The Christmas Miracle

We’ve both been feeling a little dumpy lately, mild to moderate tummy issues, missing the holidays at home, and our coveted fan is breaking (somehow, after 2 months!?). Today, Ryan came down with flu-like symptoms, and was achy with a slight fever (the same symptoms as one of my research assistants, Valentina, we’re blaming her). I was sick earlier in the week, and Ryan took over the role of Anthropologist in my absence. This morning, I left him at home while I went to the hospital to meet my research assistants, and head off on yet another day of interviewing adolescents. The novelty has worn off, and it’s gotten a little mundane asking kids about how often they eat ugali.

Since we arrived in Haydom at the beginning of October, we’ve been pestering the head secretary, Eliwaza, asking if there are any boxes for us, and making her call the post office in Mbulu several times a week. Well, this morning, when I was meeting with my research assistants, she came RUNNING up to me (Eliwaza is overweight, about 45, and normally does not move quickly in anything that she does), yelling “Eliza! You have packages!” (also no one in Tanzania gets my name right – the majority of people think I’m “Besti”, but at least they don’t think I’m Chinese). There was a mail run from Mbulu that arrived late last night, and there was not one, not two, but FIVE packages that arrived for Ryan and I!!!

I told my research assistants we were doing something different this morning: carrying boxes to my house. These were not small boxes by any means. In total, they represented over $400 in postage (thanks everyone for spending so much on us!), so I was definitely going to need help. I carried the largest one, Peter carried the next 2 biggest, and Regina put the last 2 on her head, and we headed off. As we were leaving the hospital, we passed the head of the transportation division, Wilson Jackson (by the way, he has a brother named Michael Jackson). He saw that we were struggling under the weight of snack foods and reading material, and offered to give us a ride in a hospital car. I returned home to my bedridden fiancée/(slacker) research assistant to exclaim, “A Christmas Miracle has happened!!!” In which case, he was momentarily cured, and jumped out of bed to check out our loot, yelling “Thank you, Baby Jesus!”.

A special Pu-Blog shout-out goes to Ryan’s parents, Betsy’s parents, Ryan’s sister Sarah, all of Ryan’s aunts, and our amazingly awesome friends Ryan and Tamara! We got some good stuff!! Aside from the 80 AAA batteries from Ryan’s parents (yes, that’s right, EIGHTY), we got multiple bags of beef jerky, honey wheat pretzels, trail mix, cookies, crackers, cereal, spices, bug spray, hand sanitizer, Neosporin, football/frisbee in one (it’s awesome), books, magazines, Scrabble, candy, slim jims (with the cheese sticks), saline, etc, etc….you can see from the picture.

On a sad note, the only thing that broke in our shipment of goodies was the one bag of Doritos. It somehow ripped open in the box, and this being Tanzania, and it being sent over 2 and a half months ago, we decided (after quite a bit of deliberation, and maybe a few tears shed by Ryan) that we had to throw them away. Sorry Ryan (Richey, that is). The other sad note is that we didn’t get this amazing haul of stuff 2 months ago! We only have a little time left in Haydom, so it’s going to be a snack orgy until then. We sat down today for a lunch of tuna salad with crackers (thank you Sarah), slim jims with cheese sticks (thank you, Ryan’s aunts), Oreos (thanks Betsy’s parents), and honey wheat pretzels (thanks everyone!).

Merry Christmas!
Betsy and Ryan

(Pictures: 1) the Christmas tree our family made for us out of tree limbs, fake flowers and ribbon, 2) Betsy’s research materials, aka Simba’s doggy bed, 3) our loot)