Some things.....

Things I will not miss:

• Mosquito nets
• Not having cheese, milk, yogurt or butter in the grocery store (sometimes for months)
• Crazy Tanzanian drivers
• Worrying every time Cash drinks bath water
• That 28 hour plane ride to the US
• Bars on my windows

Things I’m looking forward to:

• Drinking water from the tap
• Taking my kids on walks outside
• Seasons
• Unlimited internet access
• Paved (and maintained) roads
• Police officers who actually pull cars over because they have broken a law (instead of looking for an excuse for bribe money)
• Having a pediatrician for my kids
• Target

Things I’m going to miss:

• Having the ocean 1 mile from my house
• Being surrounded by people from so many different cultures, countries, religions, languages, etc. I love how diverse life is here. Even within Sadie and Cash’s playgroup, their friends are Vietnamese/Lebanese, Finnish/American, British/American, Peruvian/American, Vietnamese/American, Indian, Ethiopian/Ugandan, German/British, South African.
• How patient Tanzanians are with children, especially at restaurants
• Drinking Coke from glass bottles
• Being a diplomat
• The ever-blooming Plumeria tree in my backyard
• Eda and Peter

Things I have learned in Tanzania:

• If the sign says “fresh eggs” it means the eggs will most likely be covered in chicken poop and feathers.
• When you point at a bunch of bananas and ask the road-side Tanzanian fruit vendor “how much for bananas?” he will give you 4 bananas.
• Corn Flour is not the same thing as Cornmeal.  It is, in fact, Corn Starch.  You cannot make corn bread using Corn Flour.

The Dillon's are coming home (sort of)

It is with very mixed emotions that we announce that our time in Tanzania is drawing to a close.  Although our tour is scheduled to end in May, an opportunity has presented itself that will bring us back to the US sooner.

Mike has been offered (and has accepted) a position at CDC in Ft. Collins, CO.  We do not have a definite departure date yet, but we will most likely be leaving Tanzania at the end of October.

We are excited about this new opportunity and new adventure.  We look forward to having access to all of the outdoor activities that Colorado offers.  Mike has always loved the West so the chance to live out there was one we could not pass up.

However, we are very sad that we are not returning to Monroe.  Monroe has been home to us for over 6 years.  We met and married in Georgia; our babies were born in Georgia. We have a beautiful home, great friends and neighbors and a wonderful church family at Harmony Baptist. It has not been an easy decision to leave that all behind.  We want our Monroe folks to know that you are all very special to us.

And then there are the friends we have made in Tanzania...absolutely amazing people.  We have learned that foreign servants are an interesting and unique brand of people.  They sacrifice so many conveniences to make a better life for those who are less fortunate than we are.  I know I will never look at international aid the same way again.  We feel honored to have met some of the amazing people who make it all possible.  

Although there certainly have been challenges, we have enjoyed our time in Tanzania.  This is a beautiful country and we encourage anyone who is able to come and experience it.  Tanzanian people are warm and inviting.  They love children and have loved ours. They have put up with our feeble attempts at learning Kiswahili.  We do not know what our future holds, but I hope it includes a return visit to Tanzania some day.  I'm sure our children will have little or no memory of being here.  I hope that one day we can show them the beautiful place where they spent almost 18 months of their lives.

We are ever grateful for the  support  that our friends and family gave us while we were here.  The prayers, care packages, emails, Christmas and Birthday cards were always so special. Thank you.

We will certainly keep everyone posted as the next adventure for the Dillon family begins.

The price of things....

We're always amused when we see our friend's posting on Facebook about the cost of gas back home.  So we thought it might be fun to share a little bit about what things cost us here.

Gallon of gas = $5.50
Gallon of milk = $6.50
4 sticks of butter (from New Zealand) = $6
5 lb of flour (local brand) = $4
1 lb cheddar cheese (from Ireland) = $6.80
Bottle of Coke = $0.40
20 roses = $3 (it's not all super expensive here)
Rice Krispies = $8
Nutella = $5
Can of Pringles = $3
1 liter Olive Oil = $10
Pilsbury cake mix = $5
Heinz ketchup (32 oz) = $5
Pampers (40 diapers) = $9
Johnson's baby oil (500mL) = $6
Head & Shoulder's shampoo = $10
L'orel hair color =  $17
Glade air freshener = $3
1 bottle Starbucks Frappuccino = $7

We were very fortunate that we were able to ship a lot of grocery items when we moved (and we took full advantage of that perk).  Tanzania does not have much (if any) of a dairy industry.  Therefore, most all of the dairy we buy is imported: yogurt from Germany, butter from New Zealand, milk from South Africa.

One of the things we have enjoyed about grocery shopping here is going to specialty stores.  Back home, it's one-stop-shopping at WalMart for most everything.  However, that is not the case here.  There are chain-type grocery stores, but they can still be limited on what they have.  We use our grocery store mainly for juice, milk and yogurt.  We buy all of our fruits and veggies from either roadside stands or a produce market.  One learning experience for us is that fruits and veggies are only available when they are in season.  It's definitely different from home where you can find most anything at any time of year.  We also buy all of our meat from a South African butcher.  The butcher shop has been a favorite for Mike and Sadie, mainly because of the fresh-made jerky.  Sadie is such a regular that, when we arrive, she runs up to the counter and says "meat please".  And the lady instincively turns around, and grabs a piece of jerky for Sadie.  And, of course, a piece to share with Cash as well.

Sharing Your Dreams

Each year, CDC Tanzania chooses a charity to collect clothing, school supplies, and toys for around the holiday season.

This year we chose the Dar es Salaam Pediatric HIV Clinic. The intent of the clinic when it started 6 years ago was to treat infants and children (up to the age of 14) who were born or had acquired HIV. The clinic not only provides antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) but also they treat other opportunistic infections that affect HIV patients (TB, Hepatitis, syphillis, etc..)

Quickly, they realized that if you did not offer the same services to the mothers, the mothers were not very consistent about bringing their children in for treatment. Most of these mothers obtained HIV either through their husbands infidelity or through prostitution on the side as means of supplementing their family's income in order to insure that the family has enough food or has enough money to pay school tuition. Not to digress, but I've been told that the average amount that a prostitute charges is roughly equivalent of $14. It is not uncommon to see 50-60 year old western men walking sitting in bars with 20 year old Tanzanians. But I digress....
In Tanzania, we predict that about 66,000 women will be pregnant and have HIV this year. Through the PEPFAR programs with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health (MOH) we hope to identify all of these women through testing in their pregnancy and give the needed ARV medicines to them to prevent the transmission of HIV to their unborn babies. The challenge is that most women are torn between being tested and identified with HIV or keeping it unknown. If they are identified, they can get treatment for themselves and their babies but they also risk their husbands leaving them. Thus, this pediatric clinic was established in a busy section of town but strategically hidden behind a crowded area so that women can come freely but out of the public eye.

The hard part for me with this visit was seeing all of these children who were confirmed HIV positive sitting along with their HIV positive mothers waiting for their checkups and treatment. The bright side of it is that all of these children are getting treatment through the love and dedication of their mothers who want the best for them and also the clinic workers who treat these families at the rate of 600 monthly. With proper treatment, children in Tanzanian are experiencing upwards of 30 years of life now when as of 10 years ago, they usually died before the age of 5.
With the increased lifespan, this clinic has created a second clinic for youth over the age of 14. These youth come on Saturdays to continue their treatment. This is important as new research shows that folks on ARV medicines early, have lower viral loads and are less infectious for transmission of the virus to others.

Here are the CDC women (3), clinic directors (2), mothers and a few children.
Violaa, Sajida, Janet from CDC and clinic director (in black).

Poster in kiswahili promoting the benefits of breastfeeding.

Playroom for the kids. Board in the left says in Kiswahili, "when I grow up, my dreams are..." and on the right it says, "when I grow up, I want to be..."
Finally, walking out toward the street after treatment and receiving medicines.


Mungu akubariki.

Delivering a bit of Harmony to Tanzania

On December 20, 2011, it rained in Dar es Salaam. Rain itself is not unusual at this time of year. What was unusual was the amount of rain and the time it fell. In 48 hours 10 inches of rain fell on the city. The result of this rainfall was the worst flood that Dar had seen in 50 years. The rivers swelled and, as high tide approached, had no where to drain. In the end, dozens of people died. Thousands were left homeless, all of their possessions having been washed away with the flood waters.

One place very deeply affected by the floods was the Gonzaga Primary School. Gonzaga is a private school, run by a small group of nuns at a nearby Catholic church. The school was originally established for orphaned children, most of who lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. The school is located on the edge of a very small, shallow riverbed. The river flooded and filled the school. They lost everything: desks, supplies, shelves, filing cabinets, files, computers, printers. The school provides daily lunch to it's 400+ students. The flood waters claimed a year's supply of rice and beans stored in their kitchen. Upon seeing the damage to their school, the sisters at Gonzaga quickly made a public plea for help. Mike's language instructor, Hamisi, heard about the school. He shared the school's story with Mike, who in turn, shared it with our friends back home at Harmony Baptist Church.

Harmony may be a small church but they have big hearts and they respond in big ways. They quickly went about collecting and shipping us 9 boxes filled with school supplies. Accompanied by Hamisi, we were privileged to be able to deliver the supplies to the school. It was a very humbling experience.

9 BIG boxes filled with school supplies:

The river that runs by the school:

Mountains of mud and trash left from the floods:

Arriving at the school:

Sadie is standing with the head teacher at the school. The black arrow marks how high the water rose inside the school grounds:

Files that were damaged in the flood:

The head teacher gave us a tour of the school. Here she is indicating the water line inside the cafeteria:

One of the classrooms, newly fitted with donated desks:

2 of the sister's graciously accepting their boxes of school supplies:

The best picture of all, the faces of the children who will benefit from the supplies:

Through the generosity of Harmony Baptist Church, these children (grades 1-6) have a chance to continue their education with the needed resources to learn and succeed. Each of these families had paid 800,000 shillings (about $600 US) for the annual tuition. Those who could afford it have also paid additional amounts to help purchase things such as new desks, filing cabinets and food. By the provision of these supplies, the education continues. We call this soft diplomacy. People helping people.

Thank you Harmony for making this possible!

Mark your calendars....

The Dillon's are coming to the US!! We have listed our dates and travel plans below. We'll update this post if anything should change.

Please say a prayer for safety during our travels, as well as for our children. We will have 2 little jet-lagged kids who, I'm sure, will be very confused by this whole journey.

We look forward to our visit and to seeing our friends and family again.

Feb. 13: We have finally booked all of our flights and the following schedule is final. Whew!

__________________________

March 8: Depart Tanzania
March 9: Arrive in Atlanta
March 10-15: Orlando (Disney time!)
March 15-20: Houston
March 20-27: Atlanta
March 27-April 6: Memphis
April 6-12: Atlanta
April 12: Head back to Tanzania

A Christmas Card

I thought I was very prepared in our packing for Africa. I just know that I bought Christmas cards in 2010 (when they were on sale, of course). However, in unpacking our Christmas things this year, I have discovered that I have no Christmas cards to send out. I do have 100 Christmas stamps though. Thankfully they are Forever stamps. So this year the Dillon’s will be jumping on the band wagon of the Christmas letter and doing so electronically.

2011 was a very busy and exciting year for us. We welcomed in the New Year with our 2 week old son. We also very quickly started the process of our move to Tanzania. In February Mike made his first journey to Tanzania on a 2 week assignment. The weeks after his return were filled with obtaining security clearances, medical clearances, passports and the (not) very fun packing of all of our things. We were very fortunate that the US government organized all of this for us.

At the end of April we had an early birthday celebration for Sadie’s 2^nd birthday. We were very glad to be able to share her birthday with our friends and family prior to our departure.

On May 6^th we boarded a plane and made the long voyage to Africa. 28 hours after leaving Monroe, GA, we had arrived. After spending a few days in temporary housing, we were moved into our “permanent” house. We were fortunate have Audra Marsh accompany us on this journey and stay for the first month. Having her help with the kids and the transition was invaluable.

In November we had some very special guests visit us. Mike, Patsy and John Irwin (AKA Pop-Pop, Nona and Uncle John) flew 8000 miles to spend 3 weeks with us. We were able to spend some time at the beach, go on an amazing safari and celebrate Thanksgiving together. We enjoyed getting to share Tanzania with them.

On December 20^th we had a big milestone when Cash turned 1 year old. It is so hard to believe that he has been with us for a year now and that he’s now spent the majority of his life in Africa. For his party, we were joined by our friends who all enjoyed watching Cash eat his first bites of cake. Unlike Sadie on her birthday, Cash took no time at all smashing his cake and eating it as fast as he could.

So far living in Tanzania we have learned many things. Even the simple things become challenging at times: driving (on the wrong side of the road), grocery shopping (when supplies are limited or very expensive), electricity (that is unpredictable and not always available), indoor plumbing (that only works when the electricity is on), communication (when not everyone speaks the same language). Despite these challenges, we are enjoying our time here. We have met many wonderful people from many different countries and cultures.

Mike is working with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare through the US Government as a technical advisor in commodity procurement focusing specifically on HIV testing. He really enjoys his job as he gets to see different parts of Tanzania and gets to see firsthand the burden that HIV has on families within Tanzania as well as the everyday healthcare challenges that they face.

Laura is enjoying the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom. Although she does miss nursing, she also knows that spending this time with her children is priceless.

Sadie is growing into such a little girl. She loves all things pink (“my favorite so pink”). She experienced a vocabulary explosion after we arrived in Tanzania. It’s amazing to hear her speak in full sentences. She has discovered Disney movies and now knows all of the princess’s names. She also loves coloring, painting and playing with play-dough.

Cash is our mover. He started walking before he was 11 months and is now constantly on the move. He loves to follow his sister around the house (something she is not always excited about). Cash really enjoys music as well. Whenever he hears a song with a good beat he will start dancing (either rocking, jumping or bouncing). He also claps and “sings”. It will be interesting to see if his love of music continues.

George and Keegan adjusted quite quickly to our new life. They enjoy running around our complex and sleeping on the couches. The highlight of their day is their daily walk with our gardener, Peter.

We hope to make a trip back home in March or April 2012. For our friends in the Atlanta, Memphis and Orlando areas, we hope to see you then. To all our family and friends, we wish you a very merry Christmas, a safe holiday season and a happy New Year!

Love,

Mike, Laura, Sadie and Cash