Trip to Dar from Mtwara

As briefly mentioned in the last post, we thought that we were leaving for Dar on Wed. So we had gotten into the cab early in the morning and were all set to go, when the cab turned the corner, and ran out of gas! Apparently in southern Tanzania, cabs do not fill up with gas - they pick up the passenger with only enough gas to get around the corner, the car runs out of gas, a fellow worker bicycles over the gas, and then you can get to your destination.

So, we had all gotten into the two cabs that Joe had called for, and the car ran out of gas(!), we got the gas - we got to the airport, we got through security and Joseph was informed that our tickets were for the next day. That was why we had the A+ day. Thank God.

So on Thursday Ray, Joe and I got up early and went for a swim in the Indian ocean past the Southern Cross. It would have been beautiful, but the large amounts of jellyfish ruined the beauty. Joe and I made a bee-line for the shore, Ray kept insisting that it was fine. I HATE Jellyfish -and so did Joe.

That morning, we got the cab, the cab ran out of gas, the bicycle came with the plastic jug of gas, we got to the airport and we flew to Dar. Joseph had spoken to his promising student the day before and we brought about 10 lbs of review books for this kid to take the SAT. He was the only student from Ndanda that Joe thought had a chance at a US university, but he did not know how to get him into the process. When we landed at Dar we went straight to the Southern Sun Hotel. Then we went to a Main Street near the Post Office to find his students' sister (the student was out of town so the sister came into town from the slow bus from nowhere - it took forever!) We had alot of time to observe the street scene in Dar. After the books were given to the sister, Joseph had us clamor into a cab and drive to the Indian section of Dar where he knew there was a great bakery (see Easter above - the boy loved his sweets). Joe had us buy all sorts of pastries and sweets for him. After that we went to an outdoor market where we wanted to buy some Obama ktangas. The vendors descended on us, and at the end we bought 6 Obama ktangas for the price of five because of the overzealous competitiveness of the vendors. We were literally fending off the vendors, luckily Joseph spoke fluent Swahili!

June 2, 2009

After our talk with the carvers we got into the jeep and headed back over the bad road to Mtwara, the guest house and the Indian Ocean. Ray had all these plans to go to "the most beautiful beach in the world" - at least that s what the guide book said. We would pay the driver and go straight there from Ndanda - but he could not account for the pace of traffic in Africa. No one rushes anywhere, and everything takes much more time than you could actually imagine! We did not get back to Mtwara until 3:15, and everyone in the car but Ray was happy. Again we went to the fish market and got fish (conch), and some rice and some tomato and onions. That was pretty much home cooking in Tanzania and also some coke and beer from the local German lady's little hut of a store. That night we went to bed early because we thought we were leaving for Dar the next day to start our safari.

The next morning Ray, Joe and I got up early to go walk on the beach. Joe tried to buy some bread for breakfast at the German store, but the shopkeeper reprimanded him for not returning the bottles from our last visit, and insisted that he come and get me before she would sell us anything else. When I got to the store, she reprimanded me for not returning the coke bottles, and said that I should be embarrassed that we had left it for the household help to return the bottles - hmm, things are much different in Africa. Than she let us buy her goods, but only with the promise that we would return the bottles before we left. It was such a great day, the boys went for a long swim and we hung out in the hut and read and read, and laughed. I can't even remember what we did for dinner, it was so relaxing. Even Ray got into the doing nothing mode. Than we went to The Southern Cross for dinner, horrible food, but what a view. We walked back in the winter dark and Ray and Joe went to bed. Kyle, Daniel and I walked around in the Indian Ocean under the full moon at low tide looking into pools and examining the local fish. Altogether an A+ day.

Easter

Joseph always loved Easter - what is there not to like, the holiday involved chocolate -his favorite food! When the kids were little we would just take chocolate and throw it all over the backyard and the cousins would run around crazily picking up as much candy as they could. That and we put pennies into the plastic egg - Daniel would trade chocolate for pennies.

In 2007 Ray and I went to Spain over Easter break, Kyle was in Greece on a Fordham trip, Daniel at school. But Joe always came home for Easter, so he drove home to have Easter dinner with the family at Cadie's. Joseph loved family holidays. I guess the last Easter we got to spend together was in 2006.

In Africa the Easter mass was extensive, 3 to 4 hours of the service. Joseph said everyone went for the entertainment. After the mass, from what I could tell, Joe would wander around town visiting the students, neighbors and the VSO volunteers. Last year I sent him a package of Easter chocolate, he was thrilled. He told us he had to ration it, or he would get sick.

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.