Life in Haydom

Well, we’ve been in Tanzania for over a week now, and our first week of being in Haydom is almost done. We’ve been enjoying living with Mama Neema and Stephano, their 7 kids, and the 5 or so other people who seem to live here – we haven’t figured all the relationships out yet. Our house is starting to feel more comfortable, and we’ve decorated the walls with pictures of family and a huge map of Africa. We have plans for a batik slipcover for the couch, and possibly some batik wall hangings as well. The bugs are prevalent, although since we are in the highlands, the mosquitoes are not as bad as in Arusha. Our main problem is the ‘buibui’ (spiders) which both Ryan and I HATE in general, and the ones that they have here are basically the biggest, ugliest spiders you’ll ever see outside of a zoo. For their size, they are also amazingly fast, which is even more unsettling.

Haydom is interesting to say the least. There are no paved roads, making it incredibly dusty, and goats, cattle, chickens, cats and dogs seem to roam free. The roving packs of dogs are definitely hunting something at night, although neither one of us is brave enough to find out what. People are very nice, and kids love running up to the ‘wazungu’ and yelling random English phrases such as “good morning” (at any time of day) “thank you very much” and “give me money”. The brave ones try to grab our hands, or touch my hair.

The shops in town are pretty basic, and we’ll definitely have stock up every time we go to Arusha. We went on massive search for peanut butter where we canvassed basically the whole town. We finally found ONE shop in the whole village that had a BUCKET of it, which the shopkeeper unearthed from beneath a pile of junk in a corner. Amazingly, it wasn’t even out of date. Obviously, Ryan was very happy about that development.

The project is going well, and we’ve made some contacts in the community and at the hospital. Everyone has been really positive about the project, and things seem to be moving along. I had a huge step forward today, when I found out that the research clearance was preliminarily approved!!

Ryan was talking to a Tanzanian who works for an NGO that builds dorms for secondary students all over Tanzania, who said that the village that we’re in now is the most remote place he’s been in Tanzania. After Ryan and my experience here, that seems about right.

-Betsy