Drama in Greater Moshi

Kigomboni Guest House, Computer and Car Shidas!

The days after arriving back in Moshi from South Africa have been slightly less hectic, but infinitely more complicated.  My gratitude at being in our A-5 house in Moshi is always a relief.  We could even forget how annoyed we were with Kenyan Airlines and Precision Airlines when we were met by Carol at the door, and driven home to the coziness of A-5.  Rose had even picked more Easter lilies for us so the scent in the house was perfectly sweet.

Carol Sangawe our wonderful project driver

Trish at mini waterfall

beautiful views

It became more fuzzy when we were asked to set a hash on the spur of the moment.  So, all focus was on the location, the supplies, cooking and preparing for this event. Our first challenge was that our “guide” in Kigomboni Freddy was very happy to rent the guest house gazebo to us, and to take us around, but he had a particular route that he was determined to take us on, and explaining the hash to him was not easy.  So off we went.  I tried to explain that we needed to make the path a bit complicated, not to stay on main roads (main roads means dirt roads that a car could travel (basically One car) but to veer off to paths that interlocked, went through coffee trees, banana trees or fields, up and down, across streams, etc.  Freddy was pretty sure that I really did not mean that, so he kept us on main road most of the time.  Each time we asked, he was like, “no not here, later” .  Eventually we gave up and at the end of the day the path was quite easy to follow, but very interesting and beautiful. 

 

finally on a path

 

One of the dearest parts of it was coming back through an old lady’s little nyumbani (collections of two or three small houses) and chatting with her.  We returned on Sunday to set the flour over the path.

last beautiful view we saw before car shidas

Just after passing this hotel, disaster struck

beautiful guest house

The drama began on Sunday when we set the hash.  The drive up to the guest-house was without any event until just before we turned into the guest-house. Suddenly John had a difficult time steering the car.  We thought it might have been a flat, but there was no flat.  But horrifyingly the right front wheel was tilted at a strange angle.  We limped the car inside the gate with no idea of what we could do.  Freddy offered to find a “fundi” (fix it man) once we had set the hash, and we gratefully agreed

For hashers, you know that you set the trail with flour. 

Flour marks the trail

 At certain points you make an X with the flour and that means that you have to search in all directions to find where the flour picks up. 

The X 

 The problem with this area is that people are quite suspicious of the motives of the white people, and you have to explain to them that the flour and the X’s have nothing to do with Their land, but only marking a path. So, you have to explain to everyone you meet that this is just a fun outing for a bunch of young and old walkers and runners where you are setting a pretty trail for them to explore the area with.  You ask their permission, they say “yes” and then the problem can be that after all that is agreed on, someone else comes along, sees the flour and is horrified and scruffs it out.  Or, even more likely, children come along and scruff it out, because that is what children do!  So, often, hashes are comprised of desperately searching for flour but it has been wiped out.  The potential at this hash was great for losing the flour.  But, everyone was very pleasant, as there have been several hashes at this area in the past.  Even so, John put a lot of flour down, and we decided to put only a few crosses.

Freddy talked with several people along the way about finding a fundi, and was given lots of advice.  When we returned to the start, he left to find the person, and we greeted the guests.  
 

Trish and John and William...what to do

fab place to party!

 Everyone was shocked at the appearance of “the blue jellybean” and agreed that it would probably have to stay for a few days in the mountains.  But as luck would have it, the fundi had been teacher for the government in mechanics for years and was now retired but teaching mechanics at the vocational school just down the road.  He agreed that one of the “tie bolts” had been sheered, and he would have to trie to cobble something together with parts that he had in his tool kit. He managed to piece together an old bolt that had no threads, a nut that was a bit too big, some sort of electrical tape, and put the wheel in the proper place.  He said to us “pole pole” (go slowly slowly) down the mountain” And hope for the best.  When we limped back to our house, John’s remark was “TOO MUCH DRAMA”.  I had no idea what he was talking about, until he explained just how badly the bolt fit on the car and how lucky we were to be both alive and down the mountain.  So there we are.  Drama. 

Fancy lady?  don't turn around because the slit in the back .....oops

My friend Terrie loaned me her saloon car for a day, and I got to be a “fancy lady” and now thanks to Deo our mechanic, the blue jellybean is back in operation.  YEA!

Our Car mechanic Deo with Terrie and Nikoli

Onto new adventures!

Durban-Fourteen Years Later

John & Trish Cuban Food Happy Times

 

Our last visit on this whirlwind visit to Nairobi, Capetown and Durban was both nostalgic and peaceful.  Durban is remarkably changed.  Umhlanga Rocks doesn’t even resemble the little town to which we were assigned when we attended the World AIDS Conference 2000.  We understood that our old Oyster Box Hotel was still standing and I actually got a glimpse of it as we drove to the airport this morning.  It looked quite small amidst the massive shiny buildings of the posh suburb.  Our cab driver pointed out all the new buildings as well as an enormous casino perched up on a hill that is self contained, with gambling, hotels, massage parlors, multiple entertainment sites, glitter and glam.  (Sounded horrible)

The Quarters Hotel

We stayed in a very nice hotel, the Quarters, located up higher in Durban and in just a few steps, beautiful views of the ocean combined with magnificent houses and private schools.  Once again, we entertained one of the KCMC trainees—a lovely young man taking his training in oncology at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal.  We had a delicious meal at the hotel, and nice chat until I suddenly was “hit by the wall” and started falling asleep right at the table.  I have not had that happen since I was in Amsterdam in 1992, and it was so embarrassing that I had to apologize, say goodnight and zip to our room where I promptly fell asleep and locked John out.  Some time later I vaguely remember waking up, seeing John sitting in a chair working on his computer and asked him what he was doing there in the room.  That is all I remember!  Chalk this up to old age, and so much travel, and getting up at 4am many mornings in a row.

View Downtown

Because it was such a short trip, while John was in meetings, I walked and walked.  In this location there was no feel of crime or anxiety that I might be mugged.  And walking is a wonderful endeavor.  I met two very nice people, both men who were eager to carry on conversations.  The first was an older gentleman named Peter who became my personal escort to the post office.  Turns out, his first cousin was Richard Harris.  He didn’t divulge this information until well into the walk where our conversation involved wonderful exchanges about life in Zimbabwe, Durban, Capetown, family, the US, becoming older, computer saavy, personal likes and dislikes.  And, then he chatted about his cousin and his theatre accomplishments, as well as his love of alcohol.  We chatted a little about AIDS, the International Conference of 15 years ago, and his hopes for a cure.  I pinched myself, thinking about the good fortune I have had over the years, to travel so much and to meet such wonderful people, purely by happenstance, or one simple question, “Can you tell me where the nearest post is, where I might buy some stamps?” 

Name of lovely Anglican Church

Anglican Church

Words for WWI dead

Words at Chapel

My eyes lit up at a lovely small Anglican Church with beautiful mosaic and ceramic tiles on the outside.  Peter noted that this church held the names carved in stone of all the South African soldiers who died in World War I.  We had a chat about the horrible war, and he was also aware of how it nearly ended after the Christmas “truce” in 1914 that found British troops and Germans playing soccer in France.  I told him about the John McCutcheon song that my brother Jim sings each year at his Christmas Concert and also about the Book “Silent Nights” that describes how the “peace” movement continued until the generals had to pull the troops that had been involved and replace with new troops that had not been a part of this miraculous moment. 

The post office was equally entertaining.  I apparently made the day of my postman.  He said that he had never sold postage stamps for postcards to the US, or for that matter, anywhere.  He had to find them, and to inquire about the price (checking in a book for the most up to date cost.)  I loved it, and apparently so did he.  He told all the other clerks about my visit and they all laughed and clapped.  I hope this is not a sign of the times, when postage stamps won’t be available. 

On my way back to the hotel, I met another gentleman who heard me greet a security guard.  He thought perhaps I came from the UK!  No one has ever suggested that to me, so we wound up chatting right there on the sidewalk for another 45 minutes or so.  This gentleman had worked in the sugar industry in Capetown, Durban and Malawi.  He was the epitome of the old colonialist who had worked hard and played hard.  He had been in a terrible auto crash when he was quite young, had tremendous head trauma, been in a coma, had to completely rehab, and had taken up marathon running to bring himself back.  He spontaneously showed me his head scars and his neck where lots of surgeries and work had been done.  There may have been one or two screws loose, but he was just delightful.  He couldn’t stop talking about how wonderful Malawi had been, where he had visited a wonderful area on Lake Malawi with fabulous all night bars, live music, sitting around just in plain shorts and t-shirts.  Perhaps I should have been worried, but he was clearly harmless and absolutely happy with his life as a pensioner and runner.

view of city of Durban

view Durban with new "football stadium"

For my friend Gordon

Mandela fence....locks bought to benefit breast cancer

City cities of Africa

Cannot get away from the Zulu's or Shaka

Durban may be a city that is much more well to do, but there were certainly street people.  The higher crime is nearer the waterfront, and I was not going that direction.  Only a few people were begging in our area, and as usual that makes me sad, but it was astonishing the difference in feel of Durban to Capetown.  I thought about our trip to the big Juma Mosque, of the influence of Ghandi (attacked by white settlers in 1897 but went on to be an important character in demonstrating for equality) in the area, and of our visit to the old “Souk”, to Shakaland, the snake park, and most especially our taxi driver James who had made our family visit to Durban so special 15 years ago.  No one has forgotten the World AIDS Conference in Durban.  And most people I talked to said that it remained a special moment in time for them.  They especially noted that it highlighted Durban and South Africa in a promising way, in particular because so many companies were selling “rape insurance” and cautioning participants to “stay away”.  Thank goodness we did not, as our lives were forever changed.

Capetown Perhaps the most beautiful city in the world

UCT old Hospital and side of Table Mountain

Sunset over mountains outside Capetown

Our trip from Nairobi to Capetown was marked by attention to Ebola.  I spoke to one of my Kenyan Airline flight attendants as she double gloved before she cleaned the toilet.  (which was not dirty ) and she just said, it is protocol and best be safe.  As we arrived in Johannesburg, we were given the usual survey (all airports have the same variation on a theme now) and this time our temperature was taken by our eye.  I have a bit of a wacky eye right now from all the dry dusty air in the airplane and on the road and wind in Nairobi so I kept thinking...hmmmmm.  But all was well and we ventured on to the next  hurry up and wait for our Capetown flight.  Of course we flew in on a spectacular day, and when we arrived, John went directly up to the perfect replica of my brother and said, "hi Vic" (I heard Hi Rick!) so I was stunned.  But as I got closer, I saw that he was indeed Vic our host at the lovely bed and breakfast where we are sadly getting ready to leave.

Here is Vic.  He & Trish (yes really) own the Koornhoop Manor House

Vic drove us to the B&B and chatted all the way.  As he and John talked, he remembered him from the previous visit and they had a great laugh about life and all that had gone on.  I was stunned by the beauty of the house, and of the proximity to University of Capetown Medical School and hospital.

Koornhoop B&B with mountain behind

Beautiful Koornhoop with lovely yard

We barely had to cross the road to be at the hospital

This hospital's history is quite interesting.  It was the home of the first heart transplant and as well the fist CT Scan.  We did not take the museum tour as John had taken it in the past and said.....read about it, even though it is interesting.

Heart Transplant Museum Sign

The hospital was founded by an interesting man, J.M.B. deWet, who had apparently blue eyes.

Note Blue Eyes!

Nice thought.  Wonder if the hospital was integrated?

We had a nice wander around the grounds.  We were not allowed far into the Medical School and Hospital without a badge and were told not to take pictures so this was the best that I could do.  When we ventured out of the Hospital, we ran into a graveyard.  It, too was locked, but we wondered if the graveyard and hospital were connected in some way.

graveyard, hospital

New Hospital &graveyard

Clearly the reason the graveyard was locked was because of the street people.  I think that was the most unsettling thing I felt about this part of Capetown and probably would feel the same all over.  I just didn't feel as if I could be alone walking around.  The streets were not crowded and teeming like other big city streets, but people seemed to be driving to a location and then driving or riding the bus back.  It was odd.  I went running with John for two days, and I was quite glad that he was with me.  We heard that crime was pretty high in this area, and that again the issue of young men with no jobs was a huge reason for it.
But, nonetheless we coped.  We had a lovely dinner with the main mentor for our Tanzanian trainees Andrew and his wife Helen.  They have a stunning house overlooking the mountains and were just delightful.

View from Andrew and Helen's house

I found that Andrew had grown up listening to the music of Roger Lucy, one of my featured musicians for my Apartheid Resistance Music paper.  We had a great chat.  He also had listen to Rodrguez's music and never dreamed until he saw "Searching for Sugarman" that Rodriguez was not equally as popular in the US as he was in Apartheid South Africa.  Quite amazing story.  So we had a delicious dinner (beautiful salad which, unless you go without good greens for some time, you don't know what you are missing--we were in heaven!)

We actually got to sleep in and go for a nice run, had a very nice breakfast, and then lunch at a fun restaurant named Mimi's.

John & me Mimi's

This is for Isaiah....they also served Vegan and many other diet types....Ostrich burger, Lamb burger, and if we were there for dinner on Wed-Sat, Moroccan food.  That was what we wanted, but oh well.

The point of being there was of course to see and treat the Tanzanian Trainees.  We had a fabulous and joyous dinner before which John had met with each one individually and in a group.  Nice evening.

Esther's huge pizza

Dani leans in, John trying to do his lean in

Great group shot....Kajira taking a selfie!

So, now we are off to Durban.  Maybe it will be less windy.  But we will so miss this lovely B&B

Table Mountain

Mentored Research Symposium & Nairobi

Mama Charles & Me

This week has been busy. It started with a bang with the MEPI Mentored Research Project Symposium, which lasted for two days, including one day during the National Nyerere Day holiday.  Despite this holiday the auditorium was full every day, and the students were thrilled about the results and the information presented.

Mentors and Mentees fill the auditorium

Dr. Mtweve and her students after the successful symposium

The MEPI staff had worked very hard for this symposium, preparations assisting students with a variety of crises; thus at the end of the first day, John and I took the group out for Nyama Choma (barbecue) at our favorite restaurant, Mkulima.

The best food

We made a valiant attempt to leave the following day for Nairobi, but in this circumstance the plane left us behind.  We arrived at the airport 50 minutes prior to the flight but were told that the "gate" had closed and low and behold, the plane left 40 minutes early.  Our reservation (and paid ticket) was resold and off they went.  It was pretty horrifying, we were exhausted, and John had a whole stretch of meetings the following day.  But nothing to be done.  We managed to rebook the ticket.  This in itself was a feat because the agent totally changed the flights including our reservation for our Johannesburg flight.  If John had not been careful, we would never have been able to complete our trip.  It was a huge surprise to Rose, Pauli and Lucy that we arrived home at 8:45 pm to head for bed and start over the next day.  Our surprise arrival reinforced our gratitude for our "family" in Moshi who had secured our gate, double locked our doors and came over to make sure that it was really John, Charles and me that had returned for the night.

But the next day, we headed out again and this time arrived in Nairobi to start our week of meetings.  We stayed in a very fancy hotel, the Panari which has an ice skating rink-- the only one in East/Southern Africa.  Goodness!

After settling in our hotel, we quickly set off for an evening with Charles' mother.  It was an adventure in itself.  Traffic was at a peak, and it took 1 1/2 hours to get to her house.  This very sweet and sharp lady by herself raises over 70 chickens, about 20 rabbits, uses every available space for fruit and vegetable gardens and even negotiates with neighbors to use small spots of land around their houses to grow beans and corn.  She had cooked a delicious dinner for us, and completely by accident we ran into Charles' brother-in-law and brought him back to dinner with us.

Mama Charles with her two boys

Charles serving John special "Kikuyu" food

Friday we left at the crack of dawn for a meeting a Kenyatta University, where each one of us talked to the team of Dean of Medicine and many of the department chairs.  It was indeed impressive.  They are building a huge infrastructure of a new school of medicine, a giant hospital, a nursing school, research laboratories.  The school was incredible, and it seemed that we developed a very good rapport with the folks that we met there.

Charles in front of the Administration Building Kenyatta University

Trish and John with Jomo Kenyatta statue

sign in front of the KU

The Library at KU

Love this- Institute of Peace and Security Studies at KU

The new campus being built

Our tour of the new campus

This will be the new Hospital

 After our tour of the new Medical School and Hospital, we drove to the African Population and Health Research Center where we met with a group of energetic young people who have established an amazing organization designed to mentor young African PHD candidates--to help them publish, and to learn proper mechanisms for research, public speaking--generally to bring young African Scholars to the highest levels.  We were completely inspired by this group.  They left us practically speechless.

 

John very excited about the group

A very exciting group (I am one lucky mama)

We moved quickly from the Research Center we headed on to the Aga Khan Medical Center.  We drove through a lovely part of Nairobi where clearly the wealthier people live, and sadly also passed by the Westgate shopping center (home of the big bomb blow up last year).

Westgate-you can still see bullet holes

beautiful villas in this area

We had a great meeting with the Aga Khan Medical staff.  John gave a presentation about MEPI to the staff, and we had a great dinner in the pouring rain before driving back to the hotel.  For a 20 minute drive, it took us an 1hr and 40 minutes.  It was painful.  We were up again at 4am, to leave for our flight to Capetown.  Wow, absolutely incredible.

Big Soccer Stadium

On to Capetown!