Coffee Anyone? Week 6 Blog

Kilimanjaro from Alex and Lorena's farm

The Super Moon on Full Moon night

My apologies for a late post for week number 6.  You will see that there was and is such a lot going on that there was no way to sit down to write and post.  As it turns out, my knee exercises and treatments take most of my day.  It is getting better and that is the blessing but such a lot of really hard work.  It really makes me cry for a little nap.

My week began with the last 3 of the Saa Moja's (seven o'oclock swimmers)  My instructor Sabini, Sophya, and Eric.  We are a very complementary group and having fun while working hard.  My knee is better I think mostly because of Sabini and my PT Dee Dee.

Sophya, Sabini, and Eric

That night was both the super moon and our planned with dinner with one of our adjunct DGHI professors Abu from Shanghai.  We had a good dinner at 10 to 10 pizza, even though only one of us Frances (our admin. director had pizza!)

John Abu Frances Dorothy Trish

Abu was presenting research that he had been involved with in Shanghai regarding smoking cessation and the huge success they have had with this campaign.  I found Shanghai to be lovely and not nearly as polluted as Beijing, but it was definitely a city of smokers.  So three cheers to Abu's work.  Can we replicate it here at KCMC?  We shall see.  Thanks Abu, and such a charming man. We headed home and I took about 30 pictures of the super moon, as you can see up top.

On Tuesday I headed out with my Dada's group to my Dada Agnes' home.  There we had Agnes to greet us but also her husband my dear friend Baba, and her daughter Yusra who has turned into a stunning and very sweet, smart young woman.  Wow!

Dada's and Baba!

Dafrosa being silly!

We had some very traditional Wednesday Pizza night, Bob, Pastor Tony, and then Greg & Nikoli but wait.. Terrie had just returned  to Moshi from a 6 month stay in the US.  She was repairing their house and going to horse shows it seemed, but fortunately the house is much better, and it is great to have her back. She says going back to African time is a bit of adjustment.  Goodness so busy.  Friday night was play night at International School, and who should be the stars, but our "God child" Nikoli and his good friend Ita.  The play was he "Delicious Death" and it was a Miss Marple adaptation.  Our friends Phil and Sara who run Rafiki foundation's eldest daughter Lydia directed the show in less than 5 weeks.! The whole group was quite good but I of course thought that Nikoli and Ita were terrific.  We sat in possibly the worst chairs in the world in the Gym, all of which made the acoustics and the back and knee comfort tough.  But it was worth it to see how far in theatre Nikoli has come, and to mention how tall. But, on to Saturday!

Trish giving presentation about Mother to Child HIV Transmission

Trish and Yusra at Social Work Meeting

Saturday was the all day Regional Social Workers meeting.  I was delighted to be asked to give a presentation on the PMTCT cascade and the "leaky PMTCT cascade" It was well received even though a great deal of the the time of the meeting involved fees and social workers not paying their membership fees. I was driven home by Agnes daughter Yusra and we had a chance to talk together about her hopes for the future.  She loves Math!!! Can you imagine. I think she has a great future ahead of her!

Finally Sunday and the hash.  Coffee anyone?  It was located on a farm in the upper part of Kibosho and the farm is run by Alexandro and his wife Lorena.  They are both originally from Columbia where coffee is a huge business as well. They have two sons who go to ISM even tough it is a 30 minute drive to town.  But the beauty of the farm and the delicious coffee they grow is worth it.

Levi John and Lorena arguing over end and beginning of hash

The hash had its issues, for though John, Levi and Lorena set it carefully with lots of flour, some children must have been watching and made all sorts of false trails with bits of the carefully laid flour, so everyone got off a bit and some even a bit lost.  It was crazy.  But everyone was back in before dark...altogether good fun.

When they were back, I explored the coffee and the house with my camera.

Alex and Lorena house

Some favorite flowers though I don't know their names

beautiful falling geraniums around the house

coffee beans close

Do you know that as high up as this farm is in Kibosho, it takes 32 days from flower to bean, and then another maybe 2 weeks before red and then just a short time to pick.  Down lower the beans come much quicker.

Flowers and hash flour

landscape with coffee mimosa & Acacia trees and flour for the hash

coffee flowers

coffee flowers up close

Funny black bird fluffing like crazy  S/he had a nice call

And after the hash we drink beer and catch up.  I took pictures of an amused Leonard (who was a hare) and one of the local lawyers who usually walks with me.

Amused Leonard--who is a manager on the farm & was quite amused by all the shenanigans of the group

Handsome Ralph who has a wonderful family home in Uwo & is a lawyer

I miss run/walking with Ralph.  He was a constant buddy.  I hope so much I can do it again

The last of the weekend photos are around our house back in Moshi at our beloved #A-5

Rangoon Creeper and Mangos

Cannot keep that creeper out, but it is sooo wonderful beautiful & smelly!

Week 5 Moshi Blog to November 13th

Original oil painting by Famous Marangu painter 1950's

Let the tears pour down for a little while more.

I believe this has been the hardest week that I have ever spent anywhere.  I am grateful for Moshi, for the friendships that John and I have developed over the years, the expatriates who seem to a person to have been overwhelmed and horrified by this election week, and the vast majority of our Tanzanian friends, and even quite a few just acquaintances and most especially our project and the staff. Many of us have cried together in fear, anguish, and stunned disbelief.  Our senses of justice, freedom, kindness and morality, have been shaken by this election and our sense of loss that a woman who has worked her heart out in service for others should have lost this Presidential election.

Before the election John and I had a lovely dinner with our friends Elizabeth Minde (a lawyer/director of KWIEKO (the women’s legal rights organization in town), and the sister of Mama Mkapa who is the wife of the former Tz. President,  and friends Agnes, Kristen and Erling.  Our dinner was delicious and we all commented about our hopes for the election.

The day in which the results of the election were announced, I had my usual 7am swim session and tried to work hard just to shore up my anxieties. Moshi is 8 hours ahead of the US, and we were not sure what was happening except that it did not look good.  My fellow Saa Mojas (at the hour of 1, =7) also gave false encouragement, “it cannot be true, something will happen”).  But then I met another American friend in the parking lot and we both burst into tears.  And for our own reasons, refugees, poor people, global health, kindness and decency, our children, religious freedom, we wept and wept.  When we got ourselves together, I drove to Machame to see my dear friend Sylvie.

Anyone who has read any blogs of mine have to be familiar with our friends Nic and Sylvie.  They have lived near us in Machame for years, been married since the early 60’s and run the best coffee and sisal farm around until Nationalization.  The coffee is still fantastic-none can come close, though now Nic and Sylvie have to rent their own farm back, and the sisal was destroyed through the government farms.  But, these two friends are perhaps the most resilient I know, and their love and strength supports us continuously.  Sylvie was at our cabin in Boone when the BREXIT vote came in and we cried then, so it seemed fitting that I should be going to see her on the day of our election. 

We did after all have a plan, and that was to visit Machame Secondary School, which was the first job Sylvie garnered after graduation from University in the UK.  She always knew she wanted to return to Africa, and was happy to get this post.  As she relates, her first night alone in her new bungalow at the school was quite scary until she got out her Daily Word and saw that it was the feast of St. Michaels and all angels (Michaelmas) and knew that she would be fine.  And so she was.  Her years at Machame Secondary School were on the whole wonderful, and definitely enhanced by the appearance of young single men who came up to the school to play tennis and take a look at the new crop of young British teachers.  Here is where the romance began between Nic, the dashing young Greek, and Sylvie the beautiful, smart and caring British teacher. 

List of Head Mistresses over the years. 

The famous tennis court is now being converted to a basketball court

Gate on the front of Machame Secondary School

We had quite a walk about the school, being graciously accepted by the Head Mistress who was interested and quite excited to meet a teacher from the 1950’s.  She was eager to hear about the school’s history in those days and noted some corrections in the school’s written documentation through Sylvie’s discussion of the days.  She gave us full permission to walk around and accompanied us to see Sylvie’s old house and her reminiscences of the path to the house, how it looked and some stories of walking up and back from the school.  All the teenaged girls were studying outside because the next day was the beginning of the national exams, and they would be eating and studying for exams outside, as exam day would be spent in the cafeteria. 

Around the school yard

Sylvie's first bungalow, now a bit decrepit & many little buildings around

Words for young teenaged girls to live by

While everything looked quite a bit different to Sylvie, it just was all-fabulous to me and a great distraction for my day.  My respect grew for the work that Sylvie has done over the years, that she and Nic have built a beautiful home and nourished it, and have raised a family who now all have families, and continued to show their kindness and graciousness to an array of people.

With the full moon coming up tomorrow, I have been practicing with my cameras, and wow has this been a learning experience.  I have several pictures to post, but trust me there have been about 30 missed tries.  The most astounding thing to me is that my trusty SLR camera and this particular lens cannot seem to take a good picture.  They look good, but the clarity is very bad even though I have carefully zoomed and taken on tripod and used a two second delay.  But my little Canon Powershot 65x has rescued the day.  I have one picture in which I tried to hand hold the camera.  Fun picture but not really a moon in the making.  But, on the tripod with a manual focus and 2 second delay and nearly full zoom (not quite) I got some really nice photos, and I will post them with joy at the potential of seeing the full moon tomorrow night.  Remember this is the closest full moon to earth that we will have for 70 years. 

I have to call this the moon on drugs Nov. 12th the big spot is the moon

Nice almost full moon Nov.12th

Nov 13th moon 1 day to full

Finally, the name Patricia!  I have 2 close friends in the US who are named Patricia.  My sweet “Patty B”  (Pat Beaver) and my good old Boston friend Patty Shay. But all of a sudden I find that I have two new Patricia friends here.  One Patricia, close to my age is in my Moshi Book club (to which I am privileged to belong and the other in the Saa Moja group.  A young lawyer Patricia (who is a very good swimmer), her friend Sophia who is a businesswoman, and her father Erik, also a lawyer who is learning to swim.  We all are valiant in coming out at 7 to hurl ourselves into cold water and be tormented by our really good swim instructor Sabini.  So 2 Patricia friends on two different continents.  What fun.

Patricia the Old and Patricia the Young

We will hang tight and be strong, and let the lessons of this election stay with us as we continue to strive for the higher ground.  God help us in the meantime!

Jacaranda tree, purple Allium and Travelers Fern keep hope alive

Week Four; A Highly Esteemed Visitor, TAWREF, Another Hash (and another sit it out in a chair with a beer), and new swim suit

Trying to stay warm in the pool New "wet suit"  Not very warm!

This week seemed like it might be boring, especially as my knee is still killing me at every turn.  But, it turned was as usual was filled with interesting things!  John had to go to the US for two days!  So, he had four days on the plane, two days in Boston.  I hope the meeting was worth it.  The hotel greeted him with big "Thank Heavens you are here, because fourteen boxes of packages had arrived for him to bring back for many many people, and they were so glad to be able to empty out their closet.  At least, they were nice about the whole thing.  He was very happy to be home.

Manuela and Anne Nelson

Trish and Anne Nelson

It turns out that while John was away, we had a very esteemed visitor to A-5 and the KCMC/Duke project.  She is one of the most famous HIV and Infectious Diseases Pathologists in the world, and here she was staying with us.  She is also exceptionally nice, interested in everything going on here and very dedicated to the young people who are working with a new research project on autopsy.  It is one of the first projects of its kind in East Africa, and thus will be incredible however it turns out.  We had some fun, too.  We went to Pizza Night at Mukesh's Uptown Grocery which is always fascinating for the unusual people who hang out for a secret beer or whiskey before they go home, children who race up for a treat, and young people mostly who come to buy one cigarette.  It even brought a few drops of rain (not enough to call it a rainstorm, however).  We drove through the beautiful coffee fields to Kilimakyaro (KiChagga for Kilimanjaro).  We had a beer and begged the mountain to come out!  Recalcitrant as usual, we sadly had to have a gin and tonic to more strongly encourage the mountain to come out, and she finally did just as the sunset was through and it was nearly dark.  As usual, it was horrible driving in the dark down KCMC road as it is quite narrow and people walk all over the street.  I challenge anyone who has read this far to try seeing Africans in the street when someone else's bright lights are shining on you.  Fortunately we made it home in one piece, and I think Anne felt that her trip was a success.  She had been a part of four autopsies, figured out some things that need to be done, and will come back to visit not too far in the future.

New TAWREF Building

Mission Vision TAWREF Some Studies

Little TAWREF Store

My preachy part of this blog regards Volunteers and Non-Governmental Organizations and their value, and also their burdens.  A group of Tanzanian women founded an organization entitled KIWAKKUKI in 1990 with the help of a beloved Nurse and Devoted women Juliette Howlett.  Juliette was married to the only Neurologist and the first doctor who actually described AIDS in East Africa for the first time.  I worked with this organization for over five years, doing everything from writing and editing reports, editing grants, teaching English, and generally was the best "girl Friday" I could be.  It was all part of a Twinning NIH grant that paired an NGO that did Home Based Care for AIDS patients with our hospital KCMC.  I was the "twin" for KIWAKKUKI.  I came to love the women who worked there and they are still my best friends in Tanzania.  (Think Dadas).  Many of this group separated from KIWAKKUKI in 2010-2011.  They formed a smaller organization loosely dedicated to research, and the KCMC/Duke Collaborative followed them.

When you visit Moshi and the Kilimanjaro region, you will be impressed with the number of NGO's in Moshitown in particular.  There is practically one on every corner...sometimes more than one.  The problem with them is not their intent, the problem with them is that they often duplicate services that others provide and often die out when the donor runs out of money.

TAWREF/KIWAKKUKI was started by the Tanzanian women, for the Tanzanian people, both those with HIV/AIDS (UKIMWI) and those affected by the disease.  These women will be here until they are dead or retire, they go sometimes with no pay until a grant comes through, but they do the jobs that are greatly needed.  And I have seen them open their own pocketbooks to help out desperately poor people who come in crisis to the office.  TAWREF has a collaboration with the Vine Trust Scotland that involves wards choosing the most impoverished and needy families and putting them on a waiting list to receive a nice small safe house.  The experience is a little like Habitat for Humanity, where both the recipient family and the village will assist the builders with the completion of the house, either with pots and pans, some sugar or tea, anything including labor.  My illustration is just that, some very dedicated new volunteers to our area, could seek out existing NGO's started by Tanzanians, suggest their project to them, and offer to help fund it.  Since the entire region of Kilimanjaro knows TAWREF, here you have a perfect way to reach and meet the people who need to be reached, the best investment of money around.  I can say that I believe this to be true because I have been in Moshi since the end of 2004, and have spent countless hours with these women who started out just trying to find a way to stop so many people from dying of this strange disease (UKIMWI), and wound up helping orphans, widows, doing counseling and testing, doing longitudinal studies on their resilience and growth and develop in orphanages and out, providing cognitive related group counseling and support for families and caregivers in need, providing voluntary home based care services to HIV-infected persons who could not get to health care or needed visits between health care appointments, and doing outreach and HIV-education all over the Kilimanjaro region.  So, if you think you have some money and a project....go to an organization like TAWREF to see they feel it will work, or possibly have them help you and use their influence and name to accomplish huge goals.

Mateé at this weekend's hash

Each two weeks Sunday would be incomplete without a hash. (run or walk through the beautiful countryside that is Kilimanjaro).  This Sunday's was at a place that John and I had set two hashes in the past.  Kigomboni Guest House.  Sadly, I couldn't hike up to the fabulous vistas because of my knee but I did have a wonderful time visiting with some creative four year olds who had many things to tell me about fairies and ogres who eat little children at night, as well as their ability to swim with crocodiles who won't eat them because they think that these little girls are toys.

Anna and Mike Mayes farewell

Frequently, there are goodbyes at hashes.  Many people come for two year stretches and then leave.  Anna and Mike and their two adorable children will be leaving in January, and have been not only outstanding members of our project, but have gone down in history for allowing their little girls to experience Moshi mud, climb trees, run barefoot slide into any available pond, fall down (no problem).  I remember one party in which one of the girls said to me, "guess what we got from school!"  I demurred, and she triumphantly said, "Lice in my hair!!!!"  She was quite joyful about it even as her mother looked at me and shook her head, saying..."well it is true, but do you have to shout it out?"   New Zealanders for ever, they took advantage of every single possible thing that they could do with their sometimes reliable car and their camping equipment.  We will really miss them.

 Beautiful yellow flower by the Guest house

Chicken House (nearly nicer than the guest house!)

All kinds of Brush and trees that the runners headed out to see.

Kilimanjaro shining through the trees

So nothing would be complete without the greeter at the house when we returned from the hash.

This bored tabby cat just glanced up at us and let us go on in the house!

PRAYING FOR HILLARY WITH EVERY WAKING BREATH--