From Tanzania to Nairobi to Chyulu Hills

Monday, May 18, 2015, 5:30 AM

We decided that we needed to return some day to Tanzania to look at all the areas that John wanted us to see but we didn’t have time.  Because of all the changes to our schedule our trip just kept getting shorter. 

When we first realized that we’d be coming back to Kenya and Tanzania I began studying up on my Swahili again.  I was very happy one day when I understood everything that John was talking about with a group of people.  That only happened once, but if we had lived in Tanzania, I would have become much more proficient at the language because not that many people speak English; Swahili is their official language.  English is not taught in the schools until they are older and it is treated like an elective.

John updated us on the growth of the church in Tanzania.  There are now two Branches in Dar and a few more here and there throughout the country.  One couple, the Wilson’s, serve in Dar, two other couples live in other cities where there are Branches.  In Nairobi they are finally, after all these years, dividing the Stake.  There are also new Branches that have sprung up throughout the country.  They did tell us that the couple serving in Mombasa had been brought out after the terrorist activities in that area.  I think that there are still two Branches in Mombasa.

We thought it was odd that we had to shoo flies off our meals inside the hotel restaurant.  There are a lot of flies here.  We realized that this meant flies had to be sitting on our food before they brought it to us.  It’s a wonder we don’t get sick.  After that, we started ordering our food when we came back from our travels, and having them deliver it to our room to eat.  No flies to shoo in our room.  We can’t help what happened before we got it…

We checked out of the hotel at 10 AM and took a taxi to the airport.  This was the only day we didn’t see bad traffic and got there way ahead of schedule.  Because the church had to change our ticket to Tanzania a couple of times, they had to completely re-book for us.  That is why we were in the front row seat on the plane in business class, not something that happens often.  This also allowed us to use the airport lounge, so we got free food there, and then saw the difference in what they feed you in coach (a small goodie wrapped in plastic and one drink) and business (an almost full meal of beef or chicken, vegetables, roll, etc. and as many drinks as you want).  It is nice to be spoiled once in a while.  Also, we like this particular plane—it has leather seats throughout and they are quite comfortable. 

They even have an airport lounge in Tanzania.  When last in this country it was so hot we nearly expired in the airport.  Things are improving.

After arriving in Nairobi we decided to take a taxi from the airport and let Shakespeare’s have a rest.  Again the traffic was light.  We enjoyed finally meeting this couple—Skye and phone calls and e-mails aren’t nearly as good as meeting the couple we work with.  They had us to dinner, but we were stuffed from eating in the lounge and on the plane so we had a little Jell-O and a cookie.  We had already become somewhat acquainted with the Christensen’s who helped us when we first arrived who were also there.  They left after dinner and we continued to visit with the Shakespeare’s and really enjoyed talking with them.  We went back to our flat and tried to figure out the ins and outs of the washing machine, which seemed to stop after it was done washing with the water still in it, the same with the rinse, and the same with spinning.  It took a very long time to do the wash!  But I have to say how very clean this washing machine got my clothes. Luckily the dryer worked a bit better and I was finally able to get to bed by 10.  Knowing we will be using Nairobi as our home base means I will not have to wash clothes by hand during our little trips out of town.

Monday morning I woke up early again—I seem to be on this go-to-sleep by 10 and wake up at 5 AM schedule.  We had breakfast with Shakespeare’s, put our belongings in one suitcase, and headed out of town to look at some projects.  We drove to one of our chapel water projects where tanks are held up by an iron structure but sometimes get rusted out.  We were pleased to see that they refurbished them because we thought they might break and drop the tanks onto the head of some unsuspecting person.  We noted that they finally got electricity to the chapel too, eliminating having to use a generator to pump their water to the tanks and then use it for the chapel.  The mango trees planted a few years ago on this property have really grown and must be producing; however, they have told the church that they can’t sell anything that is produced on church property or else they wouldn’t be a non-profit anymore.  No matter what they do, nothing seems to work out.  They can eat the fruit, but not sell it to make a livelihood from it.

The rusted structure has been reworked a bit—hopefully it won’t fall on anyone’s head. 

The mango tree project can now only be used for eating, not selling because it is on church property and could be construed as the church not being a non-profit organization.  These people can’t seem to get a cash crop, and now they never will.  They used to have private little gardens in between these trees while they waited for the trees to mature and could produce fruit.  We only saw one little garden nestled among the weeds.

The Chinese are in Kenya building a railroad from Mombasa to Nairobi.  The purpose is to get some of the trucks off the road and the goods onto railroad cars, alleviating the traffic on the main highway.  Because of this project many Kenyans have been put to work.  We visited a Branch President named Simon whose home got removed because it was in the way of this project.  They gave them a little bit of money to rebuild a new home.  Simon is married to a young gal and they have a 5 year old daughter.  Simon’s mother is still with them, along with a few brothers who also live there.  His father died in 2010 and the gravesite had to be moved also.  His mother said that the casket was gone and all that was left was bones and some cloth.  She had this little hut built over the new grave.  (See picture below).    

Simon was very proud of the fact that they had a better place for the women to cook.  He was told that smoke was not good for the women, so they built this stove in one of their new buildings.  He said that there was less smoke and also costs less (they used less wood).  (See picture below.)

This is a fence from a broken water project (below) that was done in 2004 when we were there and being used to pen in their goats.  They said that two wells were broken in the area and two were still working.  Presently they collect the water in large barrels so that they don’t have to fetch it every day.  They are in the process of building a home for the mother, and have yet to build another for Simon and his wife and child.  Simon also is hoping to get a job with the railroad.  He had learned how to drive one of those big tractors.

Below: This is a whole line of workers employed by the Chinese to work on the railroad.  This seems ironic to me—wasn’t it the Chinese who were always working on railroads except they were the workers, not the bosses…

More later, about our divine (not) hotel in Mtito Andei.

Love, from the Chyulu Hills area of Kenya.

Last day in Dar

The first community we visited was nestled in the trees and had a stream running nearby (except in the dry season).  It turns out that the head mistress of the school we visited the other day happens to be married to the chairman of this area.  He knew all the right things to say, how they had to be organized to sustain a project.  But we still liked this area for a project.

Their little girl was obviously not afraid of me.  Her mom is in the red and married to the chairman.  At first they took us to a swam as their pick of a spot for a borehole--nope, not a good idea.  They showed us another spot on higher ground--much better.

When we walked to the school we found yet another solar-powered well not working--but no one knows if it is the solar, the pump or if the well went dry.  This water was so salty they say that when you poured the water on the ground you could see the salt.  I hope if we do a project around here we don't have this same problem.

These taps work, but only in the rainy season.  It seems to be a habit here to not go past the first aquifer.  This was a very needy school.  If we put in another borehole and they could sell their water to the neighboring community, they would have enough to sustain it and some of their school needs, like desks, which they seemed to be in sort supply of.

This is the borehole that feeds the taps above and is not deep enough for the dry season.

This is a rain catchment at a school.  There was another tank on the other side, that for some reason was no longer hooked up.  They used to have another tank, but they let it get stolen (they were supposed to have a guard before it was hooked up.

To get clean water year round they put in this borehole, which was supposed to be pumped up to the tank above, but no one had done it.  No one knows about this water, but it was obvious that at least for now it was working.  No one was around to ask these questions.

While we were in the area we stopped by to see John's new house that they are building out of town.  There is another house being built for guests and for his main worker.  He had a property full of corn, which he says will be successful this year.  When they move here he will have goats and chickens and other things to sustain his family.  

John's youngest son John wanted to see who his dad was with all week so he wanted a picture of us with his dad.  We all look pretty good considering how tired we all were.  We left at 9:30 AM and got back at the hotel at 7:30 PM.  There are many more projects we needed to look at but didn't have time.  We told John we'd return for another look-see when we come back to West Africa and then come directly here.  Tomorrow we fly back to Nairobi.

Pictures, Dar es Salaam

We checked out the water problems for this school but also saw an interesting problem with the latrines, that were only 1 year old and done by the government.  The latrines are on steady ground, but the walkways are collapsing, making using the latrines unsafe for the children.  We thought that we could repair their water project and also rebuild the walkway and outer walls of the latrines.

This is the same school.  The solar powered water project has stopped working, and only after one year.  We will see what the problem is, solar or something else and repair it, this time hooking it up to the recently installed electrical power.

The walkway on one side of the latrines.

One of our churches.  We stopped by since we could use the bathroom, are real one--such a pleasure.

This is John's shop that his wife runs on the side to help make ends meet.

John with his pretty wife Grace.  He works on visas for the missionaries, was head of the translation committee for the D&C, and also is assigned to humanitarian work and is why he is taking us around to see possible projects.  It was fun hearing his conversion story.  He joined 10 months before Grace.  He had quite a lovely story to tell about how they earned money to go to the temple and have their family sealed to them.  They had 2 children at the time.

We will never cease to enjoy a giggle, seeing how people get around in Africa.

We ran into surprisingly few bad roads like this car-eating street.  John at one point apologized as we bumped along one bad road and I told him we wouldn't feel like it was Africa if we only drove on smooth roads.  But bad roads were not the problem.  It was the traffic that limits our ability to look at projects--we left at 8:30 in the morning, didn't return till 5 PM, and still only saw 3 project areas.

One school with over 4,000 students didn't need water--they needed classrooms and desks.  We found many students studying under a tree on the dirt.  We are turning this possible project over to E/S Shakespeare to see if they can do an Area Project for this school.

While checking out a new community for a mechanized borehole we found these boys washing their daddy's shoes in the rainwater.

There is a builder in this area who needs sand to build all his houses that he then sells.  This is where the sand or earth used to be up to--we can't even imagine using this much sand!  The area is quite large.

This is the area where we might do a borehole.  The government has to bring the electrical power closer and then maybe we will help them out.  This is the area where they took all the sand.

John brought us around to the beach.  It has been years since we've been here.  He also seemed intent on getting us to stay at the Double Tree.  I think he is convinced that we will be very delighted.   If I can book it myself through a 'cheap' site, I will do that.  It really is beautiful here by the beach.

Just pictures, Dar es Salaam

Jim getting friendly with one of the statues--there are a lot of them at the Colesseum Hotel.

An outdoor restaurant at our hotel.

They are known for their fitness club.  They also have racket ball courts.

The pools we doubt we'll have time to use.

The front of our hotel.

The front of where Isabell's used to live where E/S Wilson are now and it also serves as a District Office.

Is this the John you remember?  It was his smile that made me realize we had worked with him before years ago.

I saw several graves in this one community.  "Mzee" is typically used when addressing an old man.  While at the school the children addressed me with 'Shikamoo'.  They could have added 'mama' for me and 'mzee' for Jim.  The proper response to that respectful greeting is 'Marahaba'.  I didn't like being addressed in this manner because even though it is a sign of respect, it is respect for an old person, which I guess that we really are!

I wondered if this man was paid by the government to pick up garbage or if he got paid by those who wanted to get rid of their garbage--it is the latter.  

Jim letting down the man gently, giving him an indication that we might not fulfill his water project wishes.

This is the result of waste,  big problem in all of Africa because they do not have garbage collection.

Looking for possible water projects

Thursday, May 14, 2015

John Mwingira arrived at our hotel at 9AM with a Hertz rent-a-car and driver.  We would drop off the driver back at Hertz after a bit.  The medium-sized SUV has 4-wheel drive in case we get stuck in a puddle since they are in the middle of the rainy season.  The vehicle is kind of dingy and well-used, but it drives along just fine and the air conditioning works.  The weather was tolerable, with the sun only coming out once during the day.  It is muggy, though, but nonetheless better than the weather we had when last in Ghana.

Elder & Sister Wilson and John Mwingira at the home and also district office where Isabell’s used to live.  After seeing John we realized we knew him from years before.

We first stopped at the mission office/housing for E/S Wilson.  We are familiar with this house because E/S Isabell lived there when we were in Tanzania in 2004-2006.  I remember it well since it was the place where we went after I got a case of heat exhaustion.  Sister Isabell fixed me up with fresh fruit, juices and a fan to sit in front of.  It was during the hottest time of year, February.  It was that same trip where I thought I would expire on the plane going back to Nairobi.  It can be unbearably hot that time of year. 

The first community wanted more available water so that they wouldn’t have to pay the owner of this water point as much as they do now.  They did not have great need.  We spent a long time walking all over the area to see that they had other water points to draw from also from this same owner.

After we visited with the Wilson’s, we went to the car rental place to drop off the driver and continued on our journey.  We went to a place where they wanted a new borehole with a hand pump.  We found plenty of water in the area.  Some private parties have boreholes that pump water to places throughout the community.  They want a borehole so that they can charge ½ the price of what they pay now.  It did not appeal to any of us about their great need. 

Pretty lady and her baby boy.

Our second stop was at a school.  All they had was broken down wells that had gone dry; one was machine drilled by the government.  They did it wrong and then left it unused.  It makes one wonder…anyway, we decided that this could be a good area to do a project.  We told them our criteria and think they will be able to save the money, get help from the government, and decide what type of water project they want—either mechanized or hand pump.  About 2,000 kids go to the school; they have lots of buildings for classrooms and have two sessions.  There are enough families around that could contribute to the well and also use it.  There are mostly dip wells in the area—they are not clean.

This school with gobs of children had the most useless and broken wells that were never dug deep enough and otherwise poorly constructed.  It is always fun to be around children who are ecstatic that you are there and taking pictures.

This all sounds like it didn’t take very long.  It appears that Tanzania has the same problem as Kenya does—an amazing amount of traffic.  After just these few stops, we still didn’t get back to the hotel till after dark and long after our normal dinner hour.  Jim was hungry, but I was just dirty and tired.  It took forever for us to get back to the hotel—a real endurance test, and John still had to get back home—not close to the hotel.  We are starting earlier tomorrow and hope to accomplish more visits.  As it is, we are one day behind because of our lost luggage. 

Another day, another dollar…

Love, from Dar

Carmageddon and then onto Dar es Salaam

Tuesday, May 12, 2015, midnight

We were going to the airport this evening to retrieve our lost luggage.  We had no idea what a mistake that would be.  We have been in traffic of all kinds in many different countries.  Never in our lives have we experienced anything like this.  We planned on taking 3 hours to get to the airport; this trip used to take about an hour.  After 5 hours we were back at our flat having never left the main part of Nairobi.  The only good news was that we called the airport to hear that they had all 4 pieces of our lost luggage.  It was common tonight to sit and not move for 15 to 30 minutes at a time.  It rained off and on.  Policemen on occasion were helpful in getting rid of a ‘jam’ but most of the time they would inexplicably allow one side of the road traffic to go but not the other.  We remember that when the police get involved in trying to ‘help’ the traffic situation in Nairobi they cause gridlock like we’ve never before experienced.  We were grateful therefore, when we were finally able to extricate ourselves and could go back to the flat—we felt trapped.  Many people heading for the airport missed their flights.  Sarah was exhausted so we told her to stay in the extra room and try to get us to the airport in the morning.  We thought she would never make it home anyway.

We showered, Jim and I (Sarah was too exhausted and went to bed), put on our smelly underwear and passed out in bed.  In all that time all I could think about was ‘choo iko wapi’ (Swahili for ‘where is the bathroom’). 

In the morning we donned our dirty clothes (sans deodorant and makeup) ate our breakfast and headed for the airport in hopes that this time we would be able to retrieve our luggage and make our flight to Dar.  Each time we have to change this flight it gets even more expensive, and short flights in Africa cost more than double a trip from the East to West Coast in the U.S.

With all that has happened, we can still be thankful for a few things: when we arrived back at the flat we noticed that the power was out, but as we walked towards our apartment the lights all came on!  What a blessing!  We finally had a bathroom to use.  We could take a shower and wash our hair.  They said our luggage had arrived.  And best of all, we were, after all, not in Nepal…

Wednesday, May 13.  I awoke at 5 AM and we took off for the airport at 6:30 AM.  This is a bit of overkill, but we had to find our lost luggage and I was in no mood to be stressed about missing our flight to Tanzania.  We arrived easily, found our luggage, and discovered what we’d brought Sarah from home was still there in an unlocked bag.  We’d collected some toys for her nursery school from a couple of our children and brought those along with an old computer for her son.  It will be a nice treat for them.  We sent this small bag back with Sarah, along with the donation bag that we will give to E/S Shakespeare, full of T-shirt dresses.  We had gobs of time left to get our flight to Tanzania. 

Above and below: A newly rebuilt airport terminal in Kenya after a fire destroyed it a few years ago.

It feels as though we’ve been here a lifetime, spent money, and done absolutely nothing…we are anxious to get to work.

We ran into 3 young French-speaking missionaries in the airport, but they knew a little Swahili.  They were on their way to Burundi—two Elders and one Sister.  The airport burned down a few years ago so they have rebuilt it—kind of modern I’d say—a far cry from the old one.  They have not rebuilt the mall that was attacked by terrorists and eventually destroyed by the Kenyan military.  But you can see evidences of tighter security everywhere in Kenya these days.

After an uneventful flight we arrived bleary-eyed in Dar; it was overcast and raining.  It was not terribly hot because of the rain, but warm nonetheless.  Because of Jim’s state of jetlag he overpaid the cabbie and even I didn’t realize that until we got to the hotel.  Oh, well, we acted like a couple of rookies.  The drive to the hotel was long but I slept most of the way.  Our hotel is called the Colosseum.  I asked Dorothy from the office about which hotel she liked better (where they put visiting couples)—it was the more expensive one, but I see nothing wrong with this one.  It is a bit old-style with rustic tile floors and decorated like its name; the bed is soft and the shower is full-volume and warm.  The room is large.  We can see signs of some wear, but it will be great.  It was fun to shower, change into a whole new set of clean clothes, and put makeup and deodorant on.  I feel like a real princess even with a bad case of jetlag.  And, I got to unpack!  Life is good!

 Our spacious room above at the Colesseum Hotel in Dar & dining room below; 

it is good to be planted somewhere for a few days.

Love, From Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Life is an adventure...this time in Kenya

Monday, May 11, 2015 midnight

I have to give a nice shout out to our son Matt who bit the bullet and took us to the airport early Mother’s Day morning, hopefully getting back in time to give his wife breakfast in bed.  (Hope you all had a Happy Mother’s Day!)

Did you ever think you ought to just scrap a trip and start all over again another time?  Ever since we first checked with the humanitarian couple about the best time to travel with them in Kenya, everything has gone wrong.  The trip has changed 3 times during the last few weeks; but to top it all off, our luggage didn’t show up.  It is still in London.  We were supposed to leave tomorrow for Dar es Salaam, but now will wait for our luggage, picking it up at the airport after 9 PM tomorrow, and then move all other arrangements back a day, causing a few cost penalties with it.

Our friend Sarah picked us up at the airport where we exchanged money, got a sim card for a phone, and purchased some Internet time on a modem we had purchased several years ago for Sierra Leone that also has service in Kenya.  We are glad we did since we’ve heard how poorly the Internet works in most places we’ll be travelling on this trip.  It came in handy right away because we were able to use it to contact Church travel to make yet another change, and the people in Tanzania to tell them of the delay and to inform the hotel we won’t be there tomorrow night.

 

Right now we are in the apartment complex where we used to live, bringing back some happy memories.  E/S Christensen are the office couple and had to stay awake till we showed up to give us the keys.  They also provided us with a light bulb, soap, shampoo, a blow dryer and some brushes.  Shakespeare’s had already put some food in the apartment for us to eat.  We are staying where E/S Banks and E/S Herr stayed years ago as missionary couples.  The apartment looks mostly the same as it did when Sister Herr decorated it.  They have added more security since last year the guards allowed someone to break into the couples’ apartments (3 of them) and the people that own the apartment complex did nothing—they didn’t even fire the guards involved in the thefts (it’s always an inside job).

When we last visited Kenya we noticed that Bonnie Lamb’s painted deco board in her apartment had been painted over.  She had hand painted jungle print all along the board and it looked amazing.  We were more upset than Bonnie was to hear about it.  So, we were pleased to be in Banks’/Herr’s apartment to see that Mary Herr’s painted rooms edged with wallpaper boarder were still there.  The entry way, hallway and dining room walls were still red with the wallpaper boarder.  

This is a picture of the newly extended wrought iron above where it used to be, covering a space that was used in the last theft of 3 couples’ apartments.  They also added the razor wire.  They figure the robbers put up a ladder, coming in that way to avoid the iron gates on the other side; then they were able to break the locks on the doors and get in.  We were disappointed to hear that the security guard agency was not fired, no guards were fired—nothing happened.  So instead the Church figured out more ways to try to keep robbers out.  They pay guards painfully little so it is no wonder that they would be involved.  

We washed our underwear by hand and used their slow dryer.  I was anxious to get out of these clothes, but they will be with us all day tomorrow.  The best thing about our trip was how much sleep I got on the last flight.  After dinner I slept through till breakfast—maybe 5 hours of fitful sleep--pretty good on a plane.  We flew from LA to Chicago on a 1-hour late flight, onto London where our luggage has found a new home, and then to Nairobi.  Poor Sarah spent 3 hours getting to the airport (huge rains, flooded roads like rivers in some places) and then another 2 hours waiting for us to show up after we decided our luggage was not going to make it. Two accidents on the way to the apartments made traveling slow—welcome to Nairobi.  We got to bed about 2:30 AM and still couldn’t sleep.

Tuesday morning Sarah picked us up so that we could run errands and go to the office, Jim armed with a little sleep, me with none.  Because of E/S Christensen, I was able to fix my hair.  We had travel toothbrushes and toothpaste.  Nevertheless, I went to the office with nice hair, 3-day old eye makeup, lip gloss and without deodorant (go native!); hope our old friends didn’t notice.  Afterwards we went to our old haunt, the YaYa center—a mall with a grocery store and everything else you can think of.  One thing we have noticed: the church has new security measures to keep people out of the building that do not belong.  The YaYa also had added security measures not seen before for obvious reasons.  We also noticed that even though the city is cleaned up and there are more traffic lights and street signs with better roads, the traffic is awful ALL of the time now, not just at peak hours.  It is torture to drive anywhere at all.

Sarah is like a daughter to us.  Her father has never been in the picture, and her mother was killed in a home robbery  few years ago.  She named her son after you-know-who.  She drove us to the office and then to the YaYa Center.  We bought a few things to eat at the grocery store since we'll be here several time.  We ate lunch there also.  She is driving us around until the Shakespeare's return or we need Victor to take us around to projects.

While in the office we ran into so many good friends.  Victor was there visiting Dorothy.  Victor said he is feeling better after a home invasion last year.  He said his memory is improving and even though his leg was also badly injured he is doing okay.  Dorothy used to be in distribution (Church books, etc.) but is now in translation.  Victor will probably accompany us or even take us to see some water projects later in our trip.  We also saw Jadmire and kidded him about how I used to pay him in cookies after doing me a favor--when I would suggest that he could share, he'd hide them in is desk!  We love these people!

Love, mom and dad, Jim & Karen, E/S Greding

PS: E/S Hale who are now serving in Johannesburg at the family history center, told us that the couples there pray all the time for the Saints in Kenya.  Hale’s were in Kenya years ago when we were—they did vision training.  They serve one mission after another; I’ve lost track of how many.  Actually, so do Herr’s.