April Showers and a High School Musical

Curtain Call for High School Musical

It looks like there is just time fo another short month round up for April. These infrequent updates are not entirely a lack of enthusiasm, but some months have less going on than others. We did very little travel for work, in fact, April is the month we get all of our end-of-year reports, so it is actually extremely busy in the office, mainly spending many hours at the computer reviewing reports, signing new project agreements for the coming year, adjusting budgets, issuing new salary memos, doing grant disbursements. I think the most time-consuming aspect of work are the annual performance evaluations. Rebecca and I supervise about 8 people who we need to evaluate directly. We also have staff under us who supervise our support staff. Our Area Directors evaluate us, and all of this involves writing and reviewing annual plans for ourselves and others. 

partners at our office

I hope I am succeeding in getting across how much time we spent in the office doing administrative work. 

We had to manage a few crises as well. One, which worked out well involved one of our 1 year volunteers from Tanzania who was given an assignment with an MCC assignment in South Sudan. South Sudan has not been able to accept volunteers until this year because of ongoing conflict that has made it an unacceptable risk for our GSL (global service learning) volunteers, who vary in age from 18-25. This year looked more promising and our TZ volunteer accepted a very remote placement in a peace village near the Ethiopia border. It took a UN flight and 10 hours of driving to access it. 

He did OK for about 7 months but in the past 2 months there has been an increased amount of violence in Juba that threatened his ability to evacuate if necessary. MCC decided to re-assign him out of caution, and we were tasked with finding a placement for him in Kenya for his last 2 months. This would include work with a partner and a host family. 

Easter attire from Ethiopia

Needless to say that took a lot of scrambling and frantic brainstorming to find a good fit, mainly by our volunteer coordinator Nelly. The happy result after a stressful two weeks, though, was a good placement for him in the town of Kisumu, serving a partner where there is currently another volunteer. They are both able to stay with the same host family as well. So that had a happy ending. 

Outside of work, we have mainly stayed around Nairobi for leisure time. One of the things David and I like to do is to play golf. Green fees are quite a bit cheaper than in the US, and there are many courses to choose from. (We usually go to one called Limuru. If David does not have time off during a week, I usually go alone on a Friday and play 9 holes. Rebecca often comes along and walks around the course to watch birds. Rebecca and I also continue to swim at the Roslyn Pool (David's school). We can usually do that 3 times per week at 6:30 AM when we are not driving the kids. 

Music continues to part of our lives. I continue to improve on the banjo, and Rebecca is a regular worship leader at our church, about once per month. The last 2 times I have joined with the banjo and David has joined as a singer, so it really feels like a family band on those Sundays. 

Holy Week felt much less liturgical than what we are used to, now that we are going to a Vineyard church. The season of Lent and specific days of Holy Week are not really celebrated. The exception was Good Friday, where they had a special service of confession. Rebecca delivered the message. She did a great first-person re-enactment of the Apostle John remembering the crucifixion. 

Easter Sunday was very festive, and the church was packed. There was a big Easter feast later on in the day at our friend Mona's house. It involved all the Egg hiding and craft rituals for kids, and a lot of food for everyone. Sadly, it poured heavily for about 30 minutes of the time we were there. We all had to huddle under a small tarp. But the sun did come up, and amazingly, the kids did not seem to care and searched for eggs the whole time. David, among others, got drenched. 

I think the highlight of the month had to be "High School Musical," the school production that David auditioned for in November, which was finally performed last weekend (4 showtimes). I had the privilege of being invited to assist with the choreography. (They had 2 student choreographers, but I advised). I also set the piece We're All in This Together at the auditions. For the final 2 weeks of rehearsal, I went to watch most afternoons and helped the choreographers polish, as well as give some help with some difficult lifts, etc. 

At the beginning of production week I had some concern that it was not going to be ready, especially because it was interrupted by Easter long weekend. But by dress rehearsal they had it. I watched 3 of the 4 productions and it was stellar! They did a fantastic job. I should mention that David was not a lead but he was one of the 'braniacs' and had a ton of si
nging and dancing! He did a great job and it was the first time he had been asked to sing and dance at the same time. 

We were really proud of him and Rebecca and I also joined the cast party committee to set up and take down the decor and food. They had a very emotional time together. It was very special to be part of this very intense production, and gave me fond memories of the many 100s of productions weeks in my past. I usually did not like them as a performer, but it was great to relive it through David's experience. 

Not a lot else is worth mentioning; one of the 'low lights' was a power outage in our neighborhood that lasted 4 days, with no real explanation. Our multiple calls to complain were all treated as the first anyone had heard about it, and dutifully recorded. But it seemed nothing would happen. 

We also added a basketball goal to our driveway. There was an old post with cement on the bottom, so we bought a backboard and hoop and attached it. It works quite well, considering none of the pieces were part of the same set. It is good for David to have something to do besides screens. It will also help his eyes since he is becoming near-sighted.

That said, he went to an ophthalmologist this past month and got his first pair of glasses!

That is all for now. We have a holiday tomorrow May 1 (International Workers Day), and Rebecca is currently out for 2 nights at a women's retreat with her friends Katie T. from Tanzania, as well as other friends.