Seventy Three days so far in Tanzania.
For the touristy stuff, the pictures will work nicely to show you what it's like.
For the 'real Tanzania', here are some observations:
1) Mexicans ain't got SH*T on Tanzanians when it comes to packing people into vehicles. Take all those stereotypes you might have and toss them. I was fortunate (?) enough to have been a part of a Guinness World Record (not really) when I was one of 16 adults and 3 children, with bags, packed into a Land Rover. It was literally one of the most uncomfortable rides of my entire life, and I can guarantee that Eric, at 6'5'', would agree.
2) The only cool part about living in a village in Africa, at least food-wise, is that you have to go through some fairly large towns to get there. That means you can stock up on fruits and veggies and other good stuff. But perishables only last you so long, and after you've gone through them, your choices are quite limited. Peace Corps volunteers joke around about having the option of having rice and beans or beans and rice, but I can tell you first-hand it's really not a joke. Seriously - rice and beans. Every meal. For weeks. Ugh.
3) Water is wonderful. But it isn't necessary for it to be clear for you to drink it. Sure, we did our best to purify and filter it..... at least 3 minutes boiling, followed by filtering it with either a "candle" (a porcelain cylinder with a ton of tiny micro-holes in it) or a piece of fabric. But no matter what, you just can't get that river water as pretty as Ozarka's 'natural' spring water. If it bugs you, my suggestion is to put it in a cup that you can't see through and avoid looking inside when you drink.
4) For all the bad stuff I've mentioned about food, I have to admit that when you DO have a variety of ingredients available to cook with (huge 'if' here), on average I eat better in the bush of Africa than I do in the suburbs of America. Why? Cooking is quite the process when you're so far out. You use charcoal or wood, and you have one small stove to make your entire meal on. So much effort is spent lighting the fire, preparing the food, washing the 3 pots that you used for last night's dinner, keeping the animals from stealing your meal, gauging the heat and and continually adjusting your pans.... that it only makes sense to go all out to prepare some delicious-a$$ food, since the same amount of effort will be spent on making crappy food. My three favorite, in no particular order, have been: 1) stuffed tomatoes, 2) vegetable cream soup, and 3) peanut butter brownies (I didn't cook them though, shout out to Peter for that one).
5) Don't expect to do anything there in a hurry. Time is one of the only things people have plenty of, so there's no sense in finishing things quickly since when you're done, there will probably be nothing else to do. As a result, efficiency is quite unimportant and I'm sure that if you tried to explain the concept to a Tanzanian it simply wouldn't compute.
One cool thing, however, is that if there's a line, you are often-times ushered to the front to be served first. It's like being white gives you some kind of unspoken VIP pass...
And that's about all for now. I'm sure there are a million other things, but I either can't think of them now or don't want to type it all out just yet (:
For the touristy stuff, the pictures will work nicely to show you what it's like.
For the 'real Tanzania', here are some observations:
1) Mexicans ain't got SH*T on Tanzanians when it comes to packing people into vehicles. Take all those stereotypes you might have and toss them. I was fortunate (?) enough to have been a part of a Guinness World Record (not really) when I was one of 16 adults and 3 children, with bags, packed into a Land Rover. It was literally one of the most uncomfortable rides of my entire life, and I can guarantee that Eric, at 6'5'', would agree.
2) The only cool part about living in a village in Africa, at least food-wise, is that you have to go through some fairly large towns to get there. That means you can stock up on fruits and veggies and other good stuff. But perishables only last you so long, and after you've gone through them, your choices are quite limited. Peace Corps volunteers joke around about having the option of having rice and beans or beans and rice, but I can tell you first-hand it's really not a joke. Seriously - rice and beans. Every meal. For weeks. Ugh.
3) Water is wonderful. But it isn't necessary for it to be clear for you to drink it. Sure, we did our best to purify and filter it..... at least 3 minutes boiling, followed by filtering it with either a "candle" (a porcelain cylinder with a ton of tiny micro-holes in it) or a piece of fabric. But no matter what, you just can't get that river water as pretty as Ozarka's 'natural' spring water. If it bugs you, my suggestion is to put it in a cup that you can't see through and avoid looking inside when you drink.
4) For all the bad stuff I've mentioned about food, I have to admit that when you DO have a variety of ingredients available to cook with (huge 'if' here), on average I eat better in the bush of Africa than I do in the suburbs of America. Why? Cooking is quite the process when you're so far out. You use charcoal or wood, and you have one small stove to make your entire meal on. So much effort is spent lighting the fire, preparing the food, washing the 3 pots that you used for last night's dinner, keeping the animals from stealing your meal, gauging the heat and and continually adjusting your pans.... that it only makes sense to go all out to prepare some delicious-a$$ food, since the same amount of effort will be spent on making crappy food. My three favorite, in no particular order, have been: 1) stuffed tomatoes, 2) vegetable cream soup, and 3) peanut butter brownies (I didn't cook them though, shout out to Peter for that one).
5) Don't expect to do anything there in a hurry. Time is one of the only things people have plenty of, so there's no sense in finishing things quickly since when you're done, there will probably be nothing else to do. As a result, efficiency is quite unimportant and I'm sure that if you tried to explain the concept to a Tanzanian it simply wouldn't compute.
One cool thing, however, is that if there's a line, you are often-times ushered to the front to be served first. It's like being white gives you some kind of unspoken VIP pass...
And that's about all for now. I'm sure there are a million other things, but I either can't think of them now or don't want to type it all out just yet (:
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