Seasons

Seasons. There are 4. Well, at least in much of the developed world there are 4. In Vietnam students would love to ask me, hoping that I would respond incorrectly, “Teacher Teacher, do you know how many seasons there are in Vietnam? “ Since usually by this point either I had lived there for 8 months already and had experienced all the seasons to be experienced or because on my second day someone had told me, I would respond “ah in Vietnam, you have Two seasons, the rainy season and the dry season”. The eyes of the querying student would always open wide, shocked that I knew. Ah so easy to impress.

I returned last week from Tanzania, where I was visiting Susan, my room mate from Princeton. Just as I was leaving the short rains were starting to come, reminiscent of Vietnam. However, I was reminded that while there are only 2 seasons in Vietnam, and Tanzania, and only 2 in much of the developing world, which seems perhaps to make life simpler, seasons, and the food that is associated with those season is much more complex. When I arrived at Susan’s in the middle of January mangos, were in full swing. During the night they would drop and with a thud hit the roof above my head. In the morning we would go out, pick them off the ground (that is if the bush babies had not gotten there first), and have a wonderful breakfast of mangos and yogurt. And according to Susan, this had been her pattern for the previous 2 or 3 months. On my last day in Tanzania, I woke up and went out to gather mangos, only to find – there were none. Not a single mango on the ground or in the tree, at least as far as I could see. And thus ended that breakfast pattern. Its just a reminder how disconnected we can get from the actual food patterns, when in the super market we can get what we want when we want!

So the food that was in season was great – I had lots and lots of passion fruit juice. We made some great guacamole and a fantastic pineapple upside down cake. The cake was for the Inauguration party we went to. Which I found amusing, because having grown up in DC, I could not remember any inauguration. I have no idea if I even watched the others on TV (and its not that I don’t follow these things, they just must not have left much of an impression). However, there is something quite special about gathering around a TV in a very foreign country to celebrate with Americans and non-Americans the coming of a new president. Its also an opportunity to get to explain the way in which our government works.

The reason that Susan is in the town of Moshi, Tanzania is to do AIDS research in a collaboration project that the hospital there has with Duke. While I was visiting there was a monthly CAB meeting – Community Advisory Board, a forum with members of the community, high school students, nurses, and researchers. That month they were looking at issues surrounding recruiting people for the research. It was really interesting to hear some of the hurdles and issues- things that I would never have initially thought of (note they were talking about research involving expecting mothers with AIDS): in Tanzania it is the custom that mothers, once they have given birth stay home and rest for 30 days. So convincing the family to let the mothers go to the hospital for follow-ups turns out to be a challenge. Or other mothers were worried that their neighbors would see them “always” going to the hospital and think things were wrong. I guess back at home, where many times people don’t even know their neighbors this would not be an issue. It was just interesting to hear these concerns and then hope that they can get addressed somehow.

Ah yes, and while in Tanzania a friend of mine from Oslo, Michel, came down and together we climbed Kilimanjaro, via the LeMosho route, and then went on safari in Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara National Parks. Both were quite fantastic.

Coming Ashore

Life at sea has a rhythm – its regular. There’s the night shift and day shift – midnight to noon, noon to midnight. The chiefs work six to six. Breakfast 5:30-6:30, lunch 11:30-12:30, dinner 5:30-6:30. Deck hockey at 10am M, W, F, and at 1pm on T, Th, Sat. For 35 days life keeps ticking.

Until, after I had been working at sea in Angola for 14 months, my boat had to go to dry dock. We came to port in Walvis Bay, Namibia. Then all regularity stopped. Suddenly everyone worked 7-7, except those who had to stand watch on the gangway through the night. Suddenly our family of 53 expanded daily with electricians, plumbers, engine guys, welders, flooring guys. The dock side was always full and active with crates and pallets coming on and off. Crew putting strops on, taking them off. Our normal seismic routine was turned upside down. No day seemed the same. Sometimes I was dockside recovering and preparing craned shipments, sometimes I was boxing up our gear, sometimes spooling sections, sometimes preparing paperwork for offgoing shipments, sometimes installing a new computer in the rack room. Then at 7 things stopped, usually. Sometimes we had to crane on a few last shipments. From 7pm until 7 the next morning we were free. We could go on land – how strange. We were no longer confined to 73 meters of space. At 8pm usually we gathered. Everyone freshly showered and wearing crew change clothes – a changed from their orange. Often we would head to the seaman’s mission. This made me feel like a real sailor. The first night I was the only woman there besides the old woman at the door making sure you signed in and the one behind the bar. We also explored Walvis Bay – it was the cleanest, safest, most functional place I have ever been in Africa – I can’t explain how amazing it is when things work – the port is clean, the sidewalks are clean(even the fact that there are sidewalks), there’s a nice beach and I saw people running along the beach, immigration was not an ordeal Even sailing in – it was a speck nestled into an endless coast of golden sand dunes. Sadly we crew changed before dry dock, so I didn’t get to see Pride out of the water. And surprisingly, the trip had gone so smoothly and was so much fun, that crew change rolled around and I was not even itching to get off!