Monday, January 15, 2007
Black Mamba is not a little spider or a dance
With our departure nearing and Nik spending her spare time reading for her candidacy exam (translates to BIG oral Phd Exam) I have been reading every -English- blog on Haydom and Tanzania that I can find. I know that, as Cami and Sof stated in their Haydom blog, "one could think about it and plan forever and the reality would still be a surprise". However, I think that the more I learn about other's experiences the better prepared I'll be and the less of a surprise I will have. On the plus side I have not found one blog that talks about a negative experience. Sure there are ups and downs to the work, after all it is a hospital in a poor area of a poor country, but the feeling of making a positive impact on the lives of people from not only the Haydom area but around the world seems to energize my fellow bloggers and leave them with a tremendous sense of selfworth. I suppose, based on Cami and Sof's blog, my reading could be a waste of time but my spirits are raised by their use of 'surprise' over 'shock'.
I am not totally opposed to arriving and being shocked, hence the term culture shock, but a surprise as kids would say is always a good thing. I expect that the poverty in the cities will be a shock. The extent of the shock I can not imagine. I also expect to be shocked by the extent to which taxi drivers will try to rip us off. And, I expect to be shocked by the length of the fingers of the pick pockets because one piece that talked about the pick pockets at the market in Arusha. They did say that the market was not to be missed and so I think I will park my cash in my socks and go to buy some supplies, which I am sure I will be shocked at either the freshness or the agedness of the produce. I am sure that the shock that I get from the stall selling freshly killed chickens with the feathers still on will be nothing in comparison to the shock of the westerners complaining because they can't find replacement batteries for their camera or complaining because they just had a kid trying to get money right out of their purse,which was, of course, wide open.
Well my broad speculation is nothing near what we will encounter and losing sleep over the surprise or shock will most certainly not prepare me for the trip. All I can do is read about others adventures and dream about the adventures that are to come for us. This dreaming doesn't stop me from letting you know about the fascinations I have found on the WWW. Cami and Sof definitely gave some wonderfully detailed accounts of the life and times of Haydom. As did the few others whose blogs I located. The overwhelming theme of the writings was a great sense of peace, friendship and community. A common goal, learning new and exciting things from terrific and interesting people and having awesome adventures, what else could one be looking for...an exotic locale in which to stage this event, Done (not the capital D)!
Some of these adventures may or may not happen depending on your propensity to be kind to the little felines that wander to your door. Offering food to a little stray cat in Haydom could keep your backyard clear of the poisonous Black Mamba. I read this in a blog and thought, "cool a cat that kills spiders" and left it at that. I thought that the Black Mamba was a little dancing spider that could be found outdoors on rare occasion in Haydom, which I was sure was not its natural habitat. Black Mamba spiders must be indigenous to South America or some other far away place and a couple hitched a ride in the luggage of a kind hearted, unaware doctor when he came to help out as a surgeon in Haydom.
I'm not sure if it was a subconscious urge to not want to know the true identity of the Black Mamba or whether I really believed it to be a rare spider that stopped me from looking it up but it wasn't until Nicole did a little reading that we found out what a Black Mamba really is. The Black Mamba is in fact the largest venomous snack in Africa and after the King Cobra, the secong largest venomous snake in the world. At an average length of 9 feet and a max of 15 feet I can see why it ranks so high. There is a myth that the Black Mamba actually seeks out humans to, I guess bite them (it is to small still to eat a human) and poison the poor unsuspecting person who sees a nice long green snake and is not frightened, "can't be a Black Mamba, it's not black". The truth is the Black Mamba gets its name from the black colour of it's wide open mouth and by the time you see that it may be too late. You may not even see the snake untill it is too late because it has just come up on you at a speed of 14 or 15 Mph and its gun-metal grey colour has probably thrown you off at least a bit.
I can see it now, "wow look at that grey snake that is moving toward us at what must be about 15 miles per hour." "Cool, with colouring like that it can't be poisonous, let's play with it." "Great idea, I love snakes!!" Whack. "Hey it's mouth is black, RUN!" The moral is, feed the cat that comes to your door and if the rare Black Mamba comes into your backyard your new friend will, and you may not believe me, either scare it off or kill it. Makes me wonder why I should be afraid of a nine foot snake that is scared of a little kitty cat. I guess African cats must be fierce. That makes me wonder if I should be more afraid of the cat than the snake. Perhaps I should be feeding the Black Mamba to make it strong enough to keep cats out of my backyard.
Now that I have freaked some of you out, especially those with a title starting with "grand" I will tell you that only one blog ever mentioned actually seeing a snake on the hospital grounds. That snake was dead, killed by some resident with his bow and arrow.
There are a lot of merchants that set up shop either in a proper shop or on a blanket in the street or even peddling their wears to the door of our soon-to-be home. The door to door merchants are well regulated and only those selling the most necessary items are allowed into the hospital complex. These folks are selling the essentials; food they bring to the door may consist of tomatoes, onions, potatoes, bananas, Rabbit and fish from a nearby lake. Other items that the Haydom resident can seemly not do without are spears, bows, quivers and arrows along with the odd shield in case that Black Mamba is also packin'. Rest assured I'll have my bow and a quiver full of arrows ready and waiting by the back door. Ready for what, I'll have to wait and see just how cute the cats are and just how good a dancer that Black Mamba is.
I am not totally opposed to arriving and being shocked, hence the term culture shock, but a surprise as kids would say is always a good thing. I expect that the poverty in the cities will be a shock. The extent of the shock I can not imagine. I also expect to be shocked by the extent to which taxi drivers will try to rip us off. And, I expect to be shocked by the length of the fingers of the pick pockets because one piece that talked about the pick pockets at the market in Arusha. They did say that the market was not to be missed and so I think I will park my cash in my socks and go to buy some supplies, which I am sure I will be shocked at either the freshness or the agedness of the produce. I am sure that the shock that I get from the stall selling freshly killed chickens with the feathers still on will be nothing in comparison to the shock of the westerners complaining because they can't find replacement batteries for their camera or complaining because they just had a kid trying to get money right out of their purse,which was, of course, wide open.
Well my broad speculation is nothing near what we will encounter and losing sleep over the surprise or shock will most certainly not prepare me for the trip. All I can do is read about others adventures and dream about the adventures that are to come for us. This dreaming doesn't stop me from letting you know about the fascinations I have found on the WWW. Cami and Sof definitely gave some wonderfully detailed accounts of the life and times of Haydom. As did the few others whose blogs I located. The overwhelming theme of the writings was a great sense of peace, friendship and community. A common goal, learning new and exciting things from terrific and interesting people and having awesome adventures, what else could one be looking for...an exotic locale in which to stage this event, Done (not the capital D)!
Some of these adventures may or may not happen depending on your propensity to be kind to the little felines that wander to your door. Offering food to a little stray cat in Haydom could keep your backyard clear of the poisonous Black Mamba. I read this in a blog and thought, "cool a cat that kills spiders" and left it at that. I thought that the Black Mamba was a little dancing spider that could be found outdoors on rare occasion in Haydom, which I was sure was not its natural habitat. Black Mamba spiders must be indigenous to South America or some other far away place and a couple hitched a ride in the luggage of a kind hearted, unaware doctor when he came to help out as a surgeon in Haydom.
I'm not sure if it was a subconscious urge to not want to know the true identity of the Black Mamba or whether I really believed it to be a rare spider that stopped me from looking it up but it wasn't until Nicole did a little reading that we found out what a Black Mamba really is. The Black Mamba is in fact the largest venomous snack in Africa and after the King Cobra, the secong largest venomous snake in the world. At an average length of 9 feet and a max of 15 feet I can see why it ranks so high. There is a myth that the Black Mamba actually seeks out humans to, I guess bite them (it is to small still to eat a human) and poison the poor unsuspecting person who sees a nice long green snake and is not frightened, "can't be a Black Mamba, it's not black". The truth is the Black Mamba gets its name from the black colour of it's wide open mouth and by the time you see that it may be too late. You may not even see the snake untill it is too late because it has just come up on you at a speed of 14 or 15 Mph and its gun-metal grey colour has probably thrown you off at least a bit.
I can see it now, "wow look at that grey snake that is moving toward us at what must be about 15 miles per hour." "Cool, with colouring like that it can't be poisonous, let's play with it." "Great idea, I love snakes!!" Whack. "Hey it's mouth is black, RUN!" The moral is, feed the cat that comes to your door and if the rare Black Mamba comes into your backyard your new friend will, and you may not believe me, either scare it off or kill it. Makes me wonder why I should be afraid of a nine foot snake that is scared of a little kitty cat. I guess African cats must be fierce. That makes me wonder if I should be more afraid of the cat than the snake. Perhaps I should be feeding the Black Mamba to make it strong enough to keep cats out of my backyard.
Now that I have freaked some of you out, especially those with a title starting with "grand" I will tell you that only one blog ever mentioned actually seeing a snake on the hospital grounds. That snake was dead, killed by some resident with his bow and arrow.
There are a lot of merchants that set up shop either in a proper shop or on a blanket in the street or even peddling their wears to the door of our soon-to-be home. The door to door merchants are well regulated and only those selling the most necessary items are allowed into the hospital complex. These folks are selling the essentials; food they bring to the door may consist of tomatoes, onions, potatoes, bananas, Rabbit and fish from a nearby lake. Other items that the Haydom resident can seemly not do without are spears, bows, quivers and arrows along with the odd shield in case that Black Mamba is also packin'. Rest assured I'll have my bow and a quiver full of arrows ready and waiting by the back door. Ready for what, I'll have to wait and see just how cute the cats are and just how good a dancer that Black Mamba is.
