Decompression Stops

While at SEGA (“Secondary Education for Girls Advancement”), we were appointed four wonderful ambassadors. Left to right: Elizabeth, Jovina, Nailat, Christina. They were all four great girls and we really bonded with them. We would have morning tea with them and often lunch, as well. They would serve us and take the dishes away, as part of their duties.

A couple of times we were together, Jovina would sing for Claudia. Ave Maria and a local song in Kiswahili. On our last full day, we wanted to get together for pictures and videos. We found Jovina first and had to search for the others. Elizabeth was next, so she and I hung out at the picture backdrop spot and talked. She and I hit it off. She is very quiet, especially around the other three who are more talkative.

Everywhere Claudia and Jovina would walk, looking for the others, Jovina would reach out and take Claudia’s hand. Very sweet.

While the girls are happy at the school, they often get homesick, as well. This was coming out as the week progressed.

Claudia videoed Jovina’s Kiswahili song and the girls all watched it. We grabbed some other pictures of the group of us.

We also arranged so that after the girls graduate, they would be given our email addresses, if they ask. Adult visitors/sponsors and the girls aren’t allowed to communicate other than through the school. But it is allowed after graduation.

The girls walked us back to the visitors’ quarters. They aren’t allowed to enter it. But they regularly walked us there to spend more time together. After we got there, this trip, both Jovina and Nailat wanted to sing for us again. Christina turned down the request to sing with them. She stood with her back to us, in tears, while we were watching the videos of the other girls.

The other girls left, and Christina stayed. She had picked a song, but it was very emotional, about loneliness and saying goodbye. She didn’t want to sing it in front of the other girls. We were all three in tears when she finished.

We had our final hugs and Christina had to go. We will miss all the girls.

The next morning, we attended the Monday assembly. We had passed the word for all the girls to bring their keyholders for a photo op.

I was particularly happy to get the girls in wheelchairs in the picture. We worked hard to include them in the class, along with their friends. This is the first time I’ve taught someone in a wheelchair. These trips always stretch me in unexpected ways.

You’ll note in the first pic, I joined the Sophomore class (Form 2). Some would argue I’m not ready for that advanced a class, but I didn’t ask.

After the assembly, we had to leave. We said goodbye to our friends. Left to right: Rhona, Claudia, Isabella, Loveness, moi, with Veronica in front.

As we were leaving, we spotted a hedgehog in the courtyard.

The trip home would take place over three days, due to flight availability. It is a 6-hour drive from SEGA to our hotel in Dar Es Salaam. On Monday, we made that trek. We were looking forward to a gradual reentry into more familiar civilization.

The reentry is always very difficult, after what we see and do on these trips. It is hard to see what these women and kids face every day, without taking the visions home with you. And, frankly, we wouldn’t want to leave them behind. It is too important. But accepting what we have in the US and other first-world countries, after seeing this level of inequity, is hard.

For those of you who don’t recognize the term, a decompression stop is a scuba-diving term. On a deep dive, so much gas gets forced into the diver’s blood, they have to stop for pre-calculated times at certain depths for the gas to equalize. Otherwise, they get nitrogen poisoning (the bends). This is how I feel on these trips. We don’t usually get the option of the stops, but they were forced on us this time.

The drive to Dar Es Salaam. On the right are sour sop (in green pyramids). Coconuts on top, and jackfruit (the big green ones on the right, also cut up).

Pineapples were in season. They were everywhere on some stretches of the road. And were completely delicious. It makes such a difference to get these fruits (mango, as well) that are ripe before harvesting. I always look forward to this.

One of the lobbies in the hotel. The Dar Es Salaam harbor on the Indian Ocean is in the background.

Claudia and I had an evening to ourselves. We had dinner and watched the sunset. And listened to drunk European tourists embarrass themselves. There was also a European man with a paid local escort at dinner. This isn’t unusual. But is very sad.

I am truly awed by Claudia’s abilities on the TZ leg of this trip to jump in and teach. She has always been reluctant for legitimate personal reasons. She has helped in a couple prior trip classes. But she had no choice here. She learned to teach the material, jumped in, and did a fantastic job in spite of her fears. I’m very grateful and impressed.

The next morning we were off for Nairobi, connecting there to go to JFK. Claudia had the window seat. I had to wake her up to see the beautiful views of Kilimanjaro as we flew by. Truly spectacular.

We had over a 12-hour layover in Nairobi. Spending 12 hours in that airport isn’t as fun as it sounds. So Claudia and I got the necessary visas and had Virginia pick us up at the airport. We went to the Ole Sereni hotel. I was familiar with the hotel from a prior actuarial conference. We sat at the terrace restaurant overlooking Nairobi National Park (a safari game park) for about 7 hours. Had lunch, talked, and planned for the future. It was relaxing. About an hour into our stay, I spotted a rhino grazing in the park near us. Sure enough, there were two adults and a baby. They stayed within sight of us until sundown. We loved just looking up and watching these beautiful, majestic, gentle animals. It was only the third time I’ve seen rhinos in Africa.

Sundown. Almost time to head back to the airport for the 15-hour flight to JFK.

We thought Dar Es Salaam was our decompression stop. We were wrong. It was sitting at the terrace restaurant in Nairobi watching the rhinos.