Hiking New York’s Minnewaska State Park and Awosting Falls

Friday afternoon after work we went hiking with some brothers to New York’s Minnewaska State Park

We walked along a road which met up with a river and we then moved from rock to rock up the river to the 60 foot high Awosting Falls:

I can’t take credit for this great photo – I found it on the internet. My photos of the waterfall are lousy, but I do have a great picture of Jordan behind the waterfall.

It’s July, so the fall has slowed to a trickle more or less. Most us boys walked almost under the fall to the ‘third step’ and got soaked

then we all headed to the top of the falls to peer or dangle our legs over the edge.

We tried to take another route back to the car which was a dead end, then got sidetracked jumping down a gravel hillside. The sun had gone down and it was nearly dark when from the top of the hill I noticed glowing pairs of eyes appearing briefly at the base of the very same hill we were jumping down. I felt the hair on my neck begin to stand as I saw them again. Elbowing the guy next to me and pointing out what I had seen, we strained to make them out – if they would only appear again…didn’t think I was imagining things.

The ‘eyes’ that I saw were actually fireflies, cool! We saw them nearly the entire drive back to Wallkill.

Check out this photo of the falls in the winter / spring:

Crack Bang Boom

From Sacramento to Wallkill, startlingly loud noises and bright flashes of light seem to be following us.  The evening of Saturday, July 4th, we saw many beautiful fireworks in the sky on the way to the airport. Similarly, since arriving at Wallkill, there have been two awesome thunderstorms and even hail – the nice bonus is the bright green foilage and fields – check out this photo in the courtyard:

Now that you have seen a photo of the grounds, you should know that the buildings are like a giant maze – Hilary and I get lost all the time, but are starting to learn our way around – at least to the important places: our room, the commissary, the auditorium, the cafeteria, the gym, etc.

Up to this point we haven’t had much of a chance to roam around and find the billiards / table tennis room or the family library in our building or take many pictures. Maybe Saturday…

We’ve met and heard of some interesting family members while staying here. The ponds in the background of the picture above are said to have large bass and catfish that pick off baby ducklings during the spring. We will try remembering to gleam some bread tomorrow and see if they will make an appearance. No fishing allowed, unfortunately!

Here’s another fun family member:

Arrival in Wallkill

Hilary and I were pleased to accept an invitation to work at Bethel for four weeks beginning July 5. After long flights to Africa and my recent red-eye to NY with an early morning layover, the fact that this flight, although a red-eye too, was non-stop from Sacramento to New York was great, plus we had heard Jetblue had good service. They do have all you can eat free snacks and non-alcoholic drinks, but bring your own pillow and blanket if you want to snooze – they charge $7.00 for those on the plane! 

A Brother picked us up at the airport and we were soon winding thorough the countryside toward Wallkill, currently the site of Watchtower magazine and book printing for the United States and Canada.  There are five huge printing presses which can reach amazing production numbers – I remember he said the three older ones can do ~ 70,000 magazines an hour, the two newest ones ~ 90,000 / Hr.  He explained that plans are being made for the three older ones to be replaced with faster presses still and that they are looking for buyers for the old ones….interested?

Monday we met in the main lobby with six other temp workers immediately after morning worship for orientation.  We watched a video to get us up to speed on Bethel standards and then had a brief tour. We are free to roam about after hours, so our tour was shorter and we only snapped a few pics. At 10:00 AM, our tour ended and a Brother from the Computer Department met us in the lobby. I was invited to work with the desktop support team, but he surprised both of us by announcing that Hilary would also be working in the same dept with the website team converting data, nice!

The jet lag was bad Sunday and Monday, but we persevered and made it to the Bethel family Watchtower study. It’s held in the auditorium and the first Monday of the month connect to Brooklyn through a projected live feed instead of conducting it locally. Each morning, the programs has also been piped in from Brooklyn too.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for a quick update…more later…here are a couple pics:

Huge rolls of paper weighing ~ 1 Ton each!

Paper moving quickly by:

Stacks of new magazines:

Back in Sacramento

Hello again after a long delay!

After almost one year abroad, on February 16th 2009 we touched down at SFO airport and were back on our home continent, the land O high speed internet, In-n-Out Burger, and HDTV. Here was our return itinerary:

1. Feb 2 Shuttle from Arusha to Nairobi. Accommodations at Kenya Bethel
2. Feb 5 Flight from Nairobi to London Heathrow. Picked up and stayed with Sam
3. Feb 9 Chunnel Train from London to Paris France. Hotel on Rue Cler market street
4. Feb 14 Chunnel Train from Paris to London. Tube to Sam’s house.
5. Feb 16 Flight from London to San Francisco. Picked up by Hilary’s parents.

During our stay at Kenya Bethel, the UK was getting chilled by a ice and snow storm that resulted in airport closures and travel problems. Fortunately, the storm subsided, yet the freezing cold temperatures remained. After being around the equator in Africa for the past year, an initial purchase was gloves and caps!

We toured Brittan Bethel, which is a printing branch supplying Watchtowers and Awakes in different languages to various parts of the world; we even spotted a stack of Amkeni magazines and met a brother who stayed with the Steiners in Mexico.

You can imagine the condition our clothes and shoes were in after wearing them almost daily and walking everywhere in the African dust and sun. The 14 dress shirts I left with had dwindled to perhaps two, so we took advantage of the decent exchange rate in London.

The cold seemed to follow us to France, so we did our best to deal with it by sipping coffee, nibbling chocolate, and eating baguette sandwiches in corner cafes; what a hard life.

Versailles, the Musee d’Orsay, and Arc de Triomphe were all great sights, but visiting the Eiffel tower was a highlight for us, and we learned that although they may try their best, you can’t ask just anyone around to snap your picture if you want it done right.

Freezing cold greeted us the morning we planned to take photos, but as we got closer, it began snowing and the top of the tower was obscured by the flurry, so we just hopped a bus and took what was a cheap mobile tour of the city ending up close by the Moulin Rouge and Notre Dame. Speaking of Notre Dame, what a shameful exhibitation of greed in an operational church. A church with a giftshop? haha…I did find it interesting that to protect the intricate stained glass windows of Notre Dame from looters during WWII, each window was removed piece by piece, labeled and hid them until after the war when they were re-assembled and installed.

Returning to London, Sam enlisted me to help with his remodel, so we sorted some bits out and hung a couple plasterboard sheets in the loft before hitting a pub for a pint. Hilary had hoped to see some of the English countryside, but relaxation took precedence…maybe next time.

After arriving in San Francisco and grabbing dinner, we surprised my parents with an early arrival in Sacramento. That’s where we have been living, in my parent’s attic loft, for the past three months.

An small update regarding Tanzania:

We received exciting news from Martin and Anita; they were the missionary couple in Arusha Central that got a temporary assignment in Moshi to evaluate English interest in that area. We visited them briefly in the month prior to our departure and they expressed what a large English population they had located who had basically never been preached to before.

What an usual concept for most of us in developed areas. Regardless of how large or established Jehovah’s Witnesses are in other areas, we are simply a new or unknown religion in areas like Moshi. If you had never heard “Jehovah’s Witnesses” before, you wouldn’t know whether or not it’s a Christian religion, what the beliefs are, that our beliefs are founded solely on the Bible not doctrine and traditions of men, etc.  The fact that we can tell someone what religion we belong to and they recognize it and know at least a few details about our faith (even if it is just the door to door ministry) is just something else we take for granted. With the amount of work to be done in Moshi, they have been assigned there indefinitely to help with the establishment of an English group.

This n That

Obama, Obama, Obama! Tanzania, well, actually East Africa as a whole, was beyond excited simply to have Obama as a presidential candidate. When he won, major Obamania ensued as excitement reached another level altogether.

We see Obama everywhere: dala-dalas plastered with stickers, Obama calendars, rather well done hand-paintings of his likeness on walls and buildings, Obama t-shirts, even Obama kangas (rectangular pieces of cloth used as wrap skirts).

In the opinion of some local individuals, Tanzania has an isolated economy, not easily affected by other economies; however, many pocketbooks have noticed all the African holiday and safaris cancellations due to the financial crisis. Within the next few years, the United Nation’s I.C.T.R. will be completed and they should pull out of Arusha, affecting the local cash flow all the more. Since we arrived, the value of the USD vs. the Tanzanian Shilling has varied from as low as 1100 to 1450, just last week falling from 1450 to 1300, a considerable difference.

Recognized as American, people shed my old nick-name, mzungu, and started calling out to me: Obama! Obama! Others asked: Bush or Obama? It was an easy opportunity to explain the Bible’s viewpoint that we respect and submit to any governments God allows to rule today, yet we look to God’s government, already established in the heavens with Jesus as king, to fix the problems in the world. People enjoyed learning about this hope and accepted the “Who Really Rules the World?” tract.

There is this Kiswahili word, ‘Mzungu’, commonly used here to describe anyone who is different or a foreigner, but not with any derogatory connotation. The closest translation in English is ‘gentile’, which the Jews used to describe non-Jews. The word can be annoying after being called one a billion times, or comical as a pack of toddlers cry out: “Mzungu! Mzungu! Mzungu!” When you pick the word out of a stream of Kiswahili and you are the only white person around, it’s an easy way to know you’re the topic of that conversation.

A nice conversation starter in the ministry was Christmas; we found that people we knew in passing or who studied at one time wished us “Merry Christmas”. Even our landlords, who are of the Sikh faith (sh chap. 5 p. 100), were putting up Christmas decorations and asked for my advise – likely thinking me to be an experienced Christmas celebrator. This resulted in many discussions, reasoning on whether or not the True God would like us worshipping pagan Gods. Some were surprised by our stand initially, but came to understand why we don’t celebrate a holiday that is purportedly “Christian”.

On Dec 24, we returned from the ministry as Navjot, our landlord’s son excitedly greeted us: “Hey, where have you been? You missed EVERYTHING!” He had been doing homework in the garden and noticed the evergreen tree outside the fence rocking from side to side. He ran outside to find a man hacking away at the tree with a machete. He called for help and a group of them chased the would-be tree thief away with rocks. Not the easy money maker the man thought it would be, eh?

Oi! Well, we have been failing lately in the ‘blog’ dept. We have had plenty to write about, but have been so busy and these blasted Internet cafes that hit 12 kbps are screaming fast. We will try to get a couple more out before too long, we still need an update about our Babati and Moshi trips…..

English Special Assembly Day, Arusha

Have you ever been to an assembly with one hundred or less in attendance? Would you feel surprise or alarm if the electricity failed? Have you ever walked to an assembly?

In answer to that last question, no, a trek from the upper parking lot at the Cow Palace doesn’t qualify. Last Sunday, we had our English Special Assembly Day. Our District Convention and Circuit Assembly are always in Dar, but our Special Assembly Day – being only one day – is held in both Dar and Arusha, so attendance at each is smaller, but we don’t have to travel. Here’s the scoop:

Before the assembly, I was with Martin when he met the local brother assigned to hand-paint our theme scripture. Have you painted a garage sale sign before? The G is big, but by the time you reach the E, it’s tiny, right? Same thing here; it looked nice and professional when he finished, but the long theme got smaller and more crowded as he ran out of room at the end. The closing quotation marks were little dots with tails!

Sunday morning arrived, and, as the chairman began to speak, the electricity went out. He spoke loud enough for us all to hear and we continued with an opening song. The sound dept was prepared with a freshly charged battery (think motorcycle battery) that powered the sound equipment until the power resumed a few minutes later. Come to think of it, all four assemblies and conventions I’ve attended here have suffered power outages.

The morning attendance was 71, afternoon 76. Our congregation averages about 40, but also present there were: interested ones and studies, the visiting speaker and his wife from Dar es Salaam Bethel, four Missionaries, an Int’l Construction Worker couple that will soon start a new missionary home, and at least 14 need greaters. Here are our local missionaries, Martin n Anita:

The baptism pool is a rectangular metal box, roughly 4-1/2′ deep, 3-1/2′ wide, and 7′ long with stairs on each end. Sunday morning it began to be filled from a water hose and 7 hrs later it was full. We had one new brother baptized. I was the assistant in the Baptism Dept., so while he was getting dunked, I was the official towel and flip-flop holder.

With only ~70 in attendance, you probably guessed that nearly everyone had an assignment or a part on the program. I already mentioned being assistant to the Baptism dept, but, the Friday before, I was also recruited by the Sound and Stage Dept. On the program, Hilary had an interview and a return visit demonstration, and I had a reenactment demo and an interview. If you remember our D.C. blog, I had a son, Alex, on the YPA book demo, and in the demo this time, I had another son, Ryan. Hilary and her smarty pants friends joked afterward about our sons, Alex and Ryan. Hardy-har.

Our Circuit Overseer, Rick, and Hilary:

Methuselah, our new brother:

Tarangire and Ngorongoro Safari

Kombe! November already? Hard to believe it was Oct 9th when Hilary’s parents left. A major highlight of their visit was our 2-day safari:

Day One: Tarangire National Park:

We met our driver, John, at the petrol station. In a safari-prepared Toyota Land-Cruiser, he was easy to spot. We made quick introductions, jumped in, and were on our way. Stuck in rush-hour traffic, John shared an interesting tidbit about the Arusha clock-tower
(which you can see in the famous John Wayne flick, Hatari!). It built at the center of Africa, i.e. the mid-way point
between Cairo and Capetown.

After a couple hours of driving we reached Tarangire. On the way, we passed Maasai villages, people carrying all manner of things on their heads, bicycles that John would hoot at and they would ease off the road, and broken down vehicles. Vehicles are required to carry reflective triangles to warn traffic in case they break down, but all breakdownees tend to go a step farther and place cut tree limbs and brush in front of and behind their vehicle for at least 50 yds to merge traffic around them. One lorry we passed had the usual triangles and brush, but underneath the driver was ostensibly making repairs. Looking closer we saw that he was actually fast asleep! Ah, the no hurry African lifestyle. As we turned off the main road toward the park and hit red dirt, children yelled and locals stared. Staring is not impolite here; everyone does it. Hope I can break the habit when we return to the states.

Reaching the parking lot at the park entrance, we spotted monkeys, zebras, elephants, and wildebeest, from the parking lot!!! At nearly every turn, we saw many animals and Tarangire did not disappoint. John also proved to be an extremely knowledgeable driver. For example, he explained about an interesting tree, the sausage tree with it’s long tubular sausage shaped fruit. If ingested, the fruit is intoxicating and produces drunk-like symptoms in people and animals. Hmmm, sounds like experience talking, perhaps?

Spotting and watching wild animals made the morning fly by. As John parked at the picnic spot alongside dozens of other Land Cruisers, he warned: “The little monkeys may look friendly, but don’t be fooled. They can be very aggressive and may try to steal your food.” “No problem, John!” we replied. Not a minute after we opened our box lunches and spread out on a picnic table, did a rogue monkey bound atop our table, snatched Bill’s bananas, and retreated just as quick. We got banana mugged by a monkey!!! From then on, I was on the defensive throwing rocks and water to prevent further advances.

After lunch, we got some excitement when a couple lions relaxing under a tree began stalking a group of zebras and wildebeests that came to the river for water. They didn’t make a catch, but caused quite a stampede and got everyone’s hearts beating faster. We also came across a misplaced spine and rib cage laying on the road. They were picked clean and there were big cat or hyena prints all around.

On the way out of the park, we past a huge Baobab tree John called poacher’s hide. We could imagine poachers concealing themselves inside the hollow base of the massive upside down tree, but we hollered at John to burn rubber out of there cause the biting tsetse flies were thick!!! (Baobab tree: g95 3/22 24-6; g90 8/22 20)

On our way from Tarangire to Ngorongoro, you get to pass through The Great Rift Valley, the namesake of rift valley fever. Did you realize the Great Rift Valley stretches from Israel to Mozambique, a 4,000 mile-long [6,400 km] trench that can be seen from the moon! Move over, Grand Canyon, until you get a deadly fever named after you! (Great Rift Valley: g97 7/22 p. 15)

About 6:00 P.M., we arrived at the Ngorongoro entrance gate and soon were relaxing at our lodge overlooking the crater rim.

Day Two: Ngorongoro Conservation Area (g05 1/8 15-17):

STOP, GIRAFFES!!! Somehow, through the fogged windows, tired eyes, and a heavy fog bank, Hilary spotted giraffes on the crater’s rim. “It’s very unusual to see giraffes at Ngorongoro”, John told us, but there they were grazing on leaves in the morning air. As we descended into the crater, we were excited to see moving specks across the broad crater – animals and vehicles, but were a little weary of another day of bumping around in the Land Cruiser.

First stop was the hippo pool. It was amazing to see such a dangerous creatures at close range in it’s natural habitat. There were babies and a mom even rolled over so the baby could nurse. They were very lazy and it would be easy to mistake them for rocks (except for the flinching ears) at first glance until you jumped on one.

Leaving the hippo pool, we saw many vehicles parked in one area. “Wow”, we thought, “there must be something REALLY GOOD over there – let’s go!” Yeah, it was absolutely nothing, so we motored on until we spotted a shy hyena that darted into a drain pipe under the road. Continuing on, John stopped and pointed out a barely visible pair of jackals darting around erratically about 300 yrs away. We watched for a few minutes and started to bore, when, fed up with the teasing, a cheetah rose up, faked an advance toward the jackals and pulled the dead carcass that it was devouring closer. We were all on our feet quick and over the next half hour watched the following cycle time after time: (1) the jackels advance too close, (2) the cheetah rise up, (3) the jackals run away, (4) the cheetah drop back down to continue eating. The cheetah must have been thinking “I caught it, just let me eat what I want, in peace, then you can have it!” After eating it’s fill, the cheetah did the slowest cat push-up to get on it’s feet. It’s full belly looked to be dragging and was as wide as a pregnant cat. John told us that cheetahs are rare in the crater because they live in the Serengeti, but food sometimes draws them over. This one ate it’s fill, for sure.

At this point, we became jaded safari goers, and only cats or new animals would get us out of our seats. Zebras? Seen 1000′s! Wildebeest? Those ugly things – seen ‘em. Warthogs? Ok, maybe the amiable warthog or ostrich would get us up and smiling just cause they are so fun! We did enjoy seeing a pride of five or six lions snoozing; they blended in so well with the tall brown grass that we almost missed them. They were overlooking a marshy area where elephants, zebra, wildebeest, and water buffalo were drinking and cooling themselves off.

As we arrived at the picnic site, we received more warnings. This time about the thieving birds. What is it with Africa animals? Don’t they know their place? We decided to eat in the cruiser, and that was a good idea. We watched a group lug a full-size cooler down to the waters edge for lunch and they were having a great time until a man standing with sandwich in hand, his arm hanging at his side got it taken by a bird that swooped under, grabbed, then was gone – didn’t even land. This attracted and emboldened more birds and that group retreated to their car. Another girl, lounging on the grass with a boxed lunch open beside her was also victimized.

After lunch we returned to the lions in time to see a zebra and wildebeest group approach the bluff. The lead zebra was too bold and got close enough for a lioness to give brief chase. With the show over, we continued on and happened to look back 15 mins. later to see a rising cloud of dust as a couple lions make a much better attempt at a wildebeest. Lions don’t enjoy a very good kill success rate and starvation is a leading killer. Can’t help to have dozens of land cruisers surrounding them, cramping their style. We were toward the end of the road, and began the crater road ascent and the return trip home, tired and dusty.

P.S – I found a way to connect my laptop to the Internet through my phone, but we get charged too much to load picture. Next time we make it to the Internet cafe, I’ll see about adding some pictures too.

Hereeeeeeeesssssss……AFRICA!!!

We had a nice treat with the visit of Hilary’s parents for ten days. The afternoon of Monday Sept 29, we took the shuttle to the airport, met and escorted them back to our place. They came with an assignment: California folk asked them to take pictures of everything and be ready to answer the burning question: what is Africa living really like? Did they get their answers?

Their visit started out great; immediately upon arrival, Hilary tore into her presents and then was so excited to see her parents that she could hardly sleep! Then again, it could have been the foam mattresses over tile floor that we slept on or her pulling our mosquito net out of the ceiling and my resulting rage, but I think it was excitement. The next morning, I introduced Bill to the joy of riding on a Dala-Dala as we went on some studies. Wednesday our book study group had tea together. Thursday was service then lunch on the patio of the Blue Heron. After Friday meeting, a gang of us need-greaters met for dinner at the Greek Club: Mike, Terri, Taso, Ai, Arisa, Charles, Sonya, Steve, Avril, Bill, Jeannie and us; I can’t remember the last time we ate out so much!

Unfortunately, Hilary caught a cold soon thereafter and we had to cancel our Saturday and Sunday meals and Bible studies. Jeannie spent time with Hilary while Bill and I were in service, running errands, and shopping. We don’t have a vehicle, so we came home tired from all the walking!

Walking is all Hilary and I seem to do here; the place we rent is about a mile off the main road. Our Kingdom Hall is another half-mile or so on the opposite side of that road, so we’re about a mile and a half from the Hall. On ministry days we leave by 8:30 AM for a brisk half-hour walk to meet the service group by 9:00 AM. I’m sure it sounds like a long commute, but time-wise it’s nearly the same as we traveled in California by car, and, on foot, we can do some brief preaching along the way. None of that “I ain’t getting out of the car for this bus stop” thinking. Since we don’t come home for lunch or to rest, only at the end of the day and often with groceries, we’ve discarded book or hand bags for day-packs and carry what we need on our backs: Bibles and literature in both languages, water, and sometimes a lunch or rain jacket.

Saturday morning, Hilary stayed home in bed while Bill and I went to the field service group. He worked with a local brother, Joseph, and they got on great together. Their work ended a little early, so Joseph conducted an impromptu tour of town: the bus stops, metropole, markets, interesting areas, etc.

The last day of their visit, Thursday, Bill and I were at the service group where I conducted and asked if any could relate a nice ministry experience. A study that has been around this congregation about three years and just began preaching a week ago, Jack, was there and related how he started three studies in his first week of publishing, amazing! The group sorted out with Bill joining Avril for a study; he told us later that he even read a couple paragraphs in Swahili! Jack and I did first call (door to door) in the Swahili territory and met up with Avril and Bill and continued. On first call, Avril had Bill ask the householder in Swahili “The dead, they are where?” then she would continue the conversation. Bill can surely confirm (through reaction not language comprehension) that Tanzanians have a real appetite for spiritual things. On first call most reactions to our visit are positive. The challenge we fact is not finding people who want to study, but finding those who know enough English to effectively learn and who have the desire and ability to conform their lives to the Bible’s standards.

Some students misunderstand the purpose of Bible education; for example, one asked if there is a final exam at the end of the study or if it results in a diploma. In a land where education is stressed, it’s not such an unusual question. Of course, the purpose in studying the Bible should be, not an accumulation of knowledge, but to learn what God wants and live our life in a way that makes him happy and I’ve found it helpful to explain that when the study is started.

Although we are in a foreign language hall here, and have to search for English speakers, we both average between five to ten students each month and that keeps us busy. In fact, an easy trap of laziness to fall into is neglecting first call and only conducting studies. It’s easier to go visit a friend and sit and study than go from house to house on a street of unfamiliar people. Sure, the student get a good education, but there is no turnaround or fresh interest and service gets stale while poor students are nursed along. Jehovah’s holy spirit directs our activity and when you don’t engage in door to door, that direction is diminished.

Thursday afternoon bags were packed and weighted until it was time for Bill and Jeannie to catch the shuttle and all to say our teary goodbyes; the tough end to a nice visit. Hope they got what they needed to answer your questions and I didn’t spoil too much. Visitors are nice…so…who’s next?

African Wedding Fun!

Saturday we were happy to attend a beautiful Tanzanian wedding.

Tanzanian weddings are notorious. The ceremonies are fine, often in the center of the town roundabout where everyone can see them proclaim their love, yet, the annoying part, at least if you want to go anywhere in a timely manner on a Saturday afternoon, is the parade.

First in the parade is a pickup truck traveling about 10 mph with a band and a cameraman in the back. The band plays, horns are hooted, emergency flashers blinking, and the video cameraman captures everything. Following closely behind are the bride and groom, usually in a rented luxury car plastered with bows and streamers. If possible, they are propped up and wave to passersby and pedestrians, who stop what they are doing to stare and wave and children run alongside for a bit. The rest of the attendees follow behind in their vehicles or hired mini-buses and create a traffic logjam that is a nightmare to get stuck behind.

The wedding was held at the Mashariki Kingdom Hall. It was scheduled to start at 1 p.m., but didn’t get going until almost 3 p.m. Ironically, at 1 p.m., Joseph, the brother that was helping with wedding arrangements, Hilary and I were eating lunch, and we didn’t get to the KH ourselves until almost 2 p.m. Events were not rehearsed at all, and I felt pretty awkward, since I didn’t know where to walk or what to do. I can picture future conversations: Jonathan, who is Jonathan? You know who he is, ok, remember the big bumbling white guy at Max’s wedding? Oh yeah, of course, that Jonathan!

The talk, in Swahili was given by Joseph’s father, an elder in our Cong., John. Unlike California, not just any ordained minister may perform the marriage, so after John’s talk, another brother, walked them through the vows and completed the marriage license paperwork to applause and an African warcry-like call “lalalalalalalala!!!!!” that the sisters were especially good at. We returned back down the aisle, and made our way to the reception in parade fashion like I mentioned above. The bride and groom got to ride in a gull-wing converted celica! I was crammed in a Toyota Rav4 with 5 other guys at 10 mph…..haha

The reception was at a beautiful place, a lakeside resort; there were tourists in canoes on the lake and it was green and plush.

The reception events were very interesting. When we members of the wedding party arrived, it was announced, and we began our walking down to the water’s edge, where our table was. It was kinda a slow walk/dance/swagger that I might have pulled off. The wedding favors were screen-printed handkerchiefs with the wedding details. We waved these while dance-walking to our table. I still find it amusing that handkerchiefs, something you blow your nose on, were the wedding favors.

Once seated, words of wisdom (I assume – don’t spreken mucho Swahili) were spoken to the newlyweds. Since I have opened champagne before, I was assigned the responsibility of opening and serving the wedding party. Then the wedding cake was wheeled out on a platter. CAKE! Yes, but traditional wedding ‘cake’ (say: kay-key) is a flame broiled goat with grass stuffed in it’s mouth. Guests line up to pass by and congratulate the bride and groom and in turn they are served a piece of ‘cake’ from a toothpick and receive a bear-hug. I was given the privilege of representing the groomsmen and was called to take cake, a responsibility I fulfilled to the best of my ability.

Next was dinner. While we were eating, an announcement about acrobatics was made, and the dinner entertainment was three acrobats doing a combination of solo and team flips, handstands, and more! I was spellbound. Hilary later asked why we didn’t have acrobats at our wedding.

After dinner, the DJ warmed up and got everyone dancing. Music is a vital part of African life, and we have never seen a livelier dance floor where absolutely everyone danced (sorry Vanna). Hilary and I were sitting and soon pulled into the mix and we spent almost the whole time dancing too!

2008 DC in Dar es Salaam

2008 ‘Guided by God’s Spirit’ District Convention

Was your convention at the nauseatingly nostalgic Cow Palace? Maybe 8-10,000 in attendance? Did you enjoy the live drama? Did you save seats only for your immediate family and make sure you were in your seats to enjoy the musical interlude all three days? Nice.

Our DC was at the Bima (bee-mah) hall in Dar es Salaam, the same venue as our CA.  We rode with Martin and Anita and left a few days early to help with site setup (and to get some beach time). One thing Martin did in Dar was visit the major newspaper publishers and was interviewed for an article about the DC. The article ran and mentioned “Bwana Martin” and gave details for those wishing to attend! Try that in the U.S or U.K!!!

We stayed with Sarah, the same hospitable sister who put us up for the CA.; One night after the convention, we were reading and heard a commotion downstairs – her twin 10 yr old boys somehow got themselves locked in the bathroom while bathing! After the guard chiseled away at the door for an hour with a screwdriver, he pried it away from the jamb, and I gave it my best karate kick. It flew open and the naked boys jumped behind the door. haha! The boys were a lot of fun and we had a good time playing GT4 on PS2.

We had an abbreviated two-day convention (still got both releases), and, with only 200 in attendance, every brother was busy with one or two jobs. Mike was stage overseer and I was his assistant, and we both had demo’s, so we spent most of the time working.

Did I mention the drama? It was awesome. You see, with 200 attending, there just aren’t enough people to both act and enjoy the action in the audience! A recorded drama from another convention was obtained and projected onto the stage backdrop with a laptop. The power was cutting off and on, so a generator was fired up to prevent problems, then we really started sweating when Windows Vista, with it’s Gates inspired infinite wisdom, decided to install Windows updates just before the program started; this only served to confirm my suspicion that the devil is behind Windows! Then, there was a hilarious moment when the chairman thought the drama was over and had Mike setup the microphone too early and we were trying to watch the drama projected on Mike!

Ok, about the demo; it was on the symposium for the new YPA book. Do you remember the one with the two delinquents pressuring our young brother to smoke, then the next scene is him talking to his dad? Well, all 29 yrs of me was ‘dad’ to this 14 yr old. As we were introduced as father and son, no one noticed the age problem, rather our skin color difference got everyone laughing…..just check out the photos:

***Click here for our DC photo album***

Did you read our entry, ‘Getting around, African Style‘? On this trip, we discovered the Bajaj. These tiny open taxi’s are terrifyingly great fun! They consume such little petrol that the prices are quite affordable, but that doesn’t stop ambitious drivers from trying to gouge their passengers; they would regularly greet my payment with a cry of “bado”, meaning “not yet” i.e. “you haven’t paid enough”.

Our first Bajaj excursion took us to the new Tanzania Bethel for a tour and lunch. At our C.A., the Int’l Volunteers and Servants were just putting the finishing touches on it, but everyone is moved in and it is now functioning almost fully. The tour was short because it’s a small non-printing branch (still managed to obtain Insight and Proclaimers books!), but the build quality was quite impressive. Much of the building materials and equipment was imported from Europe and experienced construction volunteers supervised the work actually done by local companies. When the work is contracted with a local company, there is a clause in the contract on how the company will treat their employees: no yelling, verbal abuse, or cursing. Proper time for lunch, breaks, and proper safety equipment, shoes, etc. This is unusual in a country where safety is nearly non-existent and human life seems somewhat expendable for the sake of meeting production goals. OSHA, we don’t need no stinkin OSHA!

Lunch was delicious, as we have come to expect at any Bethel, and after lunch we were invited for tea and coffee with our tour guide and her husband, who were missionaries, but now called to Bethel.

***Click here for our tz Bethel photo album***

All our previous trips to Dar have been irritating, stressful trips. More than once after returning home, we said: “ugh, I HATE Dar!!!”. Check this fun fact out; the bus station itself in Dar is named Ubongo or brain and means “use your head” – for good reason, there are many taxis, touts, scam artists, pickpockets and thieves present to harass you, some quite aggressive, just what everyone is in the mood for after a 10 hr bus ride.

Anyway, on this last trip we finally heard the other side of the story and realized that we never gave Dar a chance. With a couple days to see the city, we don’t love it, but have come to see the appeal. There are good restaurants, better shopping centers, and wonderful beaches. Our accommodation’s were only 5 min away, by Bajaj, from the White Sands hotel; we visited there at least four times. It’s a popular place to enjoy the beach and fairly close to Bethel, so we ran into other witnesses there on almost every visit.

***Click here for our White Sands photo album***

We enjoyed the convention and our mini-vacation, but are glad to be back at home.