Wednesday, April 18, 2007

 

Tanzania Bites (Nibbles?) Back

On Sunday evening, my housemate Michelle and I were discussing how much we enjoy living here in Tanzania. She's been here about six months longer than I have, and both of us plan to stick around for another year, at least. We were talking about how we just feel really at home and comfortable here, how we like the community we've found, and how it's still just kind of incredible that we can go to the (gorgeous) beach every weekend. All in all, we decided that there's nowhere else we'd rather be just now.

And then Tanzania said, "Oh, yeah??!"

The weekend had been sunny and bright, with a nice breeze and relatively low humidity. Perfect beach weather. But come Monday, we were reminded that it is, in fact, the rainy season. The rain turns the road from our house to the main road into a mess of mud and murky puddles of varying depth. A misstep might mean you're up to your knees... There's also an issue of, shall we say, inefficient waste disposal, which can make these puddles pretty stinky (and leads to cholera outbreaks in the poorer areas...) The rain also makes the morning traffic even more of a nightmare. Add being stuck in traffic to being crammed into a daladala that is not quite tall enough to stand up in comfortably, and you have my not-very-fun (but pretty typical) commute to work.

Then that night we had a power outage. The blackout did not last so long, but turned into a very annoying semi-power outage, in which the bulbs glow a faint orange providing just enough light so that you don't bump into anything, but not enough to read, or power any appliances. So the food in the fridge spoils, and the fans turn at a maddeningly, tauntingly slow pace.

The rain also brings out some of God's noisier and more annoying creatures. A recent visit to Google Earth revealed that we live right across the street from a large swamp. So the frogs who live there create a cacophony while one tries to sleep (a process that is not abetted by the fact that the fan is barely turning). And then of course the rainy season means more mosquitoes.

Finally, potentially unrelated to the rain, there is our rodent problem. For a while now, we've suspected we had a mouse (OK, there is probably never just a mouse, but still) but he kept a pretty low profile. The occasional nibbling on old papers, or scurrying across the pantry, but for the most part, he did not bother us and we did not bother him.

But suddenly, as if inspired by all the other annoyances enumerated above, he has become emboldened. And joined by a number of his rodent comrades, of both the mouse and rat persuasion. On Tuesday night, I was kept awake by various bumps and thumps, as these insidious creatures ran around my room, gleefully (well, I imagine) knocking things over with reckless abandon. I awoke to find a "present" of mouse poop on my bathroom sink, and also to discover that they had chewed a large hole in one of my favorite purses in order to get at the crumbs from an empty packet of cashew nuts I had bought weeks before...

Anyway, we've decided it's time to call in the pros, and so by early next week, the esteemed gentlemen from DISPOSITEK will have hopefully gotten rid of these unwelcome additions to our household...

OK, I realize this rant is not the best advertisement to those of you planning to visit me, or who I have been begging to come. Perhaps I should take a minute to say that Tanzania still does have a great deal to recommend it, and I'm certainly not ready to pack my bags and return home. Especially these days, when the U.S. appears to be gripped by one scandal and tragedy after another.

So come! But just be sure to pack your flashlights, your earplugs, your bug spray, and your rainboots... (And your cat?)

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