Deep breath. We’re back!

A couple Sundays ago at church we studied the very short but dense story in Luke about Jesus sleeping in the boat during the storm (Luke 8:22-25). His disciples were terrified. It was an unusual service where the whole congregation was broken into small groups to discuss different parts of the story and what we noticed about the different characters. One young and astute man in our group brought up the frustrating trait of how whenever we encounter the unexpected in life our first human reaction is to adopt a fatalistic and defeatist outlook. “Master, Master, we’re going to die!” The message and challenge that Sunday was to ride through uncertain times with an expectant sort of faith knowing we’re in the boat with Christ and that nothing that happens here on earth is a surprise to him or beyond him to use for His greater purposes. Therefore expect adventure and the unexpected but know that Jesus is at the helm of your boat and in charge. He is working all things together…

The two questions we’re continually being asked by people here and back home are: 1. How are you settling back in to life in Arusha, and 2. How long will you stay?

Rewinding a bit to our summer, I’ve been telling everyone who asks me that I feel like our summer vacation buzzed by way too quickly and we had too many things crammed in to catch up on and do. To hone in on what it was, I felt like I never had “recuperation time”. I had mistakenly thought summer vacation would be restful. So the idea of coming back to Africa was very hard because I had envisioned I would be feeling refreshed, rather than drained before we stepped onto the plane again. It turns out that as “non-missionary” as we see ourselves, this kind of “whirlwind-summer” is precisely what all our missionary friends here often experience and wisely react by vigorously defending their time for rest. My friend Jodi smiled sympathetically and said, “Ah, you’re learning!”

In that sense we crash-landed “home” here in Arusha where Josh immediately dumped out a suitcase and repacked it again to get on the road to join a large Vision Trip of over 40 people in the field the very next morning. The kids and I unpacked the next day and we were all off to start school the day after. Our first week was a little unusual and quiet without dad, but we had plenty to keep ourselves busy with, including restocking the house, foraging for cash at various ATM machines around town (finally finding one machine that dispensed money in $50 increments of $2.5 bills), sorting out our electricity credit and battery storage settings (because we kept experiencing power outages) as well as discovering that there was a butter shortage in all of Tanzania. When I heard that I realized that we had indeed arrived back again. Before we left for vacation, there was a sugar shortage in Tanzania. Prices tripled when you could find a 1kg bag. Today there’s just no butter, anywhere.

These are interesting times in many ways. The government, under the leadership of the new president John Magafuli, has decided in a dramatic sweep to enforce legislation to boost the local social structure and the local economy. Aside from a variety of efforts to weed out corruption within government ranks, one of the new policies entails cutting down all imported products to 20%.

Grocery store in the US

Grocery store in the US

Grocery store in Arusha

Grocery store in Arusha

These days, many grocery store shelves sit half empty, both imported and some local food items are hard to find (two of the photos above are from a typical grocery store in the US and the other two are from a grocery store in Arusha). Another recent measure is the enforcement of tax collection from small to medium businesses and especially foreign businesses. I don’t know how or whether there was a system for tax collection that was enforced in the past, but we’ve seen a beloved café (one of only a small handful in our part of town) close down. We talked to a Chinese restaurateur who gripes that it’s almost impossible to turn any sort of a profit and make a living these days when you add in all the  haphazard fines that one has to pay in a given week. Before we left we heard that many local Tanzanians were complaining about the inadequacy of basic education for children. Yesterday I heard from my trusted news source Peter that all primary schools are mandated to begin teaching in English starting January 2017 (current primary schools; Primary 1 – Primary 7, are taught in Kiswahili and switch to teaching in English at secondary school, which they call high school). All we can do is to hope for speedy positive outcomes to emerge from these growing pains.

Amidst the confusion of what this country is doing we also landed with many questions about our own efficacy in this context. We often debate whether tribalism or nationalism seems to be winning on the continent of Africa and whether a greater unity among all the African nations might be the only way forward? How do all these things play into what NGO’s like World Vision are trying to achieve today, each with their own disparate 5-7 year project plans? Bottom line: Will all our efforts after our time here be for nought? I know the bigger picture of success in Tanzania does not revolve around us and what efforts we put in. But one does wonder “is this the best way?”

Through all the uncertainties swirling around our jet-lagged brains God reminded us (Josh and me) that we had originally prayed for Him to show us where our particular skills and talents could be used (together) at this time in our lives. That was our original prayer that we prayed for a couple years. This spring when we were feeling ambivalent as to whether we should continue on for another year, He clearly told us that for the time being, this is where He wanted us to be (which is what led us to extending our time here – see the devotional in Lia’s last blog post). This is where He led us because we would never have dreamed it up or wished for it otherwise.

My second week in Arusha with Josh back in town, I was unexpectedly seconded to help with Chinese translation work for a film crew from Beijing and a crowd-funding tech start-up NGO out of San Francisco. Both were in town to support the important work of an organization called Plaster House, which provides a place of respite for children to heal post surgery and to receive in-house OT and PT. The children are generally not orphans but are housed with beds, food, showers and schooling with house-moms, for as long as they need until they are well enough to return home. Sarah, the brave woman who started up and runs Plaster House, grabbed me at school on a Friday and asked if I still spoke any Chinese, whether I could step in and help the three parties communicate for a few days.

Me with a Plaster House child

The director

The cameraman

A Maasai child being treated for club-foot

It turned out to be a week of amazing learning about all three organizations. I had a blast  running around town with two kids from the Beijing Film Institute and the other kids (very young adults) who started up Watsi (.org), an NGO crowd-sourcing platform that links donors with individuals around the world who have encumbering medical needs and expenses.

I’d like to think that there was NO ONE in town but me who could have helped them last week. Ha! Nice thought – I think it’s a good possibility, but perhaps not 100% true. Nevertheless, what struck me was what a blessing it was to me personally, for God to send something along like this to give me confirmation, just as I was so full of questions about what we were doing here. Only He could have heard my private conversations with Josh and only He would know how to reassure me in such a stimulating way. In the process I met with and helped interview the first and (until just recently) only home-grown Tanzanian pediatric surgeon in all of Tanzania. She happens to also be a woman!

The kids are settling too. One fun story stands out: God has also been at work in Lia’s heart to meet her where she’s at. I’m not sure how much her settledness and happiness hinge on this (I imagine it is one of many moving parts), but God answered a fervent prayer of Lia’s and gave her the part of Brigitta in the upcoming all-school musical, Sound of Music – a part she claimed she’d dreamed “her entire life” of playing! We’re all very psyched for her. Arial and Ian have roles too, though not as prominent. Along with their studies, they’re diving into activities like swimming with the school swim team, Ian is venturing to try for his first triathlon, Arial is going on her first hiking / camping trip to a waterfall at the foothills of Kilimanjaro this weekend and they’re all generally open to trying new things.

So on to addressing the second question of “how long we will be staying?” (Lia also answered this question in her latest blog.) At the moment, in light of the premise that we think our calling is to complete the start up of the Great African Food Company (GAFCo) under the umbrella of World Vision’s THRIVE model, we’d like to see the joint venture up and running in a healthy and self-sustaining way. The Pamoja Report (which Thomas talked about in his blogpost earlier) describes what is going on and what we’re involved with here in Tanzania. Josh has been instrumental in helping orchestrate World Vision’s first joint venture with a for-profit agricultural business that has been rolled into GAFCo, to help smallholder farmers receive a boost toward better systems and markets. God graciously brought some extremely capable and successful business individuals to work alongside him and take the lead in areas where Josh has missing capabilities. Suddenly, miraculously, an A-Team has been created seemingly out of nowhere! A lot of the details are still being ironed out but we’d like to see all the necessary pieces in place and functioning before we consider making a move… so, whatever that exactly means… 6 months? A full school year? It’s a question that has caused no little anxiety in our family for the past while, especially as we’ve come to realize that things just don’t operate predictably or smoothly here in Tanzania.

The one thing that makes a difference is that we’ve seen how God has softened our hearts even in our landing this second time round, how He has met each of us and shown us that He knows our deepest needs, how He has allayed our fears and knows what will keep us encouraged (your support included:), how He is demonstrating lovingly that He hasn’t abandoned us even in places we never thought we would be. ….Picture this: Jesus is in our Land Cruiser with us!

*Relieved sigh.* I know we can… I know we can…