Goodbye Tanzania

This is the last time I will write "Tales from Tanzania". We have now officially left the country we called home for the last 4 years. 

Tanzania will always hold a special place in my heart. 

It is the country where my children have grown from babyhood to childhood; where they have celebrated most of their birthdays.

For Joel and Ben, it is the only home they remember and for Esther, it is the home where she has lived the longest period of time and been the most settled. 

Joel took his first steps on Tanzanian ground and learnt to talk here (even a little bit of Swahili to add to his English!). 

It is in Tanzania where Andrew has completed and enjoyed his first assignment as a MAF pilot.  

It is the country where I have learnt a new language, learnt a new culture and made some deep and wonderful friendships. 

It is a place where we have been privileged to meet incredible people, see incredible scenery- and also survive brief encounters with some rather frightening wildlife!

Tanzania is a land where we have had to step out of our comfort zone into unfamiliar challenges and sometimes intimidating situations- but we have experienced the amazing help of God through all of them and we have learnt from them. 

It has been the place where we, as a family, have made some amazing memories. We will always be so thankful for our time in Tanzania!

It was with heavy hearts that we left Dodoma last Monday morning, on a MAF flight bound for Nairobi. I think the only Parker who didn't cry last Monday was Joel- he was too confused about what was going on with all the upheaval and activity!

The Dodoma international MAF staff came to wave us off at Dodoma's tiny airport. Our Swiss friend and Andrew's MAF colleague was the pilot in the caravan plane, which taxied slowly up the runway to the place where we were all waiting. On seeing the plane, my mouth went dry and my adrenaline level was at an all-time high, as its arrival marked the final task- that horrible flatness of having to say our last goodbyes, mixed with the anxiety of all that lies ahead and the organisational pressure of making sure we had all our bags, all our passports and, of course, all 3 of our children!!

Thankfully, Ben was on good form to lighten the mood as the plane came to a stand-still!

 
Another passenger, unrelated to MAF, kindly offered to take a group photo of us all. It was a surprisingly civilised photo, as those final moments felt completely confusing for me! We all managed to untangle
 from the chaos of hugs and recover from tripping over bags with blurred vision from teary eyes, admidst all the shouting of final promises to email and Skpye! It's lovely to have this photo of us all at the airport and nice of the unknown American girl to be so thoughtful.

Our friends then gathered around us to send us on our way with prayers for safe travels and for our future paths, wherever they may take us. Then it was time to look resolutely ahead- to walk to the plane and to climb aboard, Esther and Ben holding tightly to their teddies, who have been a strong source of comfort for them in this transition (and thankfully get to travel free on MAF planes!). We managed a few waves out of the plane window before the aeroplane engines kicked into action:

The plane lifted off the tarmac just at the point where the MAF hangar stands. A fresh barrage of tears was unavoidable as we saw the hangar staff all gathered at the open hangar door, waving up to us as the plane ascended...and began to soar...

We snatched a final peek at our old home, behind the large white hangar building on the left of the runway:

We had our last view of Lion Rock and the area around MAF, looking unusually green in this rainy season.
Goodbye, Dodoma! Goodbye Tanzania- we will always be grateful for the privilege of 4 years spent in this peaceful African country!

...2 hours later, we landed and disembarked at Nairobi's aiport:

Hello, Nairobi. Hello, Kenya. But that is a whole other blog.

Going, Going...

Going, going... and almost gone.
Our final few days were a blur of goodbyes and making the most of time with our friends in Dodoma, alongside packing up the house to leave it empty for the new MAF pilot family from Finland and trying to sell the final goods that we could not take to Nairobi. It was a busy, busy time.

In the last few days, there was one lesson that I tried to learn- but failed miserably. It was the task of How to Smile for the camera when the lump in my throat was hurting so much that I couldn't speak and the tears in my eyes threatened to spill over at every moment. Leaving our friends in Dodoma was so hard. There were many occasions when we were trying to get a last photo with friends and the person behind the camera yelled, "Smile!" When part of your heart is breaking inside, it is very hard to contort your face into a smile. A grimace was sometimes the best I could manage- so this is my disclaimer for some of the strange expressions in the following pictures!

There was the official MAF farewell in the hangar, with all the Dodoma staff present:

Some of the hangar staff:

Look at the beautiful "Goodbye Parkers" cake:

There was the farewell to our wider circle of Dodoma friends, both MAFers and non-MAF, on the Friday evening in our garden:

  

There was a very tearful goodbye in our empty home on Saturday, with my lovely language helper, Mama Kambenga. She wrapped us in a kanga and prayed blessings over Andrew and I before we parted ways. The emptiness of our room reflected the empty feeling in my heart. With moving to a new country, it was painful to say goodbye to this very special friend who has had such a positive impact on my life. The new tears came and hurt my already swollen eyes, but it was impossible to keep the tears at bay, on both sides. We have no idea if we will ever meet again.

On Sunday, the goodbyes multiplied at our final visit to church at Dodoma cathedral. We had a final family shot (with Esther and Ben's very special friend joining us too, which seems most appropriate as some friends here have become as close as extended family):

I struggled over the weekend with saying goodbye to Jane and to Pendo. They came to clean up for us one last time, then helped to clear out our home, as they took the final items that we had given or sold to them including our bed, curtains, cupboards that we had brought in our container from England 4 years ago.Here are all the remaining household items- Going...

 ...going...

 ... gone! And then Jane and Pendo were gone too-  another tearful farewell after a final hug with Joel!

Over the weekend, we finished packing the suitcases ( all 17 of them!!) to take to Nairobi with us, where we will be based for at least the next 3 months, a temporary home while we wait to see how the situation in South Sudan works out. The rest of our household goods which we packed in November and December will remain in storage in Dodoma until we know where they should be sent; until we know where our next home will be!

Finally, all our stuff was gone- and so were the Parker family. The MAF home and MAF furniture are all that remain. Moshi took the opportunity to have a good look around the house before I closed the front door for the last time:

 She then followed me out onto the patio for my final photo of the place we have called home since 2009. Moshi knew something strange was happening. Sadly, we have had to leave her behind in Dodoma, since we cannot take a cat to Nairobi and then move her again, maybe, in a few months. It has been especially hard for Esther and Ben to leave their pet behind, even with the new pilot family promising to feed her after we go. Poor Moshi. Another sad goodbye as we prepared for our final flight out of Dodoma last Monday...

Final Kid's Party in Dodoma!

Esther is 8!

She had a fun party on the afternoon of her birthday on Monday.

It was funny organising a party in such an empty house. On the one hand there was lots of space for the children to run around and play games without any fear of anything being broken! On the other hand, an empty room means that noise is accentuated with a louder echo, meaning that the volume of noise made by 10 excited children was higher than usual!

The children all had a great time! Andrew and I had a busy time! Most importantly, Esther had the opportunity to celebrate her special day with her special friends in Dodoma, before we move away from all that is familiar to her and all the friends that our children know best.

I took the easy option for Esther's cake this year. All is packed up in my kitchen and we are using random pieces of kitchen equipment from the MAF Housing cupboard, so making a cake was not realistic. Instead, I asked our friendly Indian shop-keepers in Dodoma town to make the cake for Esther. They made a fabulous cake and I was doubly happy, as it was less work for me :-))

The party was rather focused on girls, so we had a nail-painting session scheduled amongst the games:

After nail painting, games, an art activity and making and eating pizzas, the children settled down to watch "Tangled" on a DVD. That was the favourite part for the adults- time to have a cuppa while the children were engrossed in the story of Rapunzel!! A nice, easy party activity which avoided too much planning during this busy final week! It was great to have the party here in Dodoma and good timing for Esther before she says "goodbye"!

The Final Countdown

With less than 6 days left in our Dodoma home, the farewells and "last times" of doing certain things or seeing particular places are accumulating.

This period of farewells and last-times seems to be a rather long-drawn out process this time around! With the school holidays starting and then Christmas a month before our departure, we had to do some of the goodbyes and final-times earlier on on December. Since then, there has been a steady stream of last-time events.

It is always sad to say good-bye or to leave places. Often, looking ahead to new adventures softens the blow of farewells, but this time around we have not really known exactly where we are going, with the sad state of affairs in South Sudan. The underlying uncertainty of not being sure where we are going next has made the process of finishing in Tanzania more stressful. We have not known what we should be looking forward to or getting excited about to help us let go of people and places here.

We heard last week that we will be based in Nairobi for a minimum of 3 months. After this period, we will re-assess how safe it will be to move to our next assignment with MAF in Juba. In the meantime, we continue to pack up and say our goodbyes, ready to fly from Dodoma on Monday (January 20th) direct to Nairobi.

Now we are trying to do the mental shift of getting ready to live in Kenya longer than we anticipated. However, our household good and boxes will stay in Dodoma until we know when or where we will be based for the longer term. Just our suitcases will come with us next week.

I started packing up our boxes originally (see previous blog post, "Bubble Wrap and Boxes") expecting to see the contents by the end of February, once settled into our Juba home. Now I am having to rethink what we may need for the longer period of 3+ months! I may need to unpack some boxes to take children's toys and books with us in our suitcases next week!

The practicalities of packing up always take more time than anticipiated. Sometimes there are unwelcome hiccoughs along the way which slow things down...like this:
Our kitchen sink was horribly blocked when we arrived here after our New Year trip away. We asked the MAF workmen to come in and take a look, as we could not empty any water down the plug-hole, despite some vigorous plunging! Jeremiah came- he looked- and he flushed out the drain pipe. Unfortunately, no preparation was in put in place for the results. And the results were NASTY!!!

 A pipe-load of stinking gunge and grime came shooting out of the flushed pipe!! "SPLAT!"- the foul-smelling black gunk was plastered all over the kitchen floor, up the walls, splattered across the towel, tea-towels and filled up the wooden cupboard under our kitchen sink.
YUK!
I was rather annoyed. A bucket over the pipe while it was flushed could have prevented such a revolting mess.
The stench was horrid.
The mess was disgusting.
The interrruption to the day's tasks was frustrating.
It took 5 of us, including Jane, Pendo and I, most of their working day to clean up. The nasty smell still lingers in the wood under the sink. What an irritating set-back. However, on the plus side, my sink now flows like a dream, thanks to the flushed pipe!!

Thankfully, such set-backs don't happen very often! The clock is now ticking for the final packing of clothes, bathroom goods, our just-in-case medicines and for cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, fridge and trying to sell the last items like our washing machine and car. Tomorrow, we have our formal MAF farewell at the hangar and on Friday afternoon we have our farewell with our wider community of Dodoma friends. The last in a long line of farewells and lasts!

Mid-December
 I took the children to their last Friday Afternoon Bible Club. We were given a lovely send-off by our friends there, including the tasty cup-cake arrangement they made for us:

Our final Sunday School:

The last time I drove the MAF school bus to pick up the children after school when term ended on December 17th:

Esther, Ben and I all had to say Goodbye to CAMS school, where Esther' and Ben began their school careers:

Our last Christmas event with MAF Tanzania:

 Ian was with us for this event and raised our morale when he won the men's race in the pre-dinner games! His reward was a certificate, gift and a congratulatory hand-shake from all!

And last weekend, Esther and I said "Goodbye" to our good friends Rachel and Melissa, who have featured on this blog when we as a family have flown with Andrew to visit them out in the isolated village where they live and work, where Melissa's husband is a doctor with the organisation AIM. Their family visited Dodoma last weekend and this is the last time we will see them in Dodoma. For this farewell, the ladies did a Girl's Goodbye with a princess theme, which was lots of fun! 

It is still hard to believe that by this time next week, we will have done the final MAF farewells, last trips into Dodoma and last visit to Dodoma's cathedral for the Sunday service! And I will have to write the final blog post for Tales from Tanzania, as we move countries and start to adapt to our temporary home in Nairobi!

Adventurers

The MAF Guest House is a few steps away from our front gate on the MAF compound.
It has been a useful place to have nearby, as our guests have been able to stay there and have their own space whilst still being very close by. It is also a place where many interesting people pass through.

Today, we said goodbye to 4 guests who have inspired us all. They stayed a few nights at the MAF Guest House and we were all intrigued by their adventure.

They are 4 European cyclists who set out in September 2013 from Cairo and are cycling through Africa. They are scheduled to finish in Cape Town in April this year. They are cycling the 12,000 km through 13 countries to raise money for Medicins Sans Frontieres and also Room to Read (a charity to raise funds for the promotion of literacy in developing countries).

It was fascinating to chat with them, to see the packs on their bikes and learn about their vision for their long, long ride! In fact, we had passed them on the road on our long car trip down through Tanzania from Kenya just over a week ago! We had noticed them and commented on the unusual sight of 4 European cyclists zipping along the African roads, wearing professional cycling gear and with bulging paniers. We wondered what their destination and starting point might be, but we didn't imagine that, a few days after we got home to Dodoma, they would ride into the MAF compound looking for a bed to sleep in at our Guest House!

We waved them off this morning and wished them well for their remaining journey down through Africa to Cape Town.

If you are interested in their journey and bicycling progress over the African terrain, you can look at their website: www.rotharafrica.org

After they had left, it was back to the task at hand: Andrew's practical workshop on Vehicle Safety and tyre changing for the ladies of MAF! This mini-training event has been scheduled for a while, but eventually we got it organised- with only 5 days left in Dodoma, it was better late then never! We may not be intrepid cyclists, but we do face some rocky road surfaces out here and it's handy to revise our break-down skills just in case of car emergencies!

Wonderful sights, fabulous views, incredible creatures!

We left our Dodoma home on Boxing Day to travel to Arusha for 2 days. 

We then continued on to Nairobi for the fabulous Brackenhurst New Year Conference for 4 days.

After the conference, we drove back into Nairobi, then the next day back down into Tanzania, with a 2-night detour in Karatu, northern Tanzania.

We finally drove back to Dodoma on the 10th day.

In total, we spent over 36 hours driving between these various destinations in our car, covering over 2,000 kilometres in distance! The children coped remarkably well- it was alot of hours crammed into car seats in a small space! However, there were plenty of stops and rest-days and plenty of wonderful views to see and talk about, which made our final Tanzania-Kenya road-trip more than worthwhile.

Here is a random selection of some of the wonderful sights, fabulous views and incredible creatures which we enjoyed along the way...

 Northern Tanzania: I never knew that Esther had her own shop...???

Heading to the Tanzanian/ Kenyan border and held up momentarily:

Roadside view of marvellous Mount Meru, northern Tanzania:

Another lovely mountain viewed from the car- this time, Mount Hanang on the way from Arusha to Singida:

 
We also passed Kilimanjaro, but the views were hazy and the only visible part appearing out of the fluff of white clouds was the snow-capped summit. No photos were captured that would be worth putting on the blog!

We did a stop en-route to Arusha to see one of the airstrips where Andrew flew into each month over the past 4 years, taking medical teams and evangelists. The Kilimatinde airstrip:

Masai homestead, on the way to Arusha:

Viewpoint at the stunning Lake Manyara, northern Tanzania:

 Lake Manyara:

A picture of a cute little Christmas bug which Esther found...I just had to put this photo in, they are such sweet, fluffy little creatures which only come out in Tanzania around Christmas time! They are like tiny patches of a bright red, moving carpet, with 6 little legs. They must be the cutest insects ever!

A plate of grilled goat which I ate for one of our meals on this trip- mostly delicious, although a little fatty around the edges.I also had to put this photo in- those who know me well will know why...(!!)

We had the amazing privilege of going for a day to the Ngorongoro Crater on our trip back down through Tanzania from Kenya. What an incredible natural wonder- no surprise that it is a World Heritage Site.

 On the drive from the conservation area down into the actual crater, we saw some beautiful views of the traditional Masai homes and also of the Masai at work, tending to their cattle:

Views of the crater from above, before the descent down the rocky paths leading into the bowl of the gorgeously green ngorongoro crater itself:

The Parkers with our safari vehicle for our ride through Ngorongoro- we loved the open roof, it was great fun to view the game with our heads popping out the top of the car, whilst still having the shade of the roof above us on a hot, African day.

 

It was strange to see wild animals like the one below grazing near a herd of cows in a game conservation area! However, our guide told us that the Masai have cattle grazing rights which are fiercely protected in this area. I was surprised that the cows don't all get eaten by the lions, but the guide seemed confident that the red "shuka" worn by the Masai scare off any potential lions with a mind to attack. He explained that the Masai herdsmen have a unique relationship with resident lions, scaring them off successfully and living in a natural harmony side by side. I still felt a little dubious-I'm not sure that I would trust a lion not to attack if it was hungry! However, there are lots of beasts who live in the crater and I guess the lions can therefore have their pick of many tasty morsels- why eat a cow when you can have the larger wilderbeest- or zebra- or perhaps a delicate gazelle for lunch...???

Below are some of our animal photos... (we also saw a lion and a rhino, but too far from the roadside to warrant a decent photo!).

Note the litter of jackal pups on the right-hand side:

 
Soon it was time to join the many other safari vehicles and head on out of the beautiful crater and back to the outside world...

Visiting the crater was one of the highlights for me of our time in Tanzania. It was simply stunning. My photos really do it no justice at all! I'm so glad that we were able to visit Ngorongoro before we leave Tanzania in less than 2 weeks.

The next day, we were back on the road for our 9 hour drive back to Dodoma and back to reality! We arrived to find our empty house:

Our comfy sofas have been sold and have gone and most of the packing up is completed. Simply opening the door provided a stark reminder of our upcoming move out of this country where we have been privileged enough, over our 4 years here, to enjoy and experience some wonderful sights, fabulous views, incredible creatures!