Tanzania vacation part 1

Ok, now for some pictures:

Our first week was spent on the island of Zanzibar, in the Indian Ocean off of Tanzania's coast

The view from our room, first night

Beach-front rooms, Zanzibar

We did a "spice tour", Zanzibar has been supplying spices for centuries

Zanzibar wildlife

On a tour of rainforest

More Zanzibar wildlife

Boardwalk through mangrove swamps

Mangroves up close

Tim and Chris watching the moon rise

Shopping, Stone Town, Zanzibar

Chests for sale, Stone Town
(Maybe you have seen one like these in our house?)

View from the roof-top restaurant at our hotel in Stone Town, Zanzibar

We spent our last day on the beautiful beach at the north end of Zanzibar

Keep watching for the next post, the 2nd week, spent on the mainland going on safari!

Hospitality African style

In every story, there are stories hidden within the story.  These hidden stories are the pieces that make up the whole story, but they don't always stay hidden.  Isn't that the reason for things like "blogs", to uncover all those hidden stories?  Sometimes, they should have remained hidden, being of very little interest to anyone!  Hopefully you won't feel that way about this story.....

It begins with a family vacation, 2 parents, a daughter and her husband.  This family took an amazing vacation to East Africa, visiting world renowned sites in Tanzania, as well as a brief visit to Ethiopia.  Later on, we will tell the story of the whole vacation.  But, for now, there is a story of hospitality.  We could call it African Hospitality, but it's actually much more than that.  It should be called Christian Hospitality, because it's something rarely experienced outside of Jehovah’s organization.

So the scene is set, our family is visiting the English congregation in Arusha, TZ.  After the meeting is finished, we hope to join the group in field service.  As it turns out, only the WT conductor and another brother are going out, and the WT conductor (a local brother) insists that we all join him at his home to eat a small lunch, "whatever he can find" as he says.  So, of course, we Americans imagine sandwiches, something simple.  We are very happy to accept and hop in his van to go to his home.  On arrival, he puts all the brothers to work helping him heat water for coffee and tea, as well as heating food.  Once it's all on the table, we find that it's not something simple.... It's a traditional meal, which his wife had prepared for the family before going out of town.  Rather than conserving this food for himself and his son, as intended, our brother lovingly heated it all up to feed 8 people.  Was it offered grudgingly or with hesitation? Not at all, it was his idea and at his insistence!  We couldn't help but think of Lydia in Acts 16:15, who just made them come.  And of course, our brother didn't stop there, but insisted on dropping us off to meet some friends.  To him, allowing us to take public transport or a taxi was unthinkable!

The story may seem to be finished, but it's really just beginning.  Let's change the scene to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Our family had been planning to spend 36 hours in the city between flights, but has nothing confirmed due to airline changes.  Do we know anyone in the city?  Just 2 people, who Alisa knew 7 years before, but hasn't seen since then.  She was able to finally get in touch with them, just the day before we arrive in Ethiopia.  They said that they would see about arranging a tour guide/driver for us, what a relief!  Our plan is to meet them at some point during our short stay, and maybe have a meal together.  Well, to our surprise, they were waiting for us at the airport!  It's incredible to see friendly faces waiting at an airport halfway around the world, where we don't expect to know a single person!  What is more, they came to our hotel, made sure we were settled in, had dinner with us that night, and even insisted on paying for it!  At this moment, we started to get an idea of "Ethiopian hospitality"....  That idea was confirmed th next day.  The arrangements for a driver included a personal chauffeur, who happens to be a pioneer and commuter Bethelite, a tour of the branch, and lunch at the branch!  If you have ever visited a branch, for example in New York, you go with the expectation that you will be encouraged, right?  Of course, that's what we thought, but by the time lunch was over, we felt like all 85-90 Bethelites had been encouraged by our visit.  It seemed like they all came over to meet us, and were so happy to have random visitors from another country.  We felt like traveling overseers or some kind of celebrities!  But the hospitality didn't stop at Bethel.  Our driver not only showed us around town, but helped us find a place to stay for the night, after our arrangements fell through.  Then, he and his wife took us to dinner, along with the couple who had met us at the airport.  And, what a dinner!  Authentic Ethiopian food, along with a traditional music and dance show on stage.  Finally, our driver took us back home, and even picked us up at 6:30 am to go to the airport!  Far, far beyond what he was hired for, or even just common courtesy!

Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed the trip and all the hospitality, and will have fond memories from it for years.  But, it really made us think as well.... How hospitable are we?  Would we have expended ourselves and inconvenienced ourselves like our brothers and sisters did?  Hopefully, the answer is yes.  However, we can't help but acknowledge that our western idea of hospitality is often much more self-sparing than that.  Sure gives us something to work on!

As a footnote, if you are thinking "what about some pictures?", those will be coming soon in a separate post.  We thought it would be more interesting to break up the story, rather than deluge you with a novel!

Memorial 2014

Ok, I realize that a month between posts is a little excessive!  I know one or two of you reading this manage to post something on your blog once or twice a week... I'm not sure how you do it!

But, something that I couldn't miss posting, our Memorial and a little bit leading up to it.

First, the statistics:

Our congregation hosted a Memorial in a village about 30 miles south, Toussiana, attendance 56

Memorial at our own Kingdom Hall, attendance 114 (includes 40 with ASL)

The Jula congregation who shares our hall, attendance 175

So, in total, we had 170 in 2 separate locations, for a congregation of 39 publishers.  The interesting thing to add to that is how the dynamic works with Jula.  We heard several publishers say that they had invitees attend Jula rather than French, since it was first.  In fact, a little girl that we invited went early and attended Jula, as well as most of French.  This isn't really surprising, as both congregations cover the same territory, and 90+% of the population speak both languages, at least somewhat.  For the invitation work, the 2 congregations tried to focus on separate areas and not work the same territory (which worked most of the time), but we would tell anyone who struggled with French that there was also going to be the same event in Jula.  So, they really had their choice.

Anyways, that whole dynamic is slightly bizarre to us, coming from the American background of foreign language where you stick to your language group and don't preach very much to those in other languages.  But, it is different here.  Jula isn't a foreign language, it's been here for 1000 years.  Almost the whole population of Cote D'Ivoire, half the population of Burkina Faso, and half the population of Mali speak Jula (or a form of it) as a first or second language.  French is much more recent, but it's not really a foreign language either.  It seems safe to say that there is no one in West Africa who doesn't at least know a greeting and some basic words in French.  Mostly, the language is different based solely on the education a person receives.  While that has mostly meant that learning to speak, read, and write French meant you were educated, there is a shift the other direction now.  Some schools are teaching kids to read and write Jula as well, which can be seen by how we are receiving publications in Jula for our ministry.  While we haven't been here long enough yet to see how the growth is in the Jula congregations, it's very obvious that things are not nearly as clear-cut as we are used to!

Ok, enough school-book stuff.  Now, what actually happened???  Well, let's start the day before the Memorial.  There was a service meeting in the village of Toussiana, which we supported.  We had passed through this village before (see the previous blog post), but this time we did more than just stop and get gas and a Coke.  First, we head out from home just after 8 am, thinking that would be plenty of time to get there by 9.... Wrong!  Fortunately, this is Africa, and being 30 minutes late is rarely enough to cause a big problem!  We pulled up just before the group set out, so no problem.  I got to work with our service group overseer, Aaron, who said that most of the area we were working had already been covered so we were just reminding people about the Memorial.  As it turns out, it wasn't until our last door that we actually found someone who had already received an invitation.  Now, remember, when I say "village", I really mean a town of a few thousand people.  We were able to cover just one small corner of the town with the invitations.  Realistically, several hundred were distributed.  The day we were there, I was able to place 15.  It is all walking territory, but the houses are very spread out, so we would walk for 2-5 minutes, talk to someone, then walk for a few more minutes.  Aside from the joyful work we were doing, I must say the surroundings were very beautiful!  It's getting near to the rainy season, and the plants seemed to know it.  Everywhere we walked, green sprouts were popping up beside the road.  And, compared to the constant bustle and noise here in Bobo, it was so peaceful.  Between houses, the only noises to be heard were the birds and insects.  It was very tempting to find a chair under a mango tree and just sit and relax for a while!

But, speaking of nature, specifically insects: be grateful if your Kingdom Hall has glass windows and a ventilation system!!!  It just happened that there was a hatch of flying ants on Monday in Bobo... and our KH doesn't have glass or screens in the windows, just shutters.  Of course, the shutters have to be opened during meetings to allow airflow... which allowed the flying ants in!  They weren't just allowed in, they were attracted to the lights, especially at the stage.  The poor brother giving the talk had the worst of it.  They were constantly landing on him, crawling on his head and neck, even getting in his mouth once!  His concentration during all of this was quite amazing, and I'm proud to say that he maintained stellar audience contact despite the flying distractions all around him.  Oh, and have I mentioned the emblems?  Despite the brothers' best efforts, many a flying ant went for a swim in a good Bordeaux.  Without a doubt, I can say that my first Memorial in Africa was not one I will soon forget!

Hopefully, wherever you are at, you enjoyed celebrating the memorial in an equally memorable (maybe without bugs!) way.  The one thing that I came away with this year is how much more work there is to do!  Seeing how the best efforts of our congregation to cover just a small portion of our territory resulted in about 130 people joining us for Memorial shows how much potential there still is.  And we only distributed about 6000 invitations... In a territory of 90,000-100,000 people!  What would the response be if we could actually reach all the people in our territory???  It's such a good thing that Jehovah has patiently allowed time for us to try to find out!

Every kid's dream....

"Paris to Dakar".... Those words conjure up images of motorcycles speeding across sandy plains, dodging exotic shrubs, and bringing excitement to remote villages in West Africa.  Along with stirring the imagination of adults all over, those 3 words have also created a dream for many little kids.... that of riding a motorcycle across Africa!  Ok, so the title might be a slight exaggeration, maybe not every kid has dreamed of riding across Africa.  But they should have!!!

A very scenic detour around road construction near Sindou

So, that's exactly what we did during the last 3 days.  We didn't cover quite as much ground as the famous rally does... but it was enough to see some amazing sights!  Hopefully you enjoy seeing them as much as we did.
Around mid-day on Sunday, we set out from Bobo, heading south on a road which we had never before traveled.  Some had said it was not a suitable road for bikes, that the buses would run us over, that there are too many holes, all kinds of dangers!  Others said it was completely fine for bikes, not to worry at all.  After much debate during the previous weeks, we had concluded that the negative opinions came from ones who had never ridden this particular stretch of road, and the positive opinions came from those who had actual experience to base their thoughts on.  So, ride we did!  And, we are happy to say, the positive opinions were right!
The ride down was pleasant, however it was too hazy to get a view of any scenery in the distance.  Every so often, we could just make out the shadow of a hill in the distance to our right or left, just enough to make us wish it were clearer.  However, to give an idea of the countryside, I can say its mostly rolling hills, all covered in forest to some degree.  By that, I mean that it's not like forest in western Oregon or the Sierra foothills!  In places the trees are pretty small (some barely bigger than bushes), and maybe 50 feet apart.  As we traveled south, though, we found that not all trees in Burkina are small!

Can you see the 2 guys riding on the roof of the van?  That's pretty normal, and its not like they slow down because there are passengers on top!

Arriving in Banfora, we came down a grade with cliffs on our right, and could tell something was different than in the last 80 km's.  And, just in case we weren't sure, the sugar cane fields confirmed it!  We weren't in Bobo anymore!  Turns out that Banfora is quite an agricultural region.  There are miles and miles of sugar cane fields, all irrigated by pivots and hand lines, just like crops in Idaho are! 

After a few hours spent exploring the town of Banfora, we finally met up with our friends who knew the way to our destination: Lake Tengrela.  Following them took us down one of the dustiest roads we have ever seen, followed by one of the best roads we have seen in Burkina.  Of course, as logic would dictate, the dusty part is right in town where it can affect the most people, and the really nice completed section is just outside of town where there aren't any neighbors to be bothered by dust...  But, soon enough we turned off of the main road onto a trail leading through a village.  A sign at the turn promised that we were headed towards a camp with a restaurant and cold drinks.  Promises like that are a little hard to trust in Africa....  If nothing else, at least the ride was interesting!

Baobab tree

These goats were literally climbing all over an old mosque.  When we stopped to take pictures a villager told us that we needed to pay because they are the village's animals.  He wasn't very happy with our reasoning that he didn't have the right to ask us for money, since the goats were on the mosque, and he wasn't the imam (pastor)!

Once we got past the village, we did in fact find a sizable lake.  And there was indeed a "camp", and even some tables and chairs, alluding to the idea that we could sit down and eat.  Well, that's when things began to really get interesting.  First, I haven't mentioned the logistics of this trip yet.  In total, 11 people were involved, taking 3 different modes of transport to arrive in Banfora.  The 2 that we met had taken the bus, with their scooter (moto) in the cargo of the bus so they could ride to the camp.  Originally the remaining 7 were all going to be coming together in an SUV.  What we didn't know til we got to the camp was that the SUV had mechanical problems.  So, the only one in the group who owns a car, a German brother, had to drive his Mercedes sedan the whole way.  But, only 5 can fit in that car, so 2 had to take their moto.  Of course, they didn't know any of this until it was almost dark.  So, we are comfortably sitting in camp, as 2 Czech sisters ride their scooter 100 km's in the dark.  They later said that it wasn't too bad, except that oncoming cars don't really have the habit of dimming their lights, so they hit a few potholes due to being blinded by other drivers (not fun on a scooter!)  Anyways, we waited and watched the sun set and the moon rise.  Eventually everyone did arrive safely.  And boy was it a good thing!  The only way we finally got the beers that we had ordered an hour before was through German determination!  What a surprise when the food itself finally arrived too!  We headed to bed soon after dinner, because we had to get up and on a boat by 6 am to see the hippos the next morning.  By bed, I mean a mattress set on a rough frame with sticks holding up the mosquito net.  To be fair, we could have been on a mattress in a hut, but everyone had jumped at the option to sleep outside.  "What fun, it will be great!"  What we all failed to take into account was that being next to a body of water makes for cooler temperatures.  We had just come from 100 degree days and 80+ degree nights.  So, did we bring warm clothes, blankets, anything?  NO!  As it turns out, covers aren't included with the beds... so we all froze!!  5:30 am couldn't hardly come soon enough!  Finally, we were on the water, crossing the lake, scanning for hippos.

A fisherman checking his nets

After all the excitement of seeing hippos is over, back to camp for breakfast and then back on the bike.  Next stop, the peaks of Sindou, 50 km's away.  These are in every guide book on Burkina, so we had seen pictures but still weren't really sure what to expect.  Well, we found out as we were riding along and a row of spires a few hundred feet tall slowly came out of the haze directly in front of us.  Turns out that a guide is mandatory, so we followed our guide from the parking lot to a set of stairs, where he explained that this formation actually contained the original village of Sindou clear back as far as the 14th century, when they left southern Mali because of war.  He talked quite a bit about history... personally my interests lean more towards geology... so I'll try not to bore you with too much of either one!  In short, these are sandstone formations that formed at this end of a mountain range that extends for hundreds of miles.  The peaks themselves seem to taper off after a few miles, but they start quite abruptly.

We hope to get back here on a clear day, the view would be amazing if it didn't fade to grey so quickly!

After all the hiking, we were understandably hungry.  Since Banfora was some 55 km's away, it seemed quite reasonable to look for lunch in the town of Sindou.  That is how we came face to face with one of the realities of Burkina.... it's not built for tourists!  Even though the peaks are a "major" attraction, relatively speaking, and are featured in every guide book on Burkina, there is not much else for tourists in town.  The first restaurant we stopped at was out of food (after all, why buy and cook food noone is going to eat?), and we practically toured the whole town before finally finding a restaurant that had 1 item left, rice with peanut sauce.  None of us were willing to forego this place in the hopes of finding anything better, so rice it was!  But, don't despair, once we made it back to Banfora that evening, we had one of the best meals that we have had in Burkina.  It more than made up for the very mediocre rice and sauce.  Also, our hotel in Banfora was quite nice.  Now, don't start imagining a high rise hotel offering suites and mini-bars.... this hotel was actually mock huts surrounding a large courtyard with covered tables in the center.  I say "mock huts" because, while they looked on the outside like the round huts we see in villages all over, inside they looked like true hotel rooms, complete with furnishings and nice bathrooms.  Did I happen to mention, very good water pressure?  That's much more important than you might think, unless you happen to be covered with dust and sweat from a long motorcycle ride in a country not known for it's showers!  After the dust was all washed off, the tables in the courtyard became the scene for us to learn the game of "Cames", a simple, but very competitive team card game. Overall, a very pleasant stay, and somewhere we will be very happy to return to.
Finally, on to Tuesday, the finale of the trip, and the most anticipated destination: the "cascades" (waterfalls).  They are maybe a 30 minute ride from the hotel, passing (you guessed it) sugar cane fields, in addition to palm wine vendors.  In case you have never had the chance to try palm wine, it's a very unique beverage made from some unknown part of the palm (well, unknown to us).  It ferments during the day, being drinkable at 10am, progressing to disturbing and finally undrinkable as the day goes on.  However, that was just a side jaunt of the day, everyone's real focus was on the cascades.

Keenly anticipating the experience of palm wine!

Finally, we arrive and begin the hike to the top.

The view looking down from the top of the big waterfall

When you find this much water in West Africa, what do you do?  Get in it, of course!!!

The small upper falls

To conclude, a few images of riding across Burkina Faso (or at least a small corner of it):

Near Banfora

"Essence" is gas in French, Total is a brand of gas stations here... pretty sure this place isn't affiliated with them in any way!  These little stands are common all over

The road to the cascades

The road to Sindou

So what is life really like here?

So we have been here for 6 weeks, long enough to get some idea what life is really like in Burkina.  I'm sure that you want to learn a little about day to day life here, so I'll try to share what we have learned.

First, it has to be mentioned that Burkina is pretty diverse, so even though it's labeled as one of the poorest countries in the world, that doesn't mean that no one has any money.  But it does mean that we see some pretty crazy extremes.  The thing that strikes me the most is that the rich and the poor are literally next door in most neighborhoods.

This is a huge house being built not far from ours

The other thing that makes a great first impression is the trash... There are virtually no trash cans of any kind in the city.  Virtually everything is sold in little black plastic bags.  So, when you have eaten the veggies you just got in a little black plastic bag, what do you do with it?  Apparently, throw it in the gutter!  It can't be said that trash is literally everywhere, but it sure seems like it sometimes!  And empty lots often become garbage dumps.  What is done to keep these dumps from overflowing?  The garbage gets burned.... You can imagine how that smells!

An example of garbage dump

Now, don't think for a second that all Burkinabé are dirty.  Despite the lack of facilities, most people put a lot of effort into keeping their home clean.  If they have some money, they might have a nice tiled porch, which they wash every morning til it shines.  Most people live in houses that open onto a dirt courtyard, which they sweep every day.  Have you ever seen clean dirt?  We have!  Of course, there's more to it than just sweeping.  Things like laundry are a daily routine, all done by hand.  Then there is cooking, typically done outside over wood or charcoal.  The cooking itself may not take all day, but the women in a household will often spend much of the day sitting together preparing the vegetables.  Basically, the daily necessities take up most of the day for many Burkinabé.

A street view in one of the poorer areas of town.

Of course, like I said, not everyone is poor!  And it can't be said that Burkinabé aren't industrious.  Everywhere we go, there are little shops and businesses of one kind or another.  This can range from a small store selling cell phones, to a wooden shack selling shirts or bags, to women sitting on the side of the road with baskets of vegetables for sale.  Oh, don't forget the ever-present cafe!  They are called  "maquis" and are literally everywhere.  Some are just a guy with a grill selling beef or pork.  Others specialize in coffee or "expresso".... Still not sure what they mean by that!  Normally, the beverage choices are Lipton tea with ginger or lemon, or Nescafé powdered coffee.  Burkinabé love hanging out with their friends at a cafe (well the men do, seems like the women don't get the opportunity as much, due to the work at home).

A cafe in downtown Bobo.

The commercial area downtown, pictures really don't do justice.

Although I could continue all day long, I'll try to limit this post to just a few more details of life in Burkina.  First, you have never seen as many scooters as there are here!  Cars aren't really rare, but practically everyone has a scooter, they call them motos.  Did I happen to mention that no license is required to drive a moto?  Surprisingly, most people stick to the correct side of the road, and in general yield right of way when necessary.  But.... Compared to what we are used to, it's barely controlled chaos!  And into this mix, throw random goats, donkey carts, barely running taxis, trucks ranging from small to really really big, vans overloaded beyond all belief, and even an occasional camel!  Starting to get the picture?  Maybe a few pictures will help

Keep posted for more to come!