It appears living in a different culture is going to be more difficult than I was allowing myself to realize. Here’s the situation:
We have quite a few of our things (mainly baby items gifted to us while in the States) on a couple of pallets that were shipped air freight to Dar es Salaam. [...]
Bits of Culture's archives
Big Cultural Struggle for me
TimeWarner is experimenting with pay-by-download-usage internet service
Here’s the article.
I hope this doesn’t materialize and especially doesn’t catch on to be the norm for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) across the country. Internet access in Tanzania is operated like this and it hurts, I tell ya. Once we get back to TZ, we’ll have that kind of set up where we buy internet [...]
Around the Room
Tonight, Dana and I went to our first of four lamaze classes. When we checked in at the front counter, we were told that there were four other couples already in the room. As we were walking down the hall, the thought ran through my head of I’m not up for meeting a bunch of [...]
under: Bits of Culture, Life in...
A Place Far, Far Away
If you’ve ever traveled overseas, especially to a 3rd world country, and spent time close to real life there, the feelings I’m about to describe may be a little familiar.
I went to town this afternoon and on the 15-minute ride there, I had a little time to just ride and think about what I was [...]
She likes to look at your elephant
Okay, it finally happened to me.
We were walking back to our banda after chai (tea) break today and Dana noticed her shadow. The sun was directly behind us so you couldn’t tell by the shape of the shadow that she’s pregnant. So, she stopped and turned to the side for a few seconds [...]
under: Bits of Culture, Life in Iringa
Pop Secret
One day this past weekend, I heard the village kids playing in the river. There were a bunch of them so I decided to give them some popcorn someone sent to us from the states. (Thanks again, by the way!) So, I walked over to the riverbank and yelled, “Watoto chizi!” (Crazy kids) [...]
Tumerudi
We have returned
We just got back today from our first safari. Our friends, the Nicholls, bought a Land Rover last week and invited us to go to Ruaha National Park with them this weekend. You betcha!
Going on a safari in Africa zaps energy out of you due to riding on the rough terrain [...]
under: Bits of Culture, Life in...
Ufagio Wetu
Our Broom
Most brooms here are sold without handles. It is not that they have a place for the handle to fit and you just have to provide your own. No. The brooms here are handheld and Tanzanians just bend over to sweep. Our banda floor can get pretty dirty if we don’t sweep it between [...]
under: Bits of Culture, Life in Iringa
Trying a new way to blog… retroactive…
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Jumamosi 13 Oktoba 2007
We slept in again this morning, getting up @ 830a. That was nice. Since we have a small fridge in our banda, we can keep milk here and skip breakfast in the dining room if we like. I had a big ol bowl of Frosties, a [...]
under: Bits of Culture
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For the past two days, salesmen have stopped by the house. I answered the door yesterday with a barking poodle hanging by his harness from my left fist. Today, we just let the poodle bark from the floor and acted like we weren’t here. On the norm, we’re more like the latter [...]
under: Bits of Culture
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