Initial Tanzanian impressions

We only spent a few days in both Mozambique and Malawi but now we have two weeks in Tanzania. It definitely feels like the ‘real’ Africa again. We’re back to the hissing and kissing noises people use to get attention. Most people are friendly and curious and wave and smile at us although there are the odd few who call out to us rudely and make obscene gestures. Most are honest but there are a few who try to rip us off e.g. running off with our change or trying to exchange money at the wrong exchange rate – 1 USD : 156 Tsh instead of 1 USD : 1560 Tsh. Whole schools’ full of kids give us the double-handed wave and jump up and down in excitement when seeing us pass by. And many people yell out ‘Mazungu!’ (foreigner)

There is ‘street meat’ or ‘roadside comestibles’ as Josh likes to call it. The smell of smoke permeates the air whether it’s from the roadside grills or from the burning off of vegetation. There are goats on the side of the road, palm trees and unfinished houses. There are religious slogans smattered around on shops and minivans though here it’s a mix of Christian and Muslim e.g. ‘Power of God’, ‘Thanks God’, ‘Masha Allah’ and ‘Allah Akbar’. There are window washers who use snapped off windscreen wipers instead of squeegees. And there are street sellers.

It never ceases to amaze me what people sell on the side of the road. See Accra blog post. Here they sell posters of human body parts, maps of Tanzania, stickers including Japanese manga porn, number chart posters, soccer balls, soccer shirts, CDs/DVDs, boxer shorts, etc. I can understand the relevance of selling apples, water, peanuts, samosas, chewing gum, and cigarettes. I can even understand the car seat covers, hazard triangles hanging around a guy’s neck with spoons dangling off them, and furry leopard print steering wheel covers. But when would you, sitting at a traffic light, think ‘Hmm, I really need a new pair of boxer shorts or a human body part chart, right now’??!