Day 103: Work & Waterballoons

"Heed not your weaknesses and frailty; fix your gaze upon the invincible power of the Lord, your God, the Almighty. Has He not, in past days, caused Abraham, in spite of His seeming helplessness, to triumph over the forces of Nimrod? Has He not enabled Moses, whose staff was His only companion, to vanquish Pharaoh and his hosts? Has He not established the ascendancy of Jesus, poor and lowly as He was in the eyes of men, over the combined forces of the Jewish people? Has He not subjected the barbarous and militant tribes of Arabia to the holy and transforming discipline of Muhammad, His Prophet? Arise in His name, put your trust wholly in Him, and be assured of ultimate victory."

- The Bab

On Saturday, we had our first NTC meeting since being reappointed (or appointed, in my case). I was elected the Secretary. First, they tried to just appoint me as Secretary. But the Committee doesn't have the authority to just appoint its officers, even as a so-called "Executive Secretary." They can certainly appoint an "Executive Assistant," but then they would be left without a Secretary, which can't happen. Being the total Baha'i administration nerd that I am, I was sure that it was mentioned somewhere in Lights of Guidance or Baha'i Administration but I couldn't find it, so I was just stubborn about it until they gave in and agreed to elect a Secretary (I later found the reference I was looking for, heh). It was me, of course, but it was the principle of the thing!

After I was elected, I told them I thought the Committee should elect a Recording Secretary because it's difficult for me to carry out my other duties during the meeting while trying to record the minutes, as well. They declined, but I was persistent. Finally, the Chairman told me to make a motion and he'd second it. So I made the motion and when he called for a second then everyone just turned and looked at me. No one said anything!! They wouldn't even second the motion and then turn me down with a vote. So now I find myself doing all the secretarial work and very much missing my Assembly at home who was very accommodating.

I have to admit I was a little miffed about that, but the meeting itself was productive. When we returned home, we were ambushed with water balloons by Mitra and May because it was Hossein's birthday. The fight soon moved inside the house, where we chased each other around throwing balloons and getting water everywhere inside. First he went into the laundry room and locked the door. He changed out of his wet clothes but couldn't find anything of his own, so he burst out in just his underwear and a shirt of Mitra's. Imagine the Chairman of the NTC running around like that! He high-tailed it to the bathroom and locked himself inside, so we were banging on the door for him to let us in. He opened the door and surprised us by throwing a whole bucket of water out at us, then slammed the door again! It went on until we ran out of balloons, so we changed clothes and prepared to go out to dinner. It was really a lot of fun.

On Sunday, we had a cluster meeting. It wasn't really a reflection meeting but just a meeting. The Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly shared his thoughts about intensive programmes of growth, and we covered some cluster statistics before people began to rebel at the length and demanded to be released for lunch. The whole purpose was to do a little preliminary planning for the next cycle, but that went out the window when stomachs started to growl. I learned some interesting things about the way things are coordinated and recorded here. I've kept a record of the questions I have and so I'm in the process of writing to the Tanzanian member of the International Teaching Centre to clarify some things. God willing, I'll get a timely response.

I had a lengthy discussion with Mitra about some of those things, and when we finished she asked me why I was so interested in the details of everything, including who was appointed to what and why they operated in this fashion or that. As is the case with her sometimes, I couldn't tell if it was a compliment or not. She elaborated by saying that most year of service people come through Tanzania with an ambivalent attitude and don't seem to take much of an interest in the community or act like they're a part of the community, but that I seemed to be interested in the details of things. I still couldn't tell if it was a compliment. I did my best to explain that I was supposed to work for the Faith, regardless of where I lived. Of course Little Rock is my "home" community and will always be my home community, but for now I live in Dar es Salaam. It's my community now, so I should work as I would work at home.

As far as the work itself goes, I have a lot to do! On Wednesday the local Media Committee is meeting (which I volunteered to be on, perhaps foolishly) and then on Friday I'm retaking the junior youth animator's course. I felt like I missed a lot during the first time because I wasn't able to make all the meetings, but this time I've blocked out the required amount of time so I should be able to take the whole course. Most of the participants are high school and college aged youth who will be staying at our house until the training is completed, so that should be considerably different from the previous training. I'll reserve my opinion as to whether it's better or not until after it's finished. =P

After the training, I'm finally going to Arusha from June 23-28. I'll be meeting with the cluster coordinating committee and the whole cluster to discuss their progress and plans for the Faith there, and then take a side trip to Mt. Kilimanjaro. Victorina will be coming with me as a fellow NTC member and translator, thank goodness! I'm really looking forward to seeing Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro, as well as meeting the friends of Arusha who have been anticipating my arrival for something like a month now. I think they might be a little disappointed when they find out that I won't be coming to conduct study circles, but I know my schedule doesn't allow that sort of commitment anymore.

I get one day of rest after I return to Dar before I have to pick up a youth year of service from the airport and accompany him to Iringa on June 30. I conduct training for External Affairs there on July 1-2 and on one of those evenings I'm supposed to give a presentation to the community on the persecution of the Baha'is of Iran. I come home that Monday and do nothing on Tuesday because it's the Fourth of July. The Sabets are leaving on holiday at the end of this month, so I won't have anyone to really celebrate it with. Hopefully one of the American Baha'i families will invite me to do something, assuming they actually celebrate it themselves!

On July 8 I'm supposed to meet with the NSA for NTC and External Affairs and then I have a bit of free time before heading to Tabora from July 13-17. It takes some work to get to Tabora because you first have to take a bus from Dar to Dodoma and then catch the train from Dodoma. I'm guessing because Dodoma is the "capital," they decided it would be a good idea to move all the passenger trains there from Dar. I'm not sure who "they" are but I'm guessing they don't take the train from Dar. And then when I return, we've decided to have our next NTC meeting in Morogoro on July 22-23. After that meeting I may continue on to Ifakara to visit some of the home front pioneers stationed there. I'm not 100% sure where Ifakara is, except it's on the other side of the Rufiji River, but I hear the drive is very nice and it's a beautiful place.

So needless to say things will be busy for June and July! At least I'll get to do a bit more traveling and see some of the friends I met during the National Convention and the National Institutional Conference. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get to Kampala to see the House of Worship, but I'm hoping I can go in August before it starts getting hot again.