In Nairobi

Hi all. Just a quick note. Pam and I are in Nairobi. I haven't been able to blog for a number of days. We've had a lot of problems at the house with electricity and internet. We're on a bit of a Holiday, eating and seeing the sights and picking up some foodstuffs we can't get in Tarime, such as soup mixes, some cheeses,etc.

We got here last night, checked in and went for pizza; heaven! For breakfast we went to the Java House for some good coffee and rolls. For lunch we ate at a food court in a mall, Chinese. We came home, finally got our computers to work on WiFi and answered some emails.

So far we've been to some shops here downtown Nairobi, to the Nairobi National Museum and then to the mall for some shopping. Sunday will be our first Sunday without church and we're looking to go to a cultural center and to another mall for some shopping and replenish some medicines. We'll be blogging more while here in Nairobi. Mark

A "Normal" Day

I’ve been asked to describe a normal day, which is kind of hard to do. We have no “normal” days here. We try to get a routine, but that in itself in abnormal. Our days revolve around the kids and what we can do for them.

I won’t go into what Holly and Eric and Liz do. It’s hard to believe how hard those 3 work and all the paperwork they have to wade through and all the officials they have to meet with to get things done for the orphanage and school. Those three seem to be tireless, and I admire their dedication so much. They have no such thing as a normal day, and usually they work from morning to night and then try to stay over night some nights at Angel House.

Pam is currently teaching first aid to the staff, goes to the orphanage daily when the kids get home from school to check on any health needs and also does a lot of sewing and mending.

My routine starts with picking up the fundis (workers) at about 7:30am and taking them out to the orphanage and school building site. I then will drive them home at about 6:00pm or so at night, unless it works out better for Eric to bring them home if he happens to be having bible study which usually ends when the fundis are ready to come home.

In between driving the fundis around, I work on various projects, such as building a bunkbed with Marwa, the general contractor of the school construction. Or work on finishing out the chicken house. I may also repair bunkbeds in the orphanage. If I’m back at the mission house, I may work on shelving I’m building for the orphanage.

I'm writing this Friday night, so here's my Friday. Fridays are staff meeting days. We usually meet for a couple hours with the orphanage staff at the orphanage. I delivered the fundis and attended the meeting. It was over about 10am. I then drove the missionaires and a couple of staff members back to town. After dropping them off so they could do their ‘things’, Marwa and I then went after building materials. We had to take two trips from town out to the building site. We finished up around 4:00pm or so and I then played some softball with the older kids. This basically was just pitching to them to let them hit the ball as they are just learning about softball.

When 6:00 came around, the fundis and missionaries were ready to head back to Tarime. We dropped them off and then Liz, Eric, Pam and I went to supper, getting home about 8pm. A “normal” day. TIA Mark

Here’s some pictures I took while waiting for Marwa order and pay for materials.

Here’s a couch that I noticed just down the street a bit from where we were parked. It’s a bit unusual for this area as it’s not covered in the normal fabric and is pillowed on the back and sides. It actually comes with a single side chair and is 800,000 Tsh, or about $550. Notice the chicken under the table beside the couch.

It’s election time here in Tanzania. The big thing to do is to have a truck with loud speakers on it and drive around town blaring out the candidates name and his or her views and playing loud music. This particular truck seemed to have the actual candidate and was being surrounded and followed by supporters. Notice the guy in front with the Christmas type hat on.

As I was sitting in the truck waiting, I noticed a guy come out of his BBQ/Cafe with two large butcher’s knives and walk down the alley. He proceeded to sharpen those knives on a large cement slab. I was sneaking his photo when he noticed me taking his picture.

He then was all friendly and posed for me.

I then went into his cafe to take another picture of him and he posed with a slab of meat for me. They are so friendly here most of the time, what a nice guy.

TIA Mark

Downtown Tarime

Someone requested we show a little of the town we’re in, so here you go. When taking snapshots here, I try not to intrude on the locals. This is not a tourist town and some people resent their photos being taken.

This is a shot of one of the main streets. Not to busy this day, some days you’ll see a lot more people walking, especially on Sunday, market day.

Larry J, here’s where you would take the beef. Most butchers are like this, they display a big haunch showing they are a butcher and they have meat available. Flies are not to much of a problem here, but it’s still good they cook all their meat.

Here’s a BBQ place, and yes I ate there. They will take beef, cook it, cut it into small pieces or cut it into small pieces and cook it in oil. The locals like to eat the small pieces of bone and grissle that come from the cuts of beef they do. They do not do cuts of steak like we do, such as T-bone or filets. They like their meat tough, kind of like hard-tack or beef jerky, it’s rarely tender, although I have had some tender meat.

Here’s a photo of some shops just off the main street. The one on the left seems to deal in bigger lots of articles, such as oil and soaps. In the middle is a tailor shop, and maybe even Mama working one of the foot-powered sewing machines. To the right is a typical bike shop, fixing and repairing bikes and selling new ones.

Here’s one of the larger hardware stores in town. See how many things you can see for sale, either displayed outside or painted on the wall. To the right of the door, notice some rolls of what we would term as light-weight linoleum. That is what they call carpet.

Here are some more shops along the main street. I don’t know what the one behind the pikipiki is, to the right of it is a cement sales shop and it apparently sells some other things. Next comes a fabric store and beside it, a closed stationary store.

This photo shows a typical VW type bus that transports people and goods. They do not waste space here. This is similar to the VW type bus I traveled an hour and 45 minutes in, sitting in the same position for all that time with 28 other people crammed in!

This shot shows the ditch system needed in downtown to handle the torrential rains. It does have trash in it, but I have seen workers sweeping and clearing some of the debris.

The sign above and to the left would say on it Duka La Dawa baridi. Duka is store, Dawa is medicine so it’s basically a pharmacy. For some reason they show baridi on the sign, which means cold, and you usually see that in connection with a store advertising cold pop. Pam and one of the orphanage workers, Teddy, are waiting results of some blood test done on a couple of the orphanage kids. You go in the door to the right, they take a blood sample, and give it to a person to look at in a microscope. The person is in the room behind Pam and Teddy behind the window. When a person’s results are done, they just call out your name and give you your results. TIA, Mark

I forgot to tell you the fun part of the trip to Shariti. I took a stationwagon to Shariti and it costs $4.00 shillings. We had 12 people in the car. 2 on each bucket seat in the front 4 in the bench seat and 4 in the way back. We stopped several times to let some out and pick some up. Some did not smell very good at all. Bathing is not a priority here:-) Then on the way home we only had 2 in the way back and a whole pile of live chickens no in a cage or anything. They were very noisey at first but after we got going they were very quiet. That has to be the first time I rode with chickens',well REAL chickens that is.

I just got back from Shirati with Rhobi. Rhobi came to us about 9 months ago with a boil (large pimple) on her leg. It has kinda healed but it is still painful and opens up and is weepy from time to time. The hospital in Shirati has an orthopedic surgeon coming in December from Canada. We went there to have a preliminary check up done. I took the x-ray with me from the government hospital here in Tarime. She has an infection in the bone. The only way it will ever heal and stop hurting is if she has surgery on it and gets it cleaned out from the inside. Rhobi actually has holes in her bones from the infection eating away the bone. Before Rhobi came to us she was sexally, physically and emotionally abused by her family (not her parents it was whoever took care of her after parents died, an uncle maybe) She is a very shy and quite child. Her voice is so small I sometimes have to ask her to repeat her question. She will have surgery on December 14 and will be in the hospital 7 days. Mark and I are talking about going with her. Someone has to sleep at the hospital with her because the care is so poor. Plus someone has to bring in meals they do not feed the patients there. She is a very slight eater and is very thin right now. I'm guessing she doesn't feel like eating because of the pain. Plus she walks an hour or more to school every morning. She loves school and doesn't like to miss it. The good news is that the hospital is run by the goernment so there is no charge for the bed, but there will be a slight charge for the surgery.
If anyone out there would like to send her something to do in the hospital, like coloring books, DVDs, games, cards, stickers (for when she has to go threw painful procedures) sweat pants or zip up sweatshirt, size 12, (she's cold all the time) hard candy like Jolly Ranchers, our address is below and I'll be sure she gets it.

Our address is:
Pam Travis
PO Box 175
Tarime, Mara, Tanzania (EA)

PS We did get some oatmeal for Mark so he's good for now. I have a microscope that needs AAA batteries, I can't find any in town so not sure they have them. I thought I was being so smart not relying on the unreliable electricity.
PPS Does anyone know where the spell check is on the blog site?

THE WEDDING

Pam with Bride's mother dancing the "African Chicken Dance

Presentation of gifts ceremonial dancing.

The Bride and Groom toasting

Eric and Liz 'popping the cork'

The head table with Holly to the right

The dancers leaving the pavilion

The Bride and Groom following the dancing line

Dancing from the hotel gate to the pavilion.

Two Tanzanian friends we’ve made, Anna and Marwa, got married and we were privileged to attend their wedding celebration, and what a celebration. It was to begin at 1pm, but didn’t start until 2pm. It lasted about 5 hours. It began with the couple being escorted by dancers into the pavilion.

After that, there was a period of people introducing other people. In between introductions, there was a lot of doing nothing, other than trying to talk to one another over the overly-loud music.

Once introductions were over, we then ate. The food consisted of rice, beans, fruit, and meat and meat broth. You ate all this by hand. Pop and beer were on the table to drink.

Champagne was popped, in this case, non-alcoholic, and toasts made. Then it was cake giving time. The cake was actually 3 separate cakes. Two of those were given to the mothers of the bride and groom. The third cake was then cut and pieces placed on a plate. The bride and groom then went around and with toothpicks, gave some others small pieces. For some reason, Pam and I were presented pieces twice, we haven’t figured out why, and no one seems to know why there is this ceremony in the first place.

After that, the gift giving began. The overly-loud MC would announce who was giving the gift and they would dance forward to the overly loud-music with their gift and present it to the couple and then dance away. This lasted quite awhile, with both gifts and money being given the couple. The MC would also announce it was ok for anyone to come forward and either give a gift or show their respect to the couple. I now believe there is a video of me prancing/dancing forward to greet the couple.

Then the actual dancing began. Now I think there is a video of both Pam and I doing the African equivalent of the chicken dance.

All in all it was a great time. Anna is the supervisor at Angel House and Marwa is the general contractor of the building projects, including the chicken house he and I are building.

TIA, Mark