Day 215: Mwizi Monkey

"...man's glory and greatness do not consist in his being avid for blood and sharp of claw, in tearing down cities and spreading havoc, in butchering armed forces and civilians. What would mean a bright future for him would be his reputation for justice, his kindness to the entire population whether high or low, his building up countries and cities, villages and districts, his making life easy, peaceful and happy for his fellow beings, his laying down fundamental principles for progress, his raising the standards and increasing the wealth of the entire population."

- `Abdu'l-Baha

This has been an absolutely exhausting weekend! Because of a scheduling difficulty, the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) ended up meeting on the same weekend as the National Teaching Committee (NTC) and then we found out that the National Institute Board (NIB) was also meeting at the same time and the Continental Counsellor had come to meet with the NSA! The Baha'i Centre was really packed full with practically the entire national administration.

Dr. Sabet, the NTC's chairman, was out of town in Ghana. I was expecting him back on Friday evening, but he called to say his flight had been rearranged to early Saturday morning. Then he called to say that his flight from Accra to Nairobi had been overbooked in Sierra Leone, so he had to schedule himself to Dar es Salaam through Johannesburg and he wouldn't be there until the afternoon. Then finally he called to say he was stuck in South Africa because his flight from Accra was late and he missed the connecting flight to Dar. Fortunately everyone else showed up!

We ended up meeting from 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM! That's the longest meeting we've had since I've arrived but we did have a lot to cover. The week before our meeting I really forced myself to work and wrap up the handful of projects that I had pending. So now we have a manual for youth year of service volunteers, a manual on how to conduct the National Baha'i Convention, guidelines for Area Teaching Committees and an in-depth presentation on intensive programmes of growth. I still need to develop a presentation on Baha'i elections and the role of the Local Spiritual Assembly in the Five Year Plan but those were lesser concerns at that point.

Among a myriad of other decisions, it's been formally decided to send me westward to begin capturing the learning that's happening in the clusters on the other side of the country. The clusters there are experiencing explosive growth with the sixth intensive programme of growth launched last week - four of the six are now in the same general area, including two in refugee camps. So I'll be visiting all of these clusters along the way, interviewing their Local Spiritual Assemblies, Area Teaching Committees and institute coordinators to discuss how they've managed to see so much growth. Hopefully we can translate that knowledge into something useful for the rest of the country and even the Baha'i world.

I'll be leaving for the west in November following an October trip to the southern parts of the country to visit another outstanding cluster in Mkululu/Masasi where a homefront pioneer has set the area on fire (figuratively!). While I'm in the northwestern reaches of the country around around Lake Victoria I'm hoping to drop into Rwanda to visit a friend and see some of the things dedicated to the genocide there. One of the members of the Committee started to question why I would want to go there but another interjected to prevent the question, saying simply that it's "an important place for Americans," which I take to mean important to us because of our failure to stop it before it was too late. After Rwanda I plan to go see the Baha'i House of Worship in Kampala and then either cross Lake Victoria by boat to Mwanza and back by bus or loop around the lake to Nairobi and come back via Arusha.

In addition to long hours dedicated to the NTC meeting, I also met with the NSA with Mitra to discuss External Affairs activities. We covered a lot of materials, determined our budget and largely discussed the issue of registering the Faith in Zanzibar, which is turning into a bit of a legal quagmire. While we were meeting the Centre staff brought in the Assembly's lunch and put it on a table. Some time afterwards, an NSA member noticed that one of the monkeys that lives around the Baha'i Centre was trying to reach through the window and steal the Assembly's lunch! Now that's definitely an experience unique to Africa!

We've had the Counsellor and a member of the NSA staying with us this weekend, so it's been a pleasure to have guests at the dinner table. Not a lot of elucidation about the Plan or our work or anything, but we've heard some wonderful stories, including how the NSA member and her family were detained for two days when first arriving in Tanzania about 20 years ago! Apparently they really didn't like foreigners too much back then.

This coming weekend, I'll be going to Iringa with Mitra for Ruaha Secondary School's graduation and to conduct external affairs training and give the presentation on intensive programmes of growth to the Area Teaching Committee there. It seems like whenever I travel somewhere I have to try to cram about a hundred different things into a small amount of time! But with the weather warming up, I'm looking forward to getting into the mountains where it's a little cooler, not to mention it will be nice to see the friends there again.

Leia Mais…

Day 212: "Expedited" Mail Service

"This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue -- it affects the survival of human civilization. Put simply, it is wrong to destroy the habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every generation that follows ours."

- Al Gore

My mother sent me a package from the U.S. containing my digital camera among other things. Unfortunately, she sent it to our physical address. The mail service here doesn't deliver like it does in the West. Everyone has a post office box and they send and receive their mail from there. If you send something to a physical address, you may never see it again. Thankfully, she included my mobile number, and Posta (the post office) called me to say it had arrived.

Mitra was kind enough to drive me down there because a week or so ago I hit my toe on a chair pretty hard. Luckily it isn't broken (we don't think) but it hurts enough to keep me from walking a lot. When we arrive, an employee pointed us toward another section of the post office marked "Expedited Mail Service (EMS)." When they told us to go to EMS, I knew we were in trouble because, simply put, nothing here is expedited.

Upon arriving they directed us to the one lady who is authorized to deal with incoming packages. Finding only one person in charge of something that a lot of people use is common, and as you'll see later, they're frequently not around. After producing my passport and answering a string of useless questions, she finally produces a slip of paper.

"You need to see a customs officer so they can check this," she said.

"Okay. Where are they?" I asked.

"They're at lunch," she responded, as if it were obvious. "Come back at 2."

We didn't have time to wait around and come back at 2, so I decided to go the next day. I went with Mitra's assistant, Mei Shirin, and we managed to collect the box from the woman and take it to the customs officers. Luckily they weren't on break, gone to lunch or just plain not there. After digging through the box, taking everything out and making a neat little list of what customs she planned to charge me, the woman proceeded to forcefully jam everything back into the box. She handed me a slip of paper and pointed to the other side of the room, telling me to go pay the cashier and then go back to the first woman.

When we got to the cashier's spot, no one was there. Naturally. And of course there's only one person authorized to act as the cashier.

"She's gone to the bank. Come back at 2," the customs officer said when we went back to ask her where the cashier was. Now why she didn't tell us that before sending us over there is beyond me. On top of that, it seems that everyone will be back at 2, so maybe I should just start going to places at 2.

On day three of trying to receive just one package, we finally managed to pay the cashier and then go back to the first lady. She also charged me money, which was written in the "other fees" section. I think that translates to "someone's pocket." At any rate, I finally got my box after three days of dealing with the Expedited Mail Service. And if that's expedited, I don't even want to know what the regular mail service is like.

Today is the International Day of Peace and the Office of External Affairs was involved in organizing the event with the United Nations. It was centered on children, so a bunch of primary and secondary schools were invited by partner organizers. Each school gave a presentation about peace, which included some Baha'i children. They went through the area with some banners I made that said: "We are the children of one planet. We are the children of one God. We want peace! Guess what we need from you? Be a peacemaker! Be a peaceworker!"

Originally we were supposed to assist one of the interfaith groups here (headed by a Baha'i) organize prayers at the beginning of the program, but on Tuesday we found out that he completely let us down. So on Wednesday, Mitra was scrambling to use all of her contacts to find religious leaders willing to come say a prayer. Through sheer tenacity and will she ended up with a Baha'i, Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim. None of the Christians were willing to come! They were running us around in circles with the need for letters and authorization from the diocese and all kinds of nonsense. I mean, come on. What does it take to come and say a prayer for peace? At any rate, we managed to find one on the spot at the event.

In addition to the banners, we made a display about the Baha'i contribution to peace-related activities in Tanzania (the core activities), and I attended the planning meetings. If anything else it was a good opportunity to network with some of the NGOs in the city and let the U.N. offices know we're here and willing to help them when we can. Our ability to put together the prayers on such short notice certainly gave us a boost with the organizing U.N. agency, although all the credit for that goes to Mitra. All in all it was a successful event for the office.

Our next big task is United Nations Day. We're planning a panel discussion on "The Role of the Family in Building a Brighter Community" at the University of Dar es Salaam. There will be panelists from the U.N., the government, civil society, the university and the Faith (representing Faith-based organizations). We're working with the student association on campus to get the event accomplished and get the word out to the students and the faculty. I can see already that it's going to be stressful, especially since I'll be out of town for most of October, but God willing it'll come together. "Somehow," as they say here.

Leia Mais…

Day 208: Lights Out

"They beheld with impotent fury the disruption of their authority and the collapse of their institutions."

- The Dawn Breakers

The power situation here only seems to be getting worse. TANESCO (the state monopoly on power generation) announced a new rationing schedule: no power for residential areas from 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM every day of the week, no power to industries from 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM three days a week, and the rationing schedule now includes Unguja (Zanzibar) and Pemba. Before, industries were unaffected and residential areas were without power only during the week, not the weekend.

Unfortunately, a turbine just broke at the main natural gas plant here in Dar es Salaam, which seems to be the reason for the new rationing schedule. Also, the two major dams generating electricity for the country are only centimeters away from being depleted to the point that power generation has to stop. And if the dams go down, we just won't have power at all.

We're lucky enough to have a generator here at the house and at the Baha'i Centre, but generators aren't a sustainable solution. Now that the cuts have been extended to industry, Tanzania is more than likely going to lose the economic gains it's made in the past decade, if not more than that. Not everyone can afford a generator and the fuel to operate it, especially not the small businesses that encourage the rise of a critical middle-class. With the middle-class wiped out it'll be back to business as usual for Africa: masses of poor and a fistful of elite.

A group of businessmen in Arusha asked the government to declare a state of emergency "before it's too late," but I think it's probably already too late. Mitra is saying that in two years they may leave because things "are going to get bad." That sounds pretty ominous in a country where people don't like to fight, but no electricity, no food, no water (there are already water shortages in Dar es Salaam with more on the way) and a rapidly declining economy can lead people to anything.

And yet, I saw hope in one of the young people in a study circle I'm tutoring. In a country where no one criticizes the government and everyone has a picture of the president in their home and business, she boldly proclaimed, "Why should I keep a picture of the presidents in my house? They don't care about us. We have no power, we have no food, we have no water, we have no economy. Why idolize someone that leaves your country poor and helpless while they're getting rich?"

Why, indeed.

Leia Mais…

Day 195: The Journey Home

"He, verily, shall increase the reward of them that endure with patience."

- Baha'u'llah

My trip back to Africa seemed to be going fine until I got to Chicago. As those of you from Little Rock know, it takes an act of Congress to get anywhere other than Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas from Little Rock "National" Airport. Since I was on my way to New York, I had a stop over at Midway in Chicago. If you haven't been to Midway lately, they've really improved it. It's almost as nice as O'Hare and not nearly so crowded.

Anyway, I was taking a Southwest Airlines partner from Chicago to New York - ATA Airlines - so I had to go to the counter at the gate to get my boarding pass. When the man asked if he could help me, I shoved the piece of paper across the desk and grumbled, "Boarding pass." Bear in mind I'd been up since 4:00 AM, and I'd only gotten about three hours of sleep. I know Southwest people are humorous and good natured, but it seems the employees of their partner companies are, too. "Boarding pass? What do you mean 'boarding pass'? What kind of way is that to come up to me and start asking for something?" the man asked, clearly joking. "This ain't New York. Now let's try again."

I guess I had been a little rude, so I asked for it again in a little more polite tone. I stayed and talked to him for a bit once he found out where I was going and where I was from. Apparently three employees of ATA at Midway are from Arkadelphia, which is just weird. When you meet people from Arkansas outside of Arkansas you expect them to be from Little Rock or Fayetteville, not three people in the same place from the same place with a population of no more than 10,000.

After a bit of a wait, they announce that they want us to "hurry up" and get on the plane. So we all come rushing to the gate and, surprisingly, orderly board the plane. You'd never see that kind of thing in Africa. If they told us to hurry up and get on a plane here, everyone would bum rush the gate and probably one person would be trampled to death in the stampede. Lining up doesn't exist here. At any rate, when we were all on the plane they praised us for being so quick, but then told us we had to please get back off and sit in the gate area. No one seemed to believe the man at first because we weren't moving, but then he broke down into plain English: "Seriously, ya'll gotta get off this plane."

Back at the gate, they told us that La Guardia had shut down because of bad weather. They were trying to rush us on to the plane so we could take off before they closed, but we didn't make it in time. An hour and a half later, we were back on the plane and in the air. At La Guardia, I managed to finally collect my baggage at 5:00 PM. My flight left from JFK at 6:10. La Guardia was a madhouse. With the airport closing, it had thrown everything off. I've never seen so many people in an airport pushing and shoving and yelling. The line for taxis was ridiculous and all of the shuttle buses were running late because of traffic. Add to this that La Guardia is one of the most suffocatingly nasty and pathetic airports I've ever been in (and I have been to the Flint, Michigan airport).

Even if everything had fallen perfectly into place for me, it was doubtful that I would make it across Long Island from one airport to another, check-in, go through security and make it to my gate for an international flight in an hour and ten minutes. In fact, my entire booking depended on everything running smoothly - I had just enough time to get from La Guardia to JFK, grab a bite to eat, and get on the plane - so that was clearly my fault. In the words of the shuttle bus coordinator, "Ain't no way you makin' a 6:10 at JFK." He advised me to try to call the airline and rebook before the flight left and mayve after explaining the situation they wouldn't charge me a fee. After some wrangling with my mother and the Internet to get the number, my cell phone was near death. I knew I didn't have enough battery to last through the obligatory holding period of half an hour, so I decided to save it instead of waste it.

Finally at JFK, my arms were about to fall off. It turns out lugging around two 50 lbs. bags, a backpack and a laptop bag is not an ideal way to travel. Go figure. At the KLM ticket counter, I ran into what you might call a stereotypical New Yorker. I told him I'd missed my flight, to which he replied, "And...?" He finally rebooked my flights for the next day, charged me $200 for it and then sent me on my way. All without a smile. The art of friendly customer service seems to have been outsourced to India.

I stayed the night in a nice hotel near the airport (surprisingly quiet) and then came to the airport at 12:00 Noon, which is admittedly six hours before my flight, but still. There was no one at the ticket counter. It's the middle of the day and the place is completely deserted. I know a lot of international flights depart in the evening, but come on! What kind of ship is KLM running? What hours do their employees actually work? Around 2:30 PM some people finally shuffled in and started helping. After an eternity dealing with a person equally as friendly as the one the day before, I was told to wait in a line to pay my fee. It was taking so long to process the Europeans in front of me (they were being difficult) that they were finally kind enough to pull me aside and allow me to pay someone else. While standing in line, I saw no less than three different sets of people get infuriated by the ticket agent. In other words, KLM's New York-based agents are terrible.

In Amsterdam, I noticed the difference between American and Dutch security. In Amsterdam's Schipol airport, this is one of the security warnings: "For security purposes, please keep a close watch on your belongings." In Chicago's Midway airport, this is one of the security warnings: "DO NOT leave your baggage unattended. Please report unattended baggage. All unattended baggage will be seized and destroyed by the Chicago Police Department."

On the plane from Amsterdam to Dar es Salaam, I sat next to a judge on the High Court of Tanzania. It was nice to meet a prominent person for my External Affairs work. He was returning from some victimology conference in Florida, indicated by his gigantic bright pink hat with "FLORIDA" plastered across the front of it. He proved to be good company, and offered lunch the next time I'm in Dodoma.

At the airport, I was able to expedite myself through the "East African Residents" line at immigration, which was nice. I collected my luggage, which was all waiting for me, and headed to customs. "Anything to declare?" the man asked cheerfully. "Nope," I said, and off I went. Talk about thorough! Mitra and Hossein were waiting to pick me up. They both seemed happy to see me and at that point I was happy to be back. Back at the house I said hello to our new house guest and a sick May Saba, then collapsed in bed...but not before erecting the mosquito net, a necessity once again.

In closing, a word to the wise: please don't leave your baggage unattended in Chicago.

Leia Mais…