Karibu to my second blog post. If you can't tell by the title, it will include an assortment of thoughts and pictures from my first couple weeks here. Enjoy!
The Mojer:
The Mojer:
Mlango Mmoja (The
Mojer) is the area of Mwanza where the apartment is. It’s mostly made up of
our apartment building, hotels and some shops. We’re within walking distance of
all the essentials and I’m slowly starting to understand how the city is laid
out.
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| used clothing market at Mlango Mmoja |
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| inside the apartment |
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| relaxing on the balcony of the apartment |
There are always a bunch of taxis out-front our apartment so
if you have to go far or it’s night, they’re very easy to find. Zagaluu (Zaggerbomb) is a family favourite and is
a food and beverage shop located about 10 meters from our apartment.
The current Mojer residents are myself, Karly, Victoria and
Missy. Mudi, Missy’s fiancé, is also here a lot. As a family, we like to do
family dinners.
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| hamburgers na chipsi na fruit |
We’ve had one party here so far and it was for Karly’s
birthday. We had some music, some games, some food and drinks and lots of
people.
Recreation:
Almost every night of the week there
is some sporting event, dinner or outing going on. For sports, I play ultimate
frisbee once or twice each week, go to sunset yoga, go to the beach at Tunza
for volleyball or relaxing or swimming at Tilapia. My friends have asked me to
play soccer at 8am on Sunday mornings at the international school, but so far I
have not had the courage to wake up at 7am on a weekend. I’ve also bought
childrens’ some toys from the market which help keep us entertained.
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| full moon party |
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| tree |
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| after sunet yoga at Tunza |
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| pondering great thoughts |
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| massive wall |
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| dancing rocks |
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| sunset at dancing rocks |
This weekend is a long weekend
here and we’re going on a boat cruise with a bunch of people out on Lake
Victoria at sunset after and afternoon of swimming. Hakuna matata.
Transportation:
The options for transportation
are taxi, daladala or pikipiki. A daladala is a minibus/minivan that have
specified routes and are very cheap (~$0.25/ride). Pikipiki means motorcycle in
Swahili and they are everywhere and are cheaper than taxis.
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| pikipiki, seats up to 3 |
I’m surprised more cars don’t
get stuck in holes on the non-paved roads. On some of them it’s not possible to
drive over 10 km/h without the wheels falling off the car.
Mzungu:
If we walk around outside, chances are people will yell
“mzungu” at us. Mzungu means white person and some people are very eager to
make it clear to us that we’re not African. Some people use it in a rude
context followed by mocking phrases (in Swahili), mostly kids and teens, but
some just use it as an identifier. With kids, it is often followed by “give me my
money” which I feel is one of the few English sentences most kids here know.
Kids also like to say “hello, good morning” to us at any time of the day which
always makes us laugh. People yell “mchena” at Victoria, which means Chinese
person, even though she is Vietnamese.
Getting so much attention is something
I've never experienced before and it takes some getting used to before feeling
comfortable out in public. It doesn't bother me much anymore and I especially
love when people go out of their way to make me feel welcome here. "Karibu
sana Tanzania," which means "very welcome to Tanzania," is one of
my favourite phrases to hear. When I was walking down the street today, Zagaluu
invited me into his store to eat lunch with him and his wife. It was ugali
(stiff porridge), rice, beans and fish. The food was awesome and it made me
very happy to be here!
As a side note, whenever I see other white people I don’t know walking the
streets, I have the urge to yell “MZUNGU!” just to see their reaction… but I
haven’t gathered the confidence yet.
Swahili:
I have tried to learn some Swahili since I’ve got here. I
know greetings and some basic phrases, but that’s about it so far. I need to
invest more time into practicing and learning Swahili over the next month.
The Project
In my next post, I’ll discuss what I’m working on and my
motivations for coming to Tanzania.
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| hardly working |
