Things I Love and Find-hard-to-love in Tanzania

A couple of my volunteer-colleagues have written love/hate lists.  I ‘borrowed’ some of their ideas to get me reflecting on my own list.  So here’s what I came up with after being here 8 months:

Learned to Love

1.        The basic nature of the Tanzanian people really is what they say... cheery, friendly and welcoming.  Unfortunately this gets covered by hunger/greed/want in the bigger cities and touristy areas (as in most developing and even developed countries).  I have found that the more rural I go, especially on my beautiful walks around Sega, the friendlier and warmer the greeting often including ‘Shikamoo’ which is a greeting of respect.  Sometimes the friendliness can be annoying, like when I was on my way to work (on Zanzibar for example) and they, young men hanging around idle, want me to stop and talk.  It feels rude not to stop...but really? It’s such a culture clash as we ‘Mzungus’ are always in a hurry to get somewhere and do something.   Most of the people I have met through work are helpful and friendly, if not very curious about me and my ways.  It is absolutely standard to be offered food or at least a drink, anytime you are at someone’s house. I am trying to take a page out of their book on slowing down and savouring the connection with others.  As for customer service...well that’s on my other list.

 

2.       The birds are wonderful!  Many are different from home with brilliant colours or unusual calls or strange living situations (the group hanging nests of the Weaver Bird).  Many are familiar like the Heron (blue with white), Raven (black with white), sparrows, finch, vultures, eagles, doves, and Secretary Birds (do we have them in Canada?).  Of course there were many water birds on Zanzibar.  I have heard two kinds of owls at night which are very different from each other.  Barn owls (long streams of a chattering sound) and Verreaux eagle owl (typical haunting hoo-hoo).  My eye often catches a turquoise blue on the ground, only to find little flocks of Cordon Bleu or Superb Starlings (blue or yellow).  I have been loving this rainy season as it’s also the ‘mating’ season so the birds are in full feather.  I have been quite bemused by these two small birds which grow long tail feathers (Whydah and Shrike).  They can barely fly with such long drag behind.   One looks more like a fish as it weaves through the air, up and down, to keep their rear-end aloft; the other looks like a flying lizard.  The Bishop Birds are gorgeous with a red hood and cloak over the black body.  They hang out in the wet areas reminding me of Red Wing Blackbirds but with much more splendour.  I also hear beautiful calls (early morning or even mid-day) but not been able to take the time to spot the singer.

 

3.       The air during this rainy season is unexpectedly gentle.  The breezes at dawn and sunset are delicious.  Of course it’s a reprieve from the heat of the dry season too.

4.       The red soil of eastern Africa is especially brilliant around Tanzania.  Although my running shoes are permanently stained red, and the dust in the house is interminable getting in/on everything.  But when the sun is rising or setting, the earth appears brilliant and alive.  There are some beautiful small mountains around my region to hike and enjoy the vistas across the plain.

5.       Lucky me as there has been an abundance of Mangos since December, with a seemingly endless season, and they happen to be my favourite fruit.   There are plenty of papaya, passion fruit, bread fruit (not my cup of tea) and other tropical options just hanging around on the trees or on the ground.

6.       The rainy season has brought crops all around where I am living.  There are fields of corn, which I had no trouble identifying, and is now much taller than me (‘higher than elephants eye’ I guess).  But interspersed with the corn, or in a neighbouring field, there’s another crop which took me several weeks to identify.  But once I did, my heart leapt as I realized the fields are coming alive at this time with Sunflowers...makes me think of Van Gogh!   Other crops include something they call pumpkin (squash family) and zucchini, rice, tomatoes, avocado, eggplant, green peppers and greens (about 3 kinds which they call spinach), cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions.  Remember this list as it’s a clue about something on the other next list.  (Pics by Naomi Loeb, Sega volunteer)

 

7.       Although I have heard very little of the traditional music (Bonga Flava is really popular which is basically African Hip Hop), that which I have heard is amazing.  The place one mostly hears the traditional a capella 4-part harmonies is in the churches.  It is still on my list to visit more churches while I am here.  There is an ‘unfinished’ building nearby where there is a ‘squatter’ church at times.  I love to hear their singing if I’m out for a walk at the right time of day.  Other times I hear the ‘casting out of demons’ which would be on my second list (below).

8.       Traditional dress for the women (still worn) is simply having 1 or 2 large pieces of cloth (some batikked) to wrap around the waist as a skirt, to carry the baby on back, and wrapped over the head.  The increase in economic status brings ‘tailored’ dresses and skirts and tops from these beautiful brightly coloured fabrics.  Unfortunately this is changing due to ‘western’ influence.  There is a basic simplicity in terms of belongings except amongst the growing upper and middle classes (see more in my second list).   

Speaking of which:

Things I find hard-to-love

1.        Public transportation...the local small buses (vans or open backed vehicles depending on the town/place) are always packed to double capacity.  While one is cheek by jowl with their neighbours, you will see that if there are seats, then the men are in them with their legs spread wide, the women being in the aisles or sharing a seat with at least 2 other women, or sitting on upside-down buckets in the aisles or even crouching.  As for the ‘big’ buses that run between towns and cities...same story unless passing  an ‘inspection station’ during which the ‘extras’ are expected to duck down below the vision of the road-side inspectors.  The seats are typically  broken down, with almost no padding, ripped upholstery (if any exists) and very uncomfortable springs or just plywood.  The windows on all vehicles allow entry to a steady stream of exhaust (and rain or hot air depending on the season).  The bjaaje (tuc tuc or rickshaw in other countries) found mostly in Dar and bigger centres, are quicker and cheaper but unsafe do to the open access for theft or even personal injury as ones bumps along the shoulder of the road while in ‘stop and crawl traffic’.

 

2.       Nothing runs according to schedule or expectation (buses, trains, hotel bookings, banking services, Postal Services, ATMs, conference bookings and pre-paid catering services, or pre-scheduled meetings to name a few examples.  This includes people not showing up for scheduled job-interviews but still expecting to be hired or not showing up with the key for the conference rooms!!  I was told that my VSO manager flew to a far afield hospital on two occasions for a meeting with someone who didn’t show either time.  Admittedly, the Tanzanians are much more able to go with this flow than us Mzungus. 

3.       Every season brings a challenge in weather...the heat during the dry season (Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar) was relentless...I would be soaked within 5 min of being out, showered 3x a day and rarely found relief...sharing the house with mosquitoes, flies, armies of biting ants in the dry season. The rains brought housemates of cockroaches and tiny beetles, roads turned into deep mud paths with little lakes every so often (deep enough to drown the battery on our Rav 4) and flooded floors in the house (where the couches with no legs wicked up the water and soaked the cushions.

 

4.       The Tanzanian food is bland (only over-use of salt or sugar), high in starch, low in nutrition and without variety.  The list I made above are what I can get at the market but I am unsure who actually cooks with those items.  The basic Tanzanian main meal is Ugali (white-corn meal mush), ¼ ounce of meat or scrawny chicken or brown beans, a tablespoon of greens cooked to much (occasionally enhanced with onion or bits of tomatoe and baking soda/salt) or a tablespoon of a coleslaw type salad.  Tanzanians admittedly dislike vegetables.  Each to his own.  The struggle for me is coming up with interesting things to cook with the same limited ingredients.  If you know me, you know I’m a foody and am creative in the kitchen.  To my credit, I have made soybean patties, curried soybeans, lentils soups and stew, lentil breakfast porridge, pancakes with millet and rice flour etc..  Stir-fry, ratatouille, spaghetti , salads with canned fish are weekly staples.  Thank goodness there are a few shops run my people of Indian-decent (hence the spices, lentils, more variety in beans, brown rice, rice noodles) and Soya sauce and vinegar!!  I do realize the ‘privileged life’ which has created my desire for variety and nutritional meals.  There are a handful of ‘Safi’ restaurants (which translates to clean or cool and is used to describe clean drinking water and also a response when someone asks a young adult how they are).  These eateries are aimed at those with money, Mzungus and Indians (run by East Indians)...every restaurant has the same fair to offer and they all take over an hour to bring your order (shades of India...at least it’s freshly made).  There is a Pho restaurant in Dar right near where I stay and so I frequent it too...same ingredients but with a twist.

5.        As in most developing countries there has been a profusion of ‘garbage’ and nowhere to dispose of it.  Stone Town and Iringa have figured out a system (which must include government money) to clean the streets and pick up garbage daily.  But as for the rest, there’s no such thing as recycling and everything is burned just outside the house.  The use of plastic bottles is atrocious but at least some get re-used to sell Sunflower oil, honey, petrol, juices (avocado or passion fruit).

6.       Women’s status is typical for the developing world, appearing to do most of the work including domestic duties (except for hard physical labour such as digging and building), they are abused, raped and get little respect from men.  The younger pretty girls will get flirted with and catered to until the men get what they want.  There is a higher number of female school drop-outs due to poverty, attitudes about education, pregnancy (cannot return to school during or after baby), family responsibilities, and orphan status. 

7.       Vendors and shop keepers have the attitude of a ‘bird in the hand’ therefore will over-charge and not care if they lose the sale now or for the future.  One guy said to me “today I win, next time you win”...when I went back another day he tried really hard to ignore me and pretend he didn’t know me.  There is no such thing as customer/vendor relationship or loyalty.  After 6 months of repeat business my volunteer-colleague ‘lost it’ when the woman who sold her water tried to rip her off and didn’t seem to recognize her.  We tried to give some local cooks business for our conference (a large order) and one of them didn’t even provide what we asked for (even knowing there would be repeat order the following week) after we pre-paid.  Live and learn!!

8.       Travelling by road is extremely dangerous...some say we are taking our lives in our hands every time.  There is a different hierarchy on the road...trucks, then buses, then cars, then piki pikis (motorcycles), then bikes, then pedestrians.  Basically, might is right.  Although this is hard for me to love, I do see it simply as a difference in cultural bias (lack of value for human life).  The worst is when we are driving in a car on a highway and the bus or truck coming toward us in our lane (typically passing on a solid line and hill) does not even try to move so we are forced onto the side of the road (at high speed) or even pushed to the side when the truck or bus is passing from behind and needs to get back into the lane quickly.

9.       The influence of western culture is changing the traditional dress and hence the fabric industry (basically being put out of business).  African countries receive large containers with huge shrink-wrapped blocks of discarded clothing (from faith-based groups, stores that rely on donations like Value Village or Sally Ann, which either can’t sell or don’t need, sporting tags and all.  The children and men wear worn-out clothing which was probably bought that way at the Saba Saba (used item market).   One home I visited (a couple of retired professors) had 4 large over-stuffed couches and wide-screen TV and huge sound system (neither of which were used apparently) all crammed into the living/eating space.  At the home of young professional couple I found the same media equipment but the couch and chairs were leather.  Both of these homes had the fridge in the living room (as they mostly keep drinks in it) and microwaves and spin-washers (neither of which were used by their maids/cooks).  One friend told me her ‘maid’ has a maid so money is nicely spread out. Unfortunately the rise in materialism has seen a rise in robberies and break-ins and muggings...both at home and person on the street...both Mzungus and wealthier Africans.  The increased divide between have and have-nots brings the increase in crime.

 

Well I see the second is longer than the first but that’s not to say that either one is complete...just a sample.  I will be leaving Tanzania in August after spending a year in Tanzania.   It will be interesting to see if I have moved anything from the second list up to the first by then.  (-: