Sunday, December 20, 2009

Sift your flour

Tanzania has a lot of bugs. From ants of multiple colors and shapes to huge centipedes to spiders to mosquitoes to a whole host of other flying/creeping/crawling pests that I don’t know the names of. You can probably see where this story is going…

So bugs are just kind of a way of life here. You learn to check the kettle for ants before boiling water (or your water glass for any that slipped by you), to check around the house for any uninvited guests that might have taken up residence if you’ve been gone awhile and how to transform your flip-flop into a deft weapon in the war to keep the bugs at bay.

But in many ways you also learn to just live with the bugs. I’ve started just taking spiders outside, rather than killing them, when I see them because I figure, what’s the point…it’s not like there’s not more around here anyway. Plus, it’s just as much their environment as it is mine.

Still, there are limits.

A few weeks back I thought I was getting very smart and proactive when I got a 5kilo bag of flour, along with some other groceries-in-bulk. Between the trek to town, weaving through the hordes of sweaty people in the market and the sweltering ride back on the dala dala, heavy duty grocery shopping is something you want to do as infrequently as possible. So, I thought with a stash of staples, like flour, rice, sugar and beans I’d never officially go hungry.

This morning I wanted to make some cookies for my neighbors as a small Christmas gift. So, I got out the requisite ingredients, including some butter that I had in the freezer (real butter is pretty rare here, so having the butter on hand was the whole reason I decided to make the cookies) and of course the flour.

Now, I’m not gonna lie…I’d noticed a few bugs in this flour before. But not being sure exactly what they were or how prolific they were I did the only sensible thing: I ignored them. But this morning I thought, this is gross and so I tried to fish them out until I thought I’d gotten them all and made the cookies (saving a couple for myself). The cookies turned out amazing…I had no idea how much real butter added to cookies! But as I was cleaning up I noticed a couple more bugs in the flour!! This was getting seriously gross.

Not sure what to do, I went up to the Madoffe’s house to ask for some advice. After a fairly hilarious conversation, in which I clarified that I had bugs in my FLOUR, not my FLOWER, I was told to put the flour on a tray in the sun for a few hours and then sift it. This I did, and taking the opportunity to peruse my other food for bugs, also decided to set out some dry beans in the sun. I had quite a production going on the ledge outside my house.

A few hours later I started sifting the flour back into its container. There were of course some of the little bugs I’d seen. Gross, but I was willing to overlook it since they were now going to be gone. However…and this is really pretty gnarly…there were also these OTHER bugs in there too…smaller, lighter colored, harder to spot. I made it through about half the 5 kilos of flower before I decided this was too disgusting and chucked the rest of it. Theoretically the flour I did keep is now sifted and bug free. We’ll see…I’m gonna check it in a few days and if I see bugs, it’s going!!

But now, the question is: do I eat the cookies I made and kept for myself?

I mean they have REAL butter. Don’t judge me.

Friday, December 18, 2009

This is happening!!!

Just...about..to submit...my LAST PhD application...and...

DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations! You have successfully submitted your online application to Brown University Graduate School.

The fate of my academic future now rests with the admissions committees at Hopkins, UNC, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Berkley and Tulane. That actually feels alright.

Now...where's the bar?

Thursday, December 17, 2009

It is Christmas

Which is something I have to remind myself. Sweltering days in December can be a bit disorienting...but they do beat being so cold you can't remember the last time you were actually fully & entirely warm.

But as I look at the calendar, December 25th is in fact right around the corner. Next week in fact. To celebrate, I'll be heading to Zanzibar to meet up with some of the other GHC fellows from TZ, Rwanda and Malawi, as well as some of their friends. There's roughly 15 of us descending on Ameet and Jafari's house in Stone Town - where there was recently a massive power outage and the entire island is now without electricity. and water. This should be interesting.

Sans water, lights or anything else, regardless the chance to re-connect with some of the GHC fellows and make some new friends is a welcome one. The last few weeks have been a treacherous mix of personal/professional and social highs and lows so intense that it's systematically worn me down a bit. I'm looking forward to a vodka-tonic on the beach. I'm looking forward to doing some celebrating.

To friends old and new and to family near and far...Joyeux Noelle.

Contradictions

Two contradictory phrases: both parts equally true: all parts equally coloring my life lately:

Expect as little as possible; continue to hope for as much as possible

Recognize you will need to take control; understand you are not in control

Thursday, December 3, 2009

We give thanks.

A few photos of Thanksgiving in Kilwa. Mostly of food...because let's be honest, that's what Thanksgiving is all about!

Between the amazing fish and the company of new friends going around the table sharing what we were all thankful for, I think this may have been one of my favorite Thanksgivings yet.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Sir Thomas Cunningham Goes to Kilwa

Tanzanians don't celebrate Thanksgiving. So last week when that festive holiday involving turkey, football and ungodly amounts of food rolled around the A-Team was on its own to come up with innovative ways to celebrate (which primarily involved laying on a beach; more on that later).

I decided that in order to make it a "real" Thanksgiving what we needed was a pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is quintessential Thanksgiving and what's better it's easy to make! That at least was my argument standing in ShopRite in Dar trying to explain to Ameet while hauling a pumpkin on a 9 hour bus ride down to Kilwa was a good idea. Ameet had his reservations, but he eventually consented and thus we came to acquire a very special Thanksgiving guest: Sir Thomas Cunningham.

If you're going to take a pumpkin any on a wildly bumpy road, where you risk the thing rolling out of your hands or impaling you with its stem, it's best to name it first - you know, just so your on friendly terms. Andrew had warned us that the road could be a bit bumpy on the way to Kilwa, but having never been there we weren't sure what to expect. After a few hours on the bus, we stopped for a break and the bus driver handed out sodas to everyone. Being the oblivious muzungo-tourist, Ameet and I were goofing around taking pictures of ourselves and our pumpkin (STC for short), when suddenly...BAM! We hit a bump so hard that not only did STC go flying into the air, but so did my Fanta. Soda spraying all around, I somehow managed to keep a hold of the pumpkin. Soda right before the BUMPIEST part of the road? Seriously?!

For the next couple hours we oscillated between trying to hold onto the pumpkin b/c we were laughing so hard and trying to decide if our liver had actually been ruptured or just jostled over the last bump.

To get a sense of the trip, check out this video.

Despite the perils involved, STC did actually make it to Kilwa and Ameet and I suffered no serious or lasting injury from the trip or the pumpkin. We cooked Sir Thomas a couple days later & the pumpkin pie we made added a decidedly American and at home flavor to our first Tanzanian Thanksgiving.

Ngorongoro

There are some places you need to get to know before you love them; and then there are some places you love immediately. For me, with Ngorongoro it was instantaneous.

For two weeks I had the opportunity to travel throughout the Ngoronogoro District (home to the Serengeti and the majestic Ngorongoro Crater) conducting research on infectious disease surveillance in the animal and human health sectors. The district is a vast, spread-out area, and while most tourists simply hit the park and the Crater, I had the chance to see its varied and expansive landscapes.

From the moment we drove into the district, near the arid and brown plains near Lake Natron, I felt right at home. Something about the desolateness reminded me of Colorado...who knew rocky, wind swept landscapes could make you feel so at home? Despite the sparseness of the landscape, its simple rawness was striking...as were the thousands of flamingos for whom Lake Natron is a breeding site.

After visiting a few health dispensaries and livestock field officers, we started climbing over hills (one on which we very nearly got stuck) and I watched as the great Rift Valley spread out below us.

A couple of days later we headed to Loliondo, the capital of the district. It's a higher elevation there and the thin, crisp air once again made me feel like I was back in the Rocky Mountains. Something about the place just felt indescribably like being on a long, adventurous camping trip & I loved it.

During the day we spent a lot of time in the SACIDS Land Cruiser, covering huge swaths of territory in an effort to visit every ward in the district. Bouncing down dirt paths that pass as roads, with green pastures zooming by on either side and a luminous, expansive blue sky above me, it occurred to me that this is one of the places I am most content; most happy...on an open road, with nothing but possibility in front of me.

Our last stop was the area in and around the Ngorongoro Crater, known as the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Below is a few pictures from the trip, including one of the incredible Ngorongoro Crater. I've seen some beautiful places in my life, and the Crater quite simply left me speechless. It was breathtaking (and the picture definitely does not do it justice).