Celestial Excretions

Oh, the beautiful stars! I have never seen a sight so amazing in my life, well, I take that back, I have read a few National Geographic magazines and the pictures I snapped of the sky could possibly be published. Anyone out there know of an editor at NG that would want a photo of the Milky Way?! I promise to post them when we arrive in Dar, maybe a few weeks from now, give or take a few weeks… you know, Tanzi-time.

There was a bit of good news this morning, we received word that Betsy’s Fulbright funding will be sent out to us next week, that’s a load off our minds!

Speaking of pictures, we’ve received numerous requests to photo-document our elusive pet, Alfred, I promise, before I terminate our relationship, I’ll try to get a picture of him. I will have to apologize though, I usually have one thought in my mind when I see him, “die mother- #$@&er, die mother-#$@&er, die!” So, that being said, I may not have the will nor the strength to withhold dealing my great vengeance down upon his head (I’m currently reading the Bible, so the Pu-Blog may begin to have vengeful “god-like” references, for all of the heathens out there reading this, I feel your pain).

Well, we’ve been here, in Tanzania, a little over two weeks now and I feel as if the beginnings of what they call “culture shock” starting to infect my being. Everyday we walk by the same people, what they do all day long, I have no idea since they’re in the same spot at all times of their waking hours, who call out to us “WAZUNGU, WAZUNGU!” It never gets old to them, even if we pass by three or more times throughout the day! I’m definitely not a person who enjoys being the center of attention 24/7, so that is starting to wear on me. Yesterday, we met with the head-master of Haydom Secondary School, who is in one of the more respected positions in Tanzania. We met with him hoping to utilize him as a resource for studying adolescent nutrition in his school. Right off the bat he began telling us his life story and how his parents died ten years ago, it was a pretty sad story, but then went on to explain how he always wanted to be a doctor and it was never his intent to be a school head-master. After about fifteen minutes of the “sob-story”, he asked us to sponsor him so he could go back to school and become a doctor!

After a long explanation of how we too are students and cannot afford helping him, we retreated into the hospital compound where we found a Tiki-hut in the backyard their housing. Betsy and I promptly made ourselves feel at home here, over-looking the valley below, tucked away from curious eyes of Tanzanians. For me, this was the most comfortable place I’ve been since arriving here. We were alone, no one bothering or soliciting us; we were able to just become lost in our thoughts. Unfortunately, we only had a short “vacation” there, since we do not live within the hospital gates. We are currently living like true anthropologists; our life is a constant ethnography, as Betsy explained in the previous post. I’m not an anthropologist nor do I plan to become one, thank god because I’m just too ethno-centric!
-Ryan