Goats are all the rage!

The last week or so has been somewhat eventful retrospectively, but it is Haydom; anything that happens is an event. We’ve continued to make headway on Betsy’s research which is always a good thing. Also, we found something in which Betsy is definitely better than I am, killing flies and other various bugs with our tennis racket. I really think she missed a golden opportunity to become the next Monica Seles. Usually, she’ll spend a half an hour each day casing the “apartment” looking for flies to kill, it’s a never ending battle so she’s constantly entertained. Unfortunately for me, I’m either ducking to get out of the way of a wild electrified tennis racket or having to move out of the volley of life-less fly carcasses sailing through the air. The place usually has a distinct carbon smell to it; I’m guessing all of the wings that are fried in the racket contribute to the burning flesh smell. I can’t complain though since she does an amazing job of ridding our place of the annoyance; I can’t stand it when they land on my face!

I’ve been receiving quite a bit of ‘street-cred’ as of late, I’ve broken out the ‘siata’ greeting. For the most part we get heckled and taunted on a daily basis while walking around Haydom. Peter, our research assistant, has been teaching me some Iraqw words, which is the local language in Haydom. Most people will still speak Swahili but if you’re ‘wazungu’ you definitely do not know how to speak Iraqw! One evening, with the new greeting fresh in my mind, Betsy and I went for our usual walk to the water cistern at the edge of town. Along our route we were being pestered by a couple of boys driving their cattle, after greeting them with a ‘siata’ they immediately became silent. We overheard one of them saying to the other, (this is Betsy’s Swahili translation) “that guy just said ‘siata’!” Since that day I’ve broken out the ‘siata’ with many people throughout the day which either gets a smile or a dumb-founded look in return, either way it’s definitely breaking the tension on a day-to-day basis.

Speaking of tension, I have decided I HATE GOATS! I don’t know where this ‘goat-rage’ derives but it’s definitely a persistent feeling that I have whenever around them and in Haydom it’s hard to keep your distance, they’re everywhere! I think most of my distaste for goats may come from the fact that their “bah” or “neh” or whatever it is they do is semi-reminiscent of the kids who run around town yelling “wazungu, wazungu”, it’s just a misplaced hatred. We were hoping, for Thanksgiving, we would be able to buy one and roast it for our meal…

Something roasted sounds really good right about now, I’ve been drooling for a couple days! Peter and I interviewed a kid from the tribe of Barbaiq, pronounced, barbeque. I’m not sure if their food is any different from the local tribes’ food here in Haydom, but I wouldn’t mind trying it out. I’m sure being part of the tribe of BBQ has its advantages (ie – roasted goat).

Also, I’ve become the project architect for the hospital, much to my chagrin. We met with the medical director a couple weeks back, Dr. Olsen, much of the conversation consisted of Betsy’s research and what the hospital’s objectives in the area are but when told that I am an architect back home, his eyes lit-up. Their “architecture team” currently consists of a carpenter (Anders) from Norway and contractor (Albi) from South Africa, Tanzania doesn’t have an enforced building code so you can pretty much do whatever you like and obviously, anyone can design it. I guess they don’t pay much mind to ADA here either, not that it would matter, one would die here if they became incapacitated anyway. When we find reliable internet, I’ll upload a few pictures of Tanzania’s construction means and methods, very nice. Anyway, it’s good to actually have something that I specialize to sink my teeth into, even if it consists of the most mundane of projects. I have to continually think in an African mindset, they use sticks and mud to build things.

Speaking of dying, we found the hospital’s cemetery, more or less a body drop. Some of the local tribes, when they bring their ill members in, will leave them here, when they die, the hospital takes them to a large plot of land next to the airstrip outside of town and buries them. I would have to say, the plant life out there does grow unusually well, Betsy and I had commented on that many times before learning the gruesome facts about that area.

We’re about to head to the hospital for Research Assistant training, we are starting the second part of the study soon and have to train them on a new section, should be interesting. After that, up to Mt. Haydom, more or less a large pile of rocks, not really a mountain since Betsy and I can climb it in about 15min. I promise to send pictures soon but our internet modem with Vodafone doesn’t work anymore and the hospital shut-down all of the computers, so we have to mooch off of Anders’ computer, which really sucks. That’s Africa for you, rely on nothing because one day it’s here, the next day it’s gone, oh well, I think we’ve adjusted alright to the lack of connection to the Western-world.

Well, I won’t bore you anymore than I already have; I know my posts are extremely long-winded and “somewhat mundane” (direct quote from Betsy). Hope all is well back in the States, since we really don’t know what’s going on there, no phone calls, no packages, no email…
-Ryan

Ps- happy birthday Sarah, not sure I’ll get to my email anytime soon, so wanted to plug it in there. Happy belated birthday Brian, we were totally in the dark through the 10th of the November.