Arusha, Tuesday, February 21, 2017

So we had an ordinary day with me sleeping until 9:00 a.m. and then John served me my Wheetabix and half the pumpkin muffin he had bought at FiFi’s when he got bread there yesterday.  It’s so nice to have a spouse who cannot resist buying me little treats. However, I  noticed that he had also given in to the temptation to buy a chocolate muffin for himself, so maybe my muffin was really just a cover for his muffin. No matter. Mine was delicious.

Maso came to check out our mute TV, and like me, he banged on it a bit and randomly pushed buttons on both of the remotes.  Then, he pushed buttons on the TV itself, and somehow with all that banging and button pushing, the TV began to speak again.  However, we didn’t have any desire to watch it then. We get the late night MSNBC shows here in the morning and Morning Joe comes on at 2:00 p.m. If I can catch a bit of Rachael Maddow during breakfast and some Morning Joe at nap time, I’ve pretty much heard all I want to from U.S. news sources. BBC, Al-Jazeera and the many European news channels give us real world news that isn’t obsessed with 24-hour coverage of Trump.

We were really looking forward to the evening when we would be going for dinner at a friend’s home. I guess Eric qualifies as John’s friend since I had only met him once before, but he grew up in Spokane Valley, and we have many people connections in common. However, we had never met his wife, who is Tanzanian, or his daughter, who is both Tanzanian and American, so I was excited about finally meeting them. Ray took us to the Impala Hotel, where Eric picked us up soon after 6:00.  He also had a woman named Sig along with him.  Sig is doing sustainable agricultural research here this year and went to WSU as an undergraduate. WSU is one of the schools Eric’s daughter, Nshashe, is considering for next year since she is also interested in studying sustainable agriculture.

The ride to Eric’s house was like most ventures into the hills toward Mount Meru: very rough.
Once we got back away from the main road and shops and into a more forested area, we came to Eric’s land and the incredible brick kiln he built and which now employs 7 Tanzanians.  At the top of the kiln is a large brick house Eric built and now rents out.  He showed us around and talked about all the research and trial and error that has gone into producing the quality of bricks he manufactures and the ecological fuel he uses in his kiln burns. It was all very impressive. Since he came to Tanzania as a volunteer in the 1970s, Eric has been a farmer and involved in a number of other enterprises and now runs a very successful computer internet service for businesses.

Entrance of the kiln area

Sig, Eric, and me being dwarfed by the huge two-story kiln.

From the kiln, we drove onto his house which was further away up a higher hill. As with most such homes, there was a tall wall surrounding the whole compound of house and garden with a large double gate for entry.  We parked at the gate and walked in to the house.  It was getting too dark for me to see much or take any photos, but I could see a variety of trees and plants along the path. I couldn’t see the whole house at all.

When we entered, I immediately noticed the huge timbers that upheld the upper floor, and the hewn timbers in the ceiling and around the deeply inset windows. The effect was somewhat like a meld of an Elizabethan cottage and a Swiss hunting lodge, except for the flooring, which as in all the more expensive Tanzanian homes was tile. Eric began work on this house when he was a young man, long before he married his wife, Bernice, and so he put almost thirty years into its construction. He tries to live as sustainably as possible and has huge cisterns in which he collects rain water, and I noticed that all the lighting was LED and probably linked to solar panels.

We had a delicious meal of Tanzanian red beans, chicken stew, rice, sweet potatoes, and fruit salad, with plentiful wine and finally Tanzanian tea. Eric and Nshashe asked lots of questions about making best choices among universities, likely course requirements, etc. Sig was the one who knew which programs would be best and what similarities and differences would be in their sustainable ag programs. Nshashe is currently considering the University of Minnesota, WSU, Evergreen, and maybe Penn State. They all have good programs in her area of interest, but I soon began to think that Evergreen might be her best choice. She’s a lovely, tall girl and has likely been exposed to many differences among her classmates at the international school she attends, but she seems a bit shy and is very soft spoken. She’s also a gifted artist and would like to pursue art as a minor. We discussed the differences between undergraduate and graduate studies and the advantage of having a close cohort of fellow students and smaller classes. Getting a solid undergraduate foundation at Evergreen would prepare her well for graduate studies at any of the larger universities.

Bernice didn’t say much for most of our conversation, but near the end, she asked John and me about a mutual friend, and it was only then that I learned that she worked at WorldVision. Eric was getting ready to drive us all back into Arusha, so I didn’t have an opportunity to find out exactly what Bernice does at WV and many other things I would like to know about her. Maybe next time we are in Arusha, I can find a way to connect with her again.

I began raining while we were having dinner, but the drive back to Kundayo wasn’t difficult at all. Eric usually rides his bike from his house clear into the center of town where his offices are, and Nshashe rides bike to her school out by the airport, as that is not only more ecological but also, according to Eric, safer than driving in Arusha traffic. Today, however, the highway construction had altered the road to favor us and our access to Kundayo. So ended another wonderful day.