We, the people of Tanzania

The photos are of Wamaasai (the wa- prefix indicates multiple people in Swahili), but there are other tribes in the area.  Waarusha, Wameru, Wachaga. Arusha is a international city so there are people here from tribes all over including Europe and North America. Lots of Waminnesotans.

We, the people of Tanzania, are delightful.  I say "we" since I was born in Tanzania and claim membership in the Wasamba tribe. "Mimi ni Msamba," I say in Swahili.which uniformly generates laughter since the Wasamba are, of course, dark skinned and also short.  Since I am neither of those, my statement is absurd on the surface.  On a deeper level, I do feel a close connection to the Wasamba and Tanzanians in general which is why we are here.

Relationships are very important to Tanzanians. If on the way to a meeting, they meet a friend, they don't say, "Hi. Can't talk because I'm on my way to a meeting" like an American would do (at least I do). They will greet each other and take the time to inquire about how things are going, how the family, kids, work, etc. are going. This is accompanied by a triple handshake - palms, thumbs, palms and then might not let go of the handclasp while they are talking. This friend is important so the friendship and connecting to that friend is more important than being on time.

Debi insists that she can't learn a foreign language and thought that she could get by with eye contact and a smile in lieu of a verbal greeting.  Wrong.  People will greet her.  "Habari za asubuhi?"  "How are you this morning?" The obligatory answer even for sick people in the hospital is "nzuri,"  "good" in English.  If she doesn't respond correctly, they may repeat the greeting and then tell her in Swahili what her response is.  "Sema nzuri." "Say good." Everything comes to a halt until she says "nzuri." People must be greeted properly. People who are sick can say "nzuri" and then clarify what is wrong or tell you that things are not good by saying, "nzuri kidogo." "A little bit good."

Having to constantly haggle over prices in stores and the market drives most foreigners crazy. I, for one, want to pay a reasonable price and get on with my day like I would in the USA. "How much are the carrots?"  Where is the relationship there? It's nonexistent. Instead, you need to greet them and ask about how they are and how their day is going before getting around to inquiring about prices.  The initially stated price will be too high and needs to be rejected.  With further discussion, you arrive at a price you can both live with.  The problem is this takes time and often the difference is less than a dollar so you need to talk a long time to save a small amount of money. I am incorrigibly American so find this process excruciating. My claim to being Msamba is weakened.

As I travel down a road, I am constantly being greeted.  Children holler in English, "Good-a morning.  How are you?  I am fine." Adults also greet me, often in Swahili, which makes for a short conversation since I can't say much after the initial greeting. They will call out, "Habari za asubuhi. Pole na safari, mzee."  "How are you this morning? I'm sorry about your trip, old man." It is polite to show sympathy to a traveler.  It shows great respect to address a man as "old man." They are mistaking the increasing streaks of platinum blond in my brown hair as having gray hair so while I know they are being polite, it still sounds strange.  My Msamba-ness is stretching thin.

Tanzania the Beautiful

So far, I have blogged about the dramatic, smack-you-in-the-face differences in life here. All of that is related to Tanzania being on the low end of the wealth spectrum. (The rankings that I looked at used GDP as the measure. I suspect that GDP doesn't capture the woman sitting at the side of the road on a blanket selling tomatoes.) That is what you initially see so dramatically.  Under that veneer is another kind of wealth. Tanzania is wealthy in the beauty of the land and the beauty of the people.

Taking pictures of the people is complicated for multiple reasons (and no, they don't think taking their picture captures their soul) so I have a lot of animal pictures. Here are photos from my recent family reunion.  By happy circumstance, 5 of the 6 siblings were in Tanzania at the same time minus the post-operative one. One of our excursions was to Ngorongoro Crater National Park. We stayed in a luxury tent site where you sit around the campfire pictured here and tell about the last year The tents are these huge arrangements with king-sized beds. It's the dry season so the grass is brown except near water. While most herds are species specific, the wildebeest and zebra hang out together due to their symbiotic sensory relationship. The zebra have sharp eyes and act as the watchdogs, err, watchzebra. Cheetah are fast enough to easily catch a zebra or wildebeest, but once they catch one, they aren't big enough to take down anything older than a young calf. Cheetah are not into catch and release so they hunt gazelle and impala which are more bite-sized for them.  But we digress.  The zebra are on the lookout for African lion, King of the Jungle that doesn't actually live in the jungle. What wildebeest bring to the pairing isn't sight or brains (The guide characterized them as "no-brains.").  They do have a keen sense of smell and can lead the herd to where the water is.

A combination of instinct and the faint smell of distant water lead 1 1/2 - 2 million wildebeest and around 1/2 million zebra and other animals including carnivores on a 1,800 mile circuit from the southern Serengeti to southern Kenya and back.  The big pack is up north now so what we see in the crater are the nonmigrating wildebeest hanging out there - kind of like Americans retiring and moving to Florida.

Next time, the people.

The highway is better than the dirt roads. Sometimes.

Mt. Meru is in our backyard.  Almost 15,000 ft tall.

Driving down the main road (paved) through town is pretty good in the daytime.  Rush HOUR is from 6 to 7 PM.  Now it is just one lane each way, but it is just as much bumper to bumper as LA. Just on a smaller scale.  Right after rush hour, it gets dark and scary.  There are no street lights.  None.  So it is very dark. The center line and side lines are pretty much worn off so it is hard to see your lane well especially since many of the oncoming drivers want to see well so they drive with their high beams on. There are push carts sans lights or reflectors rolling along mostly on the shoulder.  They mix in with the pedestrians who are usually on the shoulder.  Every once in a while you see the lights of  an oncoming car blink which means that a dark-skinned, dark-clothed pedestrian has run across the road in front of that car and is now in your lane somewhere in the darkness. Maybe, hopefully, they are across or maybe they had to stop on the center line to wait for a clearing of the vehicles in your lane. Standing in the darkness in the road.

None of this is as big of a  problem as the pikipiki (motorcycles) that are passing you going both directions down the center line and going both directions on the shoulder. In the dark.They jam into any space that isn't physically occupied by a car.  They usually have headlights, but functioning tail lights are not a priority.  When they pass you at night, they disappear into the darkness.  You know they are out there somewhere.  You just can't see them. They also uniformly run red traffic lights and make turns from the wrong lane.

Pikipiki is an example of a Swahili word based on a sound.  Onomatopoeia for you English majors.  I know who you are out there.The motorcycle sounds like this - pikipikipikipikipikipiki. I was just in a town on the island of Zanzibar named Bububu.  There was a train station in the town so it was named after the sound a train makes going down the tracks.  Bububu, Bububu, Bububu. 

I don't care if they have a fun name.  I still don't like pikipiki. Quite a few of them are motorcycle-taxis.  Most of the drivers wear a helmet.  For the passengers, it is BYOH (Bring Your Own Helmet) so they don't wear helmets.