Turns out, these were not "friends" exactly. They are members of an international biking club and when near another member, they make contact and get a bed and a meal or two before resuming their trek. Don picked them all up st Nashesha's house and I was surprised to see 40 year old adults come through our door! I was even more surprised to learn they are from ITALY....and I was serving them spaghetti! We offered them wine and beer and cheese and crackers before dinner. They acted like they were in the lap of luxury eating at the Ritz!
They took out a laminated map of the globe with their route outlined with a magic marker. We were astonished to see that they have bicycled from Alaska to the tip of South America, and all over East Asia and Australia and are now making their way across Africa! They carry their tent and supplies with them and when going through a desert, 20 liters of water each! I felt like we were accidentally in the company of world class explorers! What an enchanting, memorable evening we had! And there is nothing like feeding campers for getting compliments on your cooking!
A word about money here. One US dollar equals 2230 shillings. The numbers are so big when buying things that an easy estimate is to drop the "thousand" and divide it in half. So 10,000 shillings is approximately $5.00. Wages are very low (we pay Mebo 10,000 sh/day and she is happy to have the work since so many are unemployed) and prices tend to be low too. I can buy 26 long stemmed roses for 5000 sh. They don't last as long as in the US...a week at most, but they are 10 cents apiece!
It is easy to take on the norms around you. So many people watch their pennies and do without anything other than the necessities. It is also easy to start thinking of 5000 shillings as $5.00 (instead of $2.50) since in the US the price would be easily be that much. I found myself wanting to buy a wider roll of aluminum foil since I would struggle to wrap a loaf if bread or cover a cake with the foil that came with our rental house. The wider roll was 6000 shillings and I thought that was a LOT so I did not buy it. Next time I struggled with my foil, I realized I was agonizing over a $3.00 purchase!
Food costs are just amazing. Everyday vegetables (tomatoes, onions, carrots, cucumbers, green peppers, potatoes, green cabbage, eggplant) are very cheap. I just bought a kilo of tomatoes for 2000 sh which is like 25 cents/pound. I bought this at a vegetable stand and I bet Wema's mother could have done better. A huge pineapple (and better tasting than anywhere) is 3000 sh. ($1.50) Also, we have a garden so I can pick lettuce, spinach, Chinese cabbage, all kinds of herbs in addition to free avocados from our trees. We have three different kinds. Incidentally, the avocados are the size of 4 at home and one is 500-1000 (25-50 cents!) if you buy it. I make guacamole regularly and it costs very little. The chips to eat it with seem expensive ...7000 sh, but I have to remind myself, that is not $7.00, but just over $3.00!
Meat (I use the term broadly to include fish and poultry too) is another interesting thing. Now that I know where to go, I can find beautiful meat. The cows here are skinny by US standards and the beef tends to be very lean and tough. Linda warned me about this and said the hamburger is actually very tasty and more tender. The mince (hamburger) is so lean that I add a little oil when browning it! There is almost no fat! The color is pure red. When I make a meat dish, I buy two kilos of round steak which is cut in cubes. Again....pure red....no marbling. I put it in the crockpot for 24 hours! It has wonderful flavor and it just falls apart. Linda does hers in the pressure cooker but I am afraid of using that. The cost seems very high....most people eat meat twice a week because of the expense. I assumed it was terribly expensive because it is priced at shillings/kilo, but I just realized it is $3-4/pound! When we serve chicken or beef it is usually in a sauce mixed with vegetables over rice pasta or potatoes. The Tanzanians, especially the Maasai, just love beef.
When we eat at a restaurant, the food is really GOOD! They use spices so well. I would say the food tends to be spicer than in the US overall. There is a huge Indian influence. The bill is almost never over 15000 sh apiece....$7.00. Tipping is not expected. At really fancy tourist place like the upscale restaurant where we ate last night was 130,000 which included wine, appetizers, two dinners and two deserts! ($58.00) That was a splurge!
So, it is not expensive to entertain at home or socialize in restaurants here. That is a huge plus. Wine and beer are also interesting. The beer is really good. We don't drink beer anywhere other than here. It comes in 500 cc bottles for 2000-2500sh. ($1.00). Wine comes from abroad, mostly South Africa, but also Australia, Chile and New Zealand. It is not of Walla Walla quality, but some is not bad! I pay 13000-20000/ bottle (I just did the math...$6-9! Jeepers! That is less than I thought!). See what I mean about thinking of sh as dollars? Soft drinks in a reusable glass bottle are 400sh (18 cents!) and a 500cc plastic bottle is 1000sh, but then I have to recycle.
Ok, on to other stories. There are so many! What to choose? I will start with this one: we recently got a fancy invitation to an event at Selian Hospital where Don works. Our invitation came hand written to Dr Rowberg and wife on the envelope. This was billed as a "Celebration". The Bishop of the Tanzanian Lutheran Church would be present to celebrate the transition from government involvement to independent control. Truly, I am not sure if that was the purpose or just that they needed money and planned a big celebration to raise money. There is so much I do not understand!
So, we skipped church and raced to arrive for the 10:00 beginning. We parked the car, raced to the courtyard where tents and chairs were set up only to find NOT ONE PERSON in the chairs! Once again, you just have to laugh! We were on Wazungu (white people) time.
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| Debi (in the shadows on the right) and one other person seated at the 10AM start time. |
We had also been informed ahead of time that the medical staff was expected to contribute money to the effort. It was made known that the head Tanzanian doctor was going to give 300,000. The expectation was communicated clearly that everyone should follow suit. Can you imagine??? People in the US would revolt! Not here! A doctor who could not attend gave us money to contribute to give on her behalf. She warned us that we would be expected to say over a microphone how much we were giving!
On the way there Don said he would like it if he contributed 300,000 and I contributed 300,000. ( We feel so rich and humbled by the generosity of Tanzanians...300,000 is HUGE on their salary). I thought about it and told him I was thinking of following him to the microphone and announcing that I would give 400,000! Don jerked his head toward me and said, "WHAT"? I said, "Never mind! I got the reaction I was hoping for!" 😄😄
That day we witnessed Tanzanians contributing 5000 and 10000 sh notes along with money for auction items like a live goat on a leash. Altogether $62,000 was raised! It seemed like the miracle of the loaves and fishes! (Don's editorial note: There is one difference with our experience and the biblical story. Our group all got up and danced in the aisles in celebration.)
Anyway, while sitting in those chairs waiting for the celebration to start, I looked down at my legs. I was wearing a dress and my bare legs were exposed. My skin looked so WHITE! I looked at my legs thinking, who do those belong to? Who is the person wearing white stockings!???
It reminds me of another funny story...when the boys were all at home and growing like weeds. They all wore size 13 tennis shoes. I was used to dealing with left over belongings cuz we had a pool and the kids were always leaving towels and other things behind. One day I looked at all the shoes in the laundry room and saw these small tennis shoes. I wondered what child left them. Then I realized they were MINE!
That is exactly how my white legs looked to me that day! I don't know how to better tell the story of culture shock....whether we are raising teenagers or going to the third world!
More stories will come! I can't do more at this time! As I write, the Rowberg family campout is starting. I hate to miss it!
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