Delights 10.6.2008

What delights me here? I enjoy the early morning drumming from nearby schools when I walk Pihla to school. The powerful singing and dancing at churches gives me thrills. I like to watch the magnificient dresses and hairdos African women wear. One of the best things in life is to sit at the campfire in a bush, early in the morning when it is still cold and sun is just rising. To make a fire, sit in quiet, wait for the first cup of coffee.

It is easy to enjoy things like that. Who wouldn’t? Other things, that can eventually become enjoyable, can take more time and adjustment. First, I was not quite sure how to relate to eloquent, expensive, loud, long-lasting, ritualistic celebrations that you attend once a while. I have sometimes criticized the waste of money, the complete lack of keeping any kind of schedule, I have got bored in listening to speeches that never end. Well, this is not the case so much any more. I go there, I will not pay attention to how time passes, I give up the criticism, I just be there. I have noticed how important role rhetorics plays, how even the most modern-looking celebration follows some unwritten rain dance code – I have learnt to attend, to enjoy, to see and hear, and let time flow as it flows.

Frustrations 27.5.2008

It has been far too long time since my last entry in this blog. I have started with some topics, and always rejected them. There is no excuse for that, I admit.

It is winter coming here. Rains that were plenty this year, have stopped. Grass got yellow in few days, as if it knew the year’s job is done, time to rest until new rains wake it up again. Mornings are crispy, evenings cold when winds start blowing at sunset. Day’s sunlight is clear and hot. This is the best season for a campouts. We are planning one weekend soon, can’t wait for that!

Jyri is in Finland at the moment and we others have continued our normal lives here in Iringa. Things are pleasantly busy at work, we have quite a lot of activities at hand but people working for the project are all skilled, reliable, energetic and independent. That is a reason to be grateful about. Thank you everyone involved!

I have had to do some thinking lately. I realise the way I live now in Africa, differs from the past years. I have become less tolerant towards certain issues – I allow myself get angry at times when I come across with certain shameless indifference. I don’t take cultural differences as an excuse any more when I see people deliberately dismiss the work they are supposed to do, for instance. Or what would you say about the fact that I found tens, if not hundreds of parcels at post office store room – parcels that everyone thought had gone missing, parcels that we had been waiting for up to three months, parcels containing long-awaited work-related books, parcels that people were wanting for Christmas, parcels that I made inquiries about everywhere, starting from the sender, up to Dar es Salaam – only to find out that the local post office workers were absolutely ignorant about that fact that what I wanted, had been with them all the time. Craziest thing is that I made a formal inquiry letter, copied it to local post master, who handed it over to one of the workers, who actually contacted Dar es Salaam head post office about my missing parcels– but did not bother to check a store room just behind her own desk.

I have even more examples of that kind, but never mind. The news is, that when I previously swallowed my frustration and anger, and just stretched my patience up to unimaginable lengths, now I just don’t do it. I let people hear what I think of this kind of attitude – and it is not that I snap - I give myself a deliberate permission to react.

What was the result? I am now known by my first name at post office, I am greeted by everyone there, I am asked how things are, how is the work, am I happy - and for sure the parcels are in safe place waiting for me. Let us see how long this goes on.

I am not proud of being so outspoken, it is not reason to boast – in a way I do it for the sake of the progress and development of this country! If I am not happy with a hotel, restaurant or any other service, I give feedback about it – and this is one cause for some discussions between me and Jyri. He thinks it is better just leave it and “never return again”. I think that does not help anyone – least it helps the service provider who probably will never notice that we did not ever return. I believe it is only fair to let the service provider to know hoe s/he is doing. So, it is a favour I am doing here…

Then there are things that I have agreed with – because I know they will never change. They are things that could be annoying at least to some extend if you think it that way, but which I have accepted as truly cultural characteristics. Maybe I have also learnt to like them, not only accept. Maybe, I have found them as source of joy, too? Maybe, they give me something I would not get elsewhere? Maybe, I sometimes miss them?

What am I talking about? I will tell you in my next entry. Which hopefully will appear soon.

Just Another Day 7.2.2008

How does a regular weekday go for us? This I would call a normal Wednesday:

Alarm clock goes on at 6 am – earlier than usually, since Jyri is supposed to get on a safari today. I want to help him with early breakfast and packing the car. We have a cup of coffee, I feel still tired and slowly, Jyri’s mind seems to be on the road already. At 7, other travellers arrive at us and by then also girls are awake, so it’s goodbye to Dad and Pihla manages to produce a couple of tears. Mari and Mikki (yes, he is he) make their usual morning fuss, running and playing all over the place. It is raining, Kaisli wants to walk to school as normally but Pihla prefers a ride. At 8, Atu and George arrive at work, I give some instructions to Atu about today’s work – she is an excellent cook and today she will prepare potatoes with mushroom-onion sauce for lunch as I happened to get some from a friend – doesn’t happen very often. She is also an excellent baker: her latest achievement is sunflower seed-apple-carrot-graham bread which is absolutely fantastic. As Finnish people often are, we too are great fans of good bread. I don´t know how I would manage this household without her.

After breakfast I take Riitta’s car to carage as there is something wrong with the steering. Back to home, collect the laptop and today’s shopping list, then to Tumaini. I quickly make a few emails, write some letters, negotiate over the upcoming Research Methodology training. I also try to develop an idea what I should teach to Kaisli and her classmates on their Religious Education class- I have been invited to give a lesson at International School, maybe I will talk about image of God in religions? Can’t be too theoretical, but the approach should be comparative as the students come from variety of religious backgrounds. I appreciate the invitation and will take the task seriously.

Time is running short, at 11 Lotti and I drive to town to check a house that is for rent. We need to find a house for some new people who will move here later this year. House was supposed to have a great rose garden as the previous tenant was famous for her roses, but to my disappointment, they are redoing the garden and most roses are gone! The house is big but feels like a maze, also the wood panels are too dark and there are 3 layers of bars on the windows! The overall feeling is far too dark – I will not consider this.

After taking Lotti back to university I do some shopping in town but fail to get all I need – then back to home, and after a cup of nice spicy Indian tea I make some phonecalls, arrange something for a visitor from Finland, do emails again, read and comment a project report - normal office work. At 2 pm, I am asked to help to take some IIS school children for Neema Crafts as they are having the community service club there but no transportation. No problem.

After lunch with girls, I see over that they do their homework. Also there is the daily portion of extra Finnish maths and reading. Pihla protests, she is tired – which is true. She works hard for the school and has done some quite amazing progress in reading and timetables. Kaisli prepares her science notes and reads for a word test. I promise to make some waffles with strawberry jam for evening meal. Also we make a plan to make some miniature clay food during the weekend with Pihla.

While girls watch a movie, I steal an hour for my daily workout. That’s the best way to keep myself going – together with a weekly massage at Neema Crafts. Beatrice, the physiotherapist, is definitely the best masseuse I have ever been to. Looking forward to the next appointment – wondering how agonizing it’s going to be this time…

Later in the evening, when I alone am awake, I start preparing a sermon for Iringa International Fellowship service where I occasionally volunteer. Some late emails I leave for tomorrow. It has been a good day, as is my prayer every morning when I am awaken by prayer calls from local mosques.

Updates 31.1.2008

Erne, thanks for making an entry here, and reminding me of the existence of my blog. And, karibu Tanzania!

I have found it rather hard to maintain these pages. Not that there would be nothing to write – far from that – it is just surprisingly hard to write when I can not picture the average reader, or any reader! I have always thought my writing is for myself only, but now it seems that a writing has to have someone to read it so it becomes meaningful. Is that so?

A lot is happening here on the hills of Iringa. Sometime at the end of last year we crashed our car on the road to Ruaha – well, I did that, not “us” as my friend pointed it out. I lost the control of car, hit a tree and rolled on to the right side of the car in between two large rocks. It was a lot of screaming, shattered glass, climbing out of the wrecked vehicle – getting dark, no people, no villages and of course no mobile signal. All ended well though, we were helped by a bicyclist, other bypassers, and some Iringan people driving past. Thank you all of you who stopped there – the Good Samaritans were many. As a matter fact, all bypassers stopped there to help – and unlike I have always been warned, no-one tried to rob us, no-one even wanted any money for their help.

Work is keeping us pleasantly busy and motivated. Jyri is at times traveling for weeks and I have to say I am a bit envious about the new places he has seen so far. It makes me feel my adventures are limited on the route between Ilembula-Makambako-Iringa-Dar es Salaam. However I also know the other side of the coin: days and days behind the steering wheel, at times nearly impassable mud roads, every night in a new guesthouse, sometimes next to a noisy disco, long meetings, heat and tiredness, and eventually when you return home, you return with a stomach bug, malaria or bad flu. It takes a week to recover from such a trip. This is not a complain in any sense, it only tells how the external factors take a heavy toll on what one can do or accomplish here. It has also taught us to take things easier and agree to be more slow and less efficient than you think you should be.

This year is going to be busy and active in my work as well. Probably the busiest year of all those four years this project will take. We will have quite a number of marriage seminars in Southern Diocese area, we soon begin training the voluntary focus group leaders in Makambako, we put remarkably more resources on school counseling programme development and research in general. Also the diaconic activities at Ilembula hospital will increse in terms of home based care and hospital counseling. I will also do some teaching at Tumaini, a bit of gender issues and HIV/AIDS. This is going to be an exciting and eventful year I think.

Kaisli and Pihla are working really hard at school. Pihla is developing her reading, writing and math skills - and all of them both in English and Finnish. Kaisli’s curriculum is also getting quite serious now with more demanding subjects than previously. Pihla is being active in football, community service and dance clubs, Kaisli does community service and horse riding. There is not much free time after school, clubs and homework.

Then we have also faced a terrible tragedy. Our Cookie, the best and most human-like cat in the world, was brutally slaughtered by neighborhood dogs the other weekend we were in Dar es Salaam. It was such a shock, poor Cookie being eaten by a pack of six half-wild dogs! And she was being pregnant, too. Now we have two 5-weeks’ old kittens at home, Mari and Minni (the latter may turn out to be Mikki as we are not sure if she is she or he). They are helping the post-Cookie situation a lot.