First Impressions

I get asked a lot by both locals and friends/family at home: "How do you find Tanzania?"

So, here's how I find Tanzania so far...

Dark. I'm finding it hard to get used to the daylight hours here. Because we are equatorial (only 6 degrees south) and have no daylight savings time, it is daylight here from approx. 6am to 6pm all year round (with maybe an extra half hour of dawn/dusk on either end). Seeing as there are no streetlights (not in the areas I've been to so far) and no city lights reflecting of cloud cover or any of that, it's really quite dark by 6:30. And for me that means my body starts to think it's late and by 10 it's hard to convince my body to stay awake. Also, with getting home from work around 5:30, this doesn't leave much daytime to wander around and I'm not yet so comfortable walking around alone after dark so for that I wait for my roommate.

Dusty. Though the main roads are paved here the shoulder of the road is dirt and there is also a lot of road construction (I'm assured that no progress has been made since my predecessor arrived a year ago) so there is a lot of dust being blown into the air by cars. It really hurts my eyes sometimes. And at night, when it's dark, the headlights stream through the dust and you can only see dust and silhouettes of people walking on the side of the road. It's really neat looking and I'm hoping to take a photo but obviously it's hard to get a good picture when it's dark and the light is moving.

Despite a few rainy days last week, the weather here has been good. The high has been just under 30 degrees but there is often a nice breeze and sometimes some clouds so it feels much cooler. So far it hasn't been too humid either. However, everyone keeps telling me that we are entering the rainy season so it is supposed to get hotter and more humid. Interestingly, the descriptions people give me of the expected weather over the next few months is quite different from the climate charts I've seen so I'll have to wait and see.

Other than that, I'm finding that, not surprisingly, a lot of people like to talk to Mzungu (means European but is used for all white people, possibly all foreigners) so you get a lot of people saying hi (mostly in Swahili) all the time. The children are cute because it seems to take them a while to get up the nerves to say hi so often I'll hear them yell "Hello!" several moments after I've walked by. The constant barrage of greetings is quite tiring as there are numerous greetings in Swahili and there is a correct response to each (you can't just say hi back) so it takes me a few moments before I can respond.

In other news, just when the battle against the household bugs seemed to be progressing (we've cleaned and sprayed and everything that needs to be sealed in a container is sealed reducing the bug population to a very acceptable level), it turns out we have a mouse. possibly mice. And our new housemate got into the cupboard last night and gnawed holes into various food packages. Thankfully the fruit and veggies are all kept in the fridge now and we were able to salvage the rice as it had only a very small hole in the bag.