of us were from the three western provinces which overwhelmingly supported ODM and its opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, and we believed things would turn ugly if he did not win.

An hour after the electoral commission announced Pres. Mwai Kibaki winner rioters burned down two small shops and a church across the street - apparently they were owned by PNU supporters. Police came the day afterwards and while the rest of Kenya burned Kakamega was filled with tense silence. Meanwhile the political situation continued to deteriorate and other parts of the country were still racked by violence. In Eldoret, my hometown, 30 people burned to death while seeking refuge in a church. Riots in Kisumu, Mombasa, Kisii, Migori, and Kibera all received international attention yet no intervention could bring the two sides to talk to each other.

We passed the time eating and playing cards and were always perfectly safe - even when we left the compound thugs and policemen both told us they had no problems with us, that we were guests. One soldier asked my friend to buy him a soda. After a couple days the police left, shops reopened, people cautiously resumed their lives. Because of the ongoing violence elsewhere and the political impasse in Nairobi however there was no question of us leaving; occasional gunshots did not bother us but we were afraid we would not return to our sites.

After ten days Peace Corps decided to temporarily shut down western Kenya and flew us to Dar es Salaam. They put us up in a hotel on the beach and tried to keep us busy while we waited for news. After about a week our director told us we would not be able to return immediately to Kenya, that we could try to transfer to another country or we could go home and wait for the country to clear up. As of this writing there are no plans to shut down the country altogether but it will be some time before the three western provinces reopen.

Kibaki and Raila are still at odds; recently Raila's ODM party won Speaker of the House and tensions cooled somewhat. Both sides continue to spout rhetoric but there are signs the violence is beginning to subside and I believe the vast majority of Kenyans are embarrassed and exasperated by their leaders. My host family remains in their village outside Eldoret and wants me to return; I still haven't called them told them I won't be coming back.

I'm trying to transfer into Tanzania, but if I don't find a spot there I'll return home and wait for Kenya to reopen or try for a position in another country.

kwa heri,
Joseph

March 2010

Dear Donna and Ray:

Attached please find a letter from Dylan ____, the PCV who was assigned to Ndanda Secondary School last November. The letter was hand carried as is by someone traveling from the Deep South. I do hope you, Kyle, Daniel, and the rest of the family will take some solace in reading this letter, which attests once again to Joe's spectacular service and the long-lasting impact he had on his community.

I wanted also to report to you that I traveled to Mbinga recently and visited all the PCV sites that Joe had visited in the days before his accident. I thanked again the officials who had assisted so selflessly on that tragic afternoon and the days that followed and was very touched by the many people who had small anecdotes to tell about the PCV from the Deep South - Mr. Joe- who had visited them. A nun, the headmistress of a prestigious girl's school, shared her memories of Joe who entertained them all with his dancing and laughing with the girls after their graduation ceremony which had taken place the day he visited there. I love that image and wanted to pass it on to you.

We all hold Joe dear in our hearts and keep you in our thoughts and prayers.

Cordially,


Country Director - Peace Corps
Tanzania