March 11, 2010

In August I had made a file of pictures from our trip to prepare a slide show to easily present to people our trip of Africa. I look at those pictures now and the large majority of the pictures are those of the animals and the safari. But now those days on safari are all one. Seeing the animals and experiencing the Serengeti was a fantastic experience for our family; and the actual experience really inspired feelings of awe at just how diverse and wonderful this planet and its creatures are. We had a great time being a small family unit, traveling around in the jeep day after day. Not one of us ever got bored of seeing the lions, wildebeests, zebras etc. It was a fantastic week. But, now that Joe is gone the safari is second to the time that we spent with him at his site and revisiting the places that he had been during his time in Tanzania.

back down the plateau

As we walked back down the plateau, we stopped at the German missionary pool for a swim. When I went to visit Joe on October 11, 2006 - the day after his 21st bday; I told him that it was crazy to join the peace corp. He had never really liked to go too far from home, he loved playing his music for hours at a time and his favorite sport was swimming. Where was he going to play the piano and swim in the peace corp. Well Ndanda has a spring that comes from the plateau down the hillside and into a pool. On the way down the hillside, the German missionaries have engineered a purification system to provide water for most of southern Tanzania (at a cost), and some of the water is diverted to a pool. The pool is beautiful and Joseph swam there a couple of times a week (except during the rainy season when the pool got roiled up and there was alot of scum in the water).

As we walked down the path to Joe's house that night it was dusk. The boys had run ahead so it was just Ray and I and it was very beautiful and quiet -but a different world.

Monday June 1, 2009 on to lunch

After the visit with the headmaster we went back to the nun's outdoor cafe for lunch. Eggs and potatoes and beer. From there we went for a hike; Joseph's favorite walk in the town About a two mile hike up the plateau to the top. He had told us about his hike up the plateau and further on to visit his friend in the peace corp - about a 25 km walk. I remember last fall asking him how come he didn't take his bicycle up to his friends. He explained that it was too steep. Well, we started walking, and it was pretty easy up past the Monks swimming hole and then it got steep. I was wearing a skirt (not my usual hiking outfit, but it's hot in Tanzania even in the middle of winter). On the way up, an African passed us carrying his bicycle. Joseph said to him in Swahili "I am sorry for your troubles", which is apparently a polite form of recognizing that others lives are not easy. As Ray and I neared the top of the plateau, the boys laughingly leaned over the last turn and told us that they had some m&m's to entice us to go further. When they were little, to get them to hike a little further we would dole out the m&m's which they would do anything for - the m&m's theory of the great outdoors.

When we got to the top of the plateau, Joseph told us that we were at the top, only dry barren Africa was beyond, and we should stop and take the view there. Ray, Daniel and Kyle continued to walk, Joseph and I stopped to take in the view. As we were sitting on some boulders, two women and a man came up the path, the women carrying baskets on their head, the man carrying two suitcases. The women were surpised to see two westerners at the top of the steep path, and stopped to talk. They were returning from their "wash day" in the river down in the town, and walking up the mountain with all of their clean cloths. Life is not easy in Africa!

Monday June 1, 2009

I slept in late this morning; Joseph spent the nights at the guest house with us because there was hot water and electricity - a real luxury.

The school had a guest sign in book, so we went to the school and met the headmaster at his office. We took many pictures, and signed the guest book. If you look at wikipedia for Ndanda, Tanzania there is not much of an entry - I think I will rectify that. It is a place far away from the world action, things move slowly, but it is a nice place, and people are working and trying to learn and work. People don't have all of the amenities that we take for granted in the west; but it deserves a mention in Wikipedia!

Anyway, I include the pictures of the family with the headmaster - who really appreciated Joseph, and his work ethic - and his athleticism!

Sunday June 1, 2009

After cleaning the house and visiting the school we went to a little outdoor bistro run by the nuns - really a beer garden. Joseph ate many meals in this little garden where the tables were placed in little wooden porches. You ordered your eggs and potatoes, we just ate and talked.

That evening the headmaster had asked us to his house for dinner, which was a very nice meal; his house was spotless, and the many coursed meal was delicious. Of course, since his house was on the same side of the street as the schools, there was no electricity! We had some conversation, and his wife, Innoncence, presented me with an Obama ktanga - which was the same as what we had seen in the Smithsonian African museum a few months before. I was so happy for the gift. We had bought some Almond Roca as a house gift - which the headmaster found very odd.

Apparently in Africa, candy is really only for children. After the meal, Joseph blurted out "so when are you going to open the candy" - always one for the social niceties my Joe, especially when it came to chocolate. Either the headmaster did not hear him, or he did not understand him, thank goodness!

Joseph loved to eat, and he loved sweets. When Oz, our German au pair came to stay with us in 2000, he was appalled by the amount of candy wrappers that he found in Joe's pockets. I always thought that since Joe did not have a weight problem (if anything he had trouble keeping weight on), his teeth were strong his complexion good - let him eat as much chocolate as he wanted. He certainly ate enough healthy food! I'm glad we didn't put too many limitations on him, he was self regulated and really an easy boy to raise. The only thing we worried about with him was his absent mindedness, and I hope to god that was not what killed him. Time and time again we told him to pay attention, when he was young I would do role playing with him to try and force him to be more aware of the here and now. His mind was always going a hundred miles an hour, way ahead of what was occurring in the present.

Ndanda school

The school seems very large, and there were many students in town. Joseph seemed to be well known, and well liked, as many of the students greeted him, and many wanted to meet us. On the last night we were in town (Monday) two of the students asked to come by the house and visit with us. They spent about 90 minutes hanging out. There is often no electricity, and really very few forms of entertainment, so there is a lot of visiting, and Joseph loved to talk to people.

In July after we had visited, two students finally told him that the cloth wall hangings that we had hung as decorations had the sayings: . “I’m behaving out of goodness, you out of vanity.” The other says “I regret I ever knew you.” Apparently, the cloths are a way to communicate with your spouse. Joseph thought that it was hilarious that he had had many visitor in the month, and they had been talking about the sayings on his wall - what did that mean? Joseph took down the hangings that night.

The buildings of the school look quite beautiful from a distance, but they are poorly maintained and falling apart. There is rarely any electricity, the school runs out of money to buy food for the students(there was a food riot while Joseph was there and the army had to be called to maintain peace on the campus), there are not enough textbooks, pencils or paper. Poor management somewhere along the supply chain. Joseph had worked with Fordham Prep for a textbook collection of old science books to be sent to the school; I assume all of the collected textbooks are in the library. Joseph said the library was very bad, many of the books in it were propaganda.

After we cleaned his house, we toured the school, Joseph showed us his Physics lab and equipment; very basic stuff but functional. One of them most haunting memories we have of Africa is walking up the street at night to go to the guest house, and seeing all of the students studying under the European side of the town's street lamps. They would pull their desks and chairs out after dark and study under the dim light. Around 8-10 students per street light. Americans have no idea how much they are given.

Pentecost Sunday afternoon

After mass, we walked down the hill to Joseph's "house". This day we walked in, and I had to use the bathroom; and I could not bite my tongue any longer. The place was absolutely filthy, and and just generally unlivable. As Kyle interjected as I yelled at Joseph, "it is worse than Appalachia"

I tried cleaning with what Joe had available, which was basically nothing. Some old dirty rags and some powder soap. So we walked down to the town looking for drinking glasses, toilet paper holder, wall hangers and a bucket. We did find the glasses and the toilet paper holder. The holder, was a bar around which you could put the tp. The owner of the shop told us that not once in the 20 some odd years that he had been there had anyone asked what that funny thing on the wall was. Which was a good thing because the owner himself had no idea what it was. He gave it to us for free. We also bought some more cloth ktangas to hang on the wall

We went back to Joe's apartment and started cleaning with hot water and powder soap. I sent Cadie and Jill an email asking for them to send cleaning supplies (ajax, sponges, windex etc). Also, I blew out Joe's electric tea kettle by making so much hot water (no hot water in this household!). Joe had also been making his green loose leaf tea (which I had sent from China in April) directly in the electric kettle. YUK! In the memorial tape, one of his students mentioned the tea, and how he had asked Joe what kind of tea it was. Joseph had told the students that he had picked it off the tree in his backyard. I guess that was an easier explanation than saying his mother had sent it from China.

During this time his next door neighbor came over to borrow something from Joseph. He had been paying her to clean house for him; I spoke seriously with her about the lack of cleanliness -but she did not speak english.

He wrote an email later to Cadie saying he did not understand why I was so upset, everything was fine. Later that night, and in his journals, he did admit that one morning he woke up and found a rat swimming in his sink waste bucket (no drains for the running water anywhere but the bathroom). He had to kill the rat by holding it under water with a broom stick.

The picture is of Joe's backyard. He had put a fence up the year before to try to keep some privacy, but it had fallen down. When I asked him where his garbage was he pointed to the door, and said just throw it out there. The chickens eat the organic, and once a month he would burn everything out back. This is how the whole village took care of their garbage!