Date: 2005-02-11
To: Your Africa Questions
Miles today: 0.0

So now is the time to answer all of your questions! This is the email thattells you everything you wanted to know, (and didn't care to know!) about livingin Africa!! First, though, a disclaimer......The volunteers here at CCS live like kings and queens. I am not kidding. Everything I tell you about my own personal living situation might sound really different from the US, but it is a great deal better than any of our neighbors here in the village have!Food: The food we eat at the CCS house is fabulous! When they described it, it sounded like a hoity-toity restaurant that caters to the rich and famous. "All locally grown, seasonal, organic vegetables and fruits, along with fresh meat that is absent of any and all chemicals and steroids.". Can you imagine! Actually, the food is very earthy. Breakfast is just bread and fruit and peanut butter, so I start each day with a peanut butter sandwich. The peanut butter is not like home, though.It is runny and gritty and threatens to glue my mouth shut each morning. I thinkit is how peanut butter is supposed to be. Two days a week, the cook gets eggs from some of our neighbors, but I have not tried them yet. Every other one has already been fertilized so you know these are the real things! Coffee is instantso I have pretty much given up on that. I do miss good coffee!! And the milk isunpasterized, whole milk, for those that drink it. (Not me!) Lunch and dinner are pretty much treated the same way. There are usually twoor three casserole dishes made of potatoes or pasta, beans, and vegetables, sometimeswith a bit of meat mixed in. There is alway Ugali, which is the main staple of the Tanzanian diet. Ugali is like the stiffest, blandest mashed potatoes you haveever had. It really has no taste, but tastes like whatever you eat it with. Thetypical way to eat it is to scoop a dollop up in your right hand, (very important- do not eat with your left hand!) and use it as a type of spoon to scoop up a stew.I have had it several times and I like it. The best part of the meals is the avocado and the fruit. We have fresh avocado at least once a day and it is soooo good! But the bananas, watermelon, pineapple, and mango are really amazing!!! Several people have given me mangos as gifts and they are like tasting heaven! The Tanzanians do not really do dessert, so except for the fruit, there is nothing sweet to speak of. You can buy candy bars at a few places in town, but it is too hot for me to eat chocolate! Needless to say, our neighbors are not starving, but live on a very limited diet.They get quite a few fresh fruits and veggies, and many of them own chickens and livestock, so that is where they get their meat and dairy. I have not seen any cheese at all, and needless to say, there is no such thing as fast food! Weather:It is unbelievable hot.Money: In Tanzania they use Tanzanian Shillings for currency, but most places will also accept US dollars. However, things cost more if you pay in US. There is aproximately1,020 shillings to the dollar, but for the sake of description, I will use only US dollars. Prices are, for the most part, extremely low. An example of my dailyexpenses:Internet- $1 per hourBeer- 70 cents per large bottleSamosas for lunch- 30 cents apieceDala dala ride (bus)- 20 centsDiet Coke- $2Wait a minute!? Did I say $2 for a diet coke!?!? You bet I did! Anything sold to a muzungu (white person) is at least twice the price, and since no self-respecting African would drink diet coke, they charge extra! Everything and anything is negotiable, pricewise. No one would ever expect youto pay the first price they quoted you, however there is a mzungu price and a local price. When someone tells me the price of something, I look at them and say "Muzungo bei....hapana!" which means 'white person price...no!'. Then they laugh and give me a lower price. It is fun, but when it comes to serious souvenier buying,I take one of my new african friends and let them do the negotiating for me. That has worked out beautifully because my Swahili is nowhere near good enough togo into the market!! Any time I go in, I get surrounded by merchants shouting atme, which is a little tiresome after the first few times, so it is best to take a local friend. They just chase the merchants away! Weather:It is unbelievable hot.Bathroom/Shower Facilities Remember how I said we live like kings and queens? Well, we do. Keeping thatin mind.....the facilities are not what we are used to!! The toilets are the same,but there is no water pressure, so they don't really flush. As a result, you haveto put all toilet paper in a trash can. It is interesting. Most homes and businesses,however, have a latrine of some sort. The guys won't let us go in the one at Deo's,so I have no idea what they are like. However, at the school I am teaching at, there is just a bucket with sheets draped around it. The shower is a shower. But, due to water pressure, only a trickle comes out.So we have a large bucket in the shower stall and I wet my hair with the water runningout, and as the bucket fills up, I shampoo. I use a beautiful handmade wash cloththat the Carter women gave me to scrub everything, and when I am done, I dump thebucket over my head. I have to say, it does the trick! Brushing teeth, we simply have to use bottled water. One guy has already messedup and brushed his teeth with the tap water and as a result, spent a good part ofthe evening in discomfort. We do not drink the water.Weather:It is unbelievable hot.Transportation: We have a CCS van that takes us to and from our placements each morning, andwe stuff it full of people!!! It is a 12 person van, and we routinely have 19-20in it. There are very, very few seatbelts in Africa! However, since 99% of theroads are dirt with HUGE pot holes, we rarely get over 30 mph, so it is quite safe!In our free time we have three options. Walk, Dala-dala, or taxi. The Dala-dalais also a 12 person van, but they routinely stuff 25-30 people inside. The ruleis, 'there is always room for one more!'. When they go down the street, you willoften see people hanging off the sides and men sticking out of the windows. It is hysterical! I have not been on one yet, but I am planning to take one back tothe house after this email so I will let you know how it goes! The taxis are their own form of amusement! The other day when we were in themarket, our Tanzanian friends agreed to help us get a taxi. As soon as we walkedup to the taxi stand, we were surrounded by me yelling at us and holding their respectivecar doors open. Anton, one of our friends, said, we will go to the next one, sowe walked down another block. He put us in a taxi and off we went. Here is where it gets really interesting!!! Now, here in Tanzania, people driveon the left-hand side of the road....kind of. Seeing as how all of the roads aredirt, and littered with HUGE potholes, (did I mention that they are HUGE!!?), thegeneral rule is to drive on the best part of the road. It very often turns out that they best part of the road is the sidewalk. I am not kidding. So we get inthis taxi and take off towards Rau. The driver is going about 30 mph and veeringwildly all over this wide, wide dirt road. Women with huge baskets of bananas ontop of their heads are getting out of our way quickly as we lurch down the road.The ashtray falls out of the door, the window is rattling like crazy, and from theback of the cab, all I can hear is this loud 'chucka-chucka-chucka'. After our third foray onto the sidewalk, and our first into someones actual front yard, I started laughing uncontrollaby. The funnist thing is, this is not unusual in theslightest!!! We made it home safely, and it was the most delightful ride of my life! Oh...and it cost $2.Weather:It is unbelievable hot. Well, I hope that has answered some of your questions! Life here is wild andcrazy and lonely and frustrating, and, most of all, fullfilling. Thank you all for your emails....they are lifting me up!!!! I love you!!! Anna