Pets

We have had many pets since living in Tanzania-  cats, dogs, a hedgehog, a turtle, and even snails and frogs.
     
                    Most Tanzanians don't own pets. 


At least not as we understand the word.

   They may own farm animals such as chickens, goats, or cattle that are useful for the family.  If they own a dog or cat, it is NOT for companionship.   
                   It's because they are useful to the family (catching and chasing away mice or guarding the property).

       Dogs are mutts and strays, dirty and flea bitten, half starved, maybe limping... the street dogs as well as the ones "owned" by Tanzanians.  Dogs and cats are fed scraps, and there isn't any thought of taking them to the vet for shots.

                                    Tanzanians would find it highly unusual how Americans treat their pets.

"Mouse" our newest pet, a hedgehog was found on a friend's farm.  Hedgehogs are often killed by dogs.

 

     Mostly, they see it as a waste of money (food) that could be used for the family.  They find it strange that we are affectionate to an animal.  Most Tanzanian children are scared of cats and believe that they will scratch them at any time.

Holidays in Tanzania

   The interesting thing about holidays in Tanzania, is that they celebrate both Christian and Muslim holidays, as well as their national holidays.
  The holidays for 2014 are:

Jan. 1- New Year's Day
Jan 12- Zanzibar Revolution Day (The President decided on Jan 11th that since the 12th fell on a Sunday this year that the 13th would be a national holiday.  Schools that tried to open, there were police there to tell them they HAD to close this day. ) This day commemorates the day in 1964 when Zanzibar overthrew it's Arab government (Oman).

Jan 13- Birth of the Prophet Muhammad  

April 18- Good Friday

April 21- Easter Monday

April 26- Union Day

May 1- Labor Day

July 7- Saba Saba (Literally "seven seven") International Trade Fair Day

July 28- Eid al-Fitr (End of Ramadan)

Aug 8- Nane Nane (Literally "eight eight") Farmer's Day- There is a week long fair in Arusha, like a county fair

Oct 4- Eid al Adha or Feast of Sacrifice (Muslims remember the day that Abraham obeyed God to sacrifice his son Ishmael but a goat was substituted instead.)

Oct 14- Nyerere Day- Honoring Tanzania's first president, and remembering the day of his death.

Dec 9-Independance Day- The day British government handed over independence to Tanzania in 1963

Dec 25- Christmas Day

Dec 26- Boxing Day

    exact dates were obtained from: http://www.worldtravelguide.net/tanzania/public-holidays 

Convenience Vs. Inconvenience

Life in Tanzania can be pretty inconvenient (from our point of view).  Most people don't own their own vehicle, and have to walk or take buses to go anywhere.  Since we've been without a vehicle for 6 months, we've been walking a lot too.  I walk a mile to the grocery store and back.

   Of course, it's also *convenient* that there are several small grocery stores and even several "Western" grocery stores all within walking distance.  We never lived within walking distance to a grocery store in America and had to drive to get everywhere.

   It's inconvenient that we don't have a dishwasher, washing machine, or microwave oven.  Most people here don't. 
  However, it is pretty *convenient* that we have a house girl who comes everyday and does our dishes, hand washes our clothes, mops the floors, and cooks our lunch for us.

   It's inconvenient that there aren't any frozen dinners, boxed dinners, or other packaged "convenience" foods.  There are no "fast food" restaurants here either.
      I do find it *convenient* that I can buy very fresh and tasty tropical fruits quite near our house, and that my house girl can make us Africans doughnuts or fries for a snack.  I also kind of like that there aren't fast food restaurants. All restaurants are sit down, and you go there to make a meal an event, and plan to spend time relaxing and talking before the food comes because it's never "fast".

   Having to drive all the way down town to the post office to check our post office box because there is no mail delivery can be quite inconvenient (especially when we don't have a car)... but I DO like the fact that we get NO junk mail in our mail box, and when we do get mail it's cards, or packages from loved ones, or magazines. We don't even get our bills in our mail box (read the previous post), so only NICE things come in the mail.  We usually only check it once a week.

   Yes, there are many inconvenient things about living in Tanzania, some that I haven't gone into.  I just don't let those overshadow the things that I love about living here.

Creepy Crawlies

                                    Ok, it had to be done.  I didn't want to write about "bugs and such",

                                  but when you think of Africa, you know you're thinking about all the

 *CREEPY CRAWLIES*

 

First, MOSQUITOS!  I've been told that the mosquitos with black and white striped legs are the ones that carry malaria.  But, I tend not to trust any mosquitos. 

 

Our house is swarming with them.  Probably because we leave our doors wide open all day. 

But, it's hot, and we want a breeze.  So, we live with the mosquitos.  We spray bug spray around the living room at night and such, but the real way to avoid malaria is to use a net when you sleep.

(This isn't really about disease prevention, but we don't take anti-malaria medication, although we do HIGHLY recommend all visitors to take it.  There are too many reason to go into here, I'll write another post about that.)

 

 

This is a silverfish.

 

Another bug I'm used to seeing is silverfish.  I usually find these in my pots or pans, or bookshelves.  They are harmless, and easy to kill.

 

 

Flying ant



Whenever it rains, there are swarms of flying ants that come out and start flying all over the place, looking for places to make a new colony, I'm told.
They somehow make their way into our house.
 (The doors and windows aren't exactly airtight, and have space all around them). 
They are just annoying and die by morning.



Nairobi eye

This little bug is a Nairobi eye or Nairobi fly.  It is tiny, about the size of an ant, but has red and black stripes.  It is very harmful though. If the bug gets squished on your skin, you will can a nasty chemical burn that looks like a bad rash that is very uncomfortable.
For this reason, we always look before we swat anything we feel on our skin. 
Our kids, even Jonathan, all know how to deal with Nairobi eye.
Take a piece of tissue paper, and carefully pick it up and flush down the toilet.

Besides these, we usually have ants in the house.  Also, our neighbor has a bee hive in their roof so we sometimes have bees in the house but that often. 

These are bugs that we deal with on a daily basis, but we just get used to it.
Since I grew up in the woods, it really doesn't bother me at all.

Ok, one more, that does kind of freak me out- weevils.
Whenever I open a can of popcorn, or bag of pasta, etc. I always have to check for weevils.

I have found weevils in a newly opened bag of pasta, and in a can of popcorn I just opened.
So, I always look for bugs before I cook. 

 

Money Matters

I haven't written on here for awhile, so will try to do better.
         Today, I will write about how money is different in Tanzania.
First of all, we use shillings instead of dollars.

 

Other than looking different, money is money. One other difference is that the largest bill is a 10,000 shilling note.  Which is worth around $6.  So, you can imagine when we take out a few hundred dollars at the ATM, we feel like millionaires with wads of cash!

         The exchange rate for dollars to shillings is one dollar is worth 1630 shillings.  Which means the Tanzanian economy is really bad.  The Kenyan shilling is much better- one dollar is worth 80 Kenyan shillings.  So, you can see how much further behind the Tanzanian economy is than Kenya.

     One thing about money here is that we pay all of our bills in cash (rent, utilities, internet), in PERSON.  The bill is either e-mailed to us, or usually delivered to our house in person.  We don't even own a checking account in the country, but just pull out cash with an ATM, since checks are rarely used as a means of payment for anything.  One reason that bills are hand delivered to your house is that there is no home delivery for mail here.  Having a post box is the only way to receive mail, and the person billing you doesn't trust that you have a post box or that you gave him the right address.  So, they send someone to your house with a bill.

      There are a few fancy stores and restaurants in town that accept credit cards, but most of the country works on a cash basis.

     



     

Weather

I am going to write about weather today, because right now, many of our family and friends are in the mist of blizzard-like conditions in the mid-west.  And right now, it is 84 degrees in Arusha. :)  Which is why I live in the tropics.

 This....    OR

This?

      

    Weather is a huge selling point to me for living in Tanzania.  I *dislike* cold weather, snow, sleet, hail, and freezing rain.  When it drops below 60 I feel chilled.  Which is one reason I really enjoy the weather in Tanzania.  Arusha's temperatures usually stay between the 70's and 80's YEAR  ROUND.  It might be a rainy season, or dry season, but the temperature is always moderate.  The hottest month of the year is February, the high being about 87 degrees.  The coldest month of the year is July, which might dip down to 55 degrees at night (BRRR!) 

    One outcome of the consistent weather is the way houses are built.  The windows are all single paned, and usually have noticeable spaces around them letting air in and out.  Most Tanzanian homes that are made from concrete have a concrete block in each room near the roof with holes in it, "to let the air in" from the outside.  Not much thought (or any) goes into insulation. 

   Because we live so close to the equator, the daylight is consistent year round.  The sun comes up around 6AM and goes down around 6PM, only fluctuating about a half an hour throughout the year.  There is no dismal winter afternoons where the sun goes down at 4PM, and no summer nights that last until 10PM.  Personally, I like that. 
    Since we are so close to the equator, we have to be very careful to not get sunburned, and wear hats, sunglasses, and sunscreen when we go out.  It's common to see many children coming out to play, and adults going for a walk around 5 PM, twilight, when the sun isn't as intense.

      All in all, I have to say, the weather in Arusha is lovely.  We have very few thunderstorms (maybe three since we've been here), too far from the coast to worry about hurricanes, and as far as I know there aren't tornadoes in Tanzania either.
        Have a nice day, and stay warm!

Electricity

Since we are in the middle of 24 hour power cuts with 12 hours of power between, power is on my mind.  By power I mean electricity. 
    Electricity in Tanzania is different than in America on several levels.

First of all, the power is 220 volts not 110 volts.  Now, I really don't know what that means except to say that you can't use electric appliances from America with the electricity in Tanzania without using a transformer- unless it specifically says 110-220 volts on it.
  
 The outlets are different here.

            The shape of the plug that can fit into the outlet is different.  So, even if your appliance is 110-220 volts, you would have to have an adapter to plug it into the wall.  We usually use an extension cord that has the correct outlets on it.  To confuse things even more, many appliances that you buy here are from China or South Africa which have a different plug again.  So, our house has many types of adaptors.

        Also, there is a power switch on the power outlets.  You can switch off the power at the wall without unplugging the appliance, which is nice. 

     Another difference is that for some reason, all the light switches for the bathrooms are on the outside of the bathroom.
  

The red switch turns the instant hot water heater on both of the showers in our house.  Most people here don't have hot water heaters, but the few that do usually only turn them on a little while before they want to use the hot water to save power.  We have an instant hot water heater that heats the water as it comes of the shower.  Unfortunately, we get shocked if we touch the tap while it is on, so we have to turn on the shower, then the heater, then after our shower, turn off the heater, and then turn off the water.  Something is wrong with the grounding in the house, I think.
      
         Another difference is that there are two types of light bulbs and sockets here:





Pin type light



Screw type light

 

  All the houses we've lived in here, which are many, have had both types of sockets in them.  So, we have to have both type of light bulbs.  Don't ask why.

 

 

    The biggest difference though, is that we are often without power.  It is rare for us to go a week without losing power for several hours.  Right now, they are working on the power grid, so for 10 days we are without power for 24 hours, and with it for 12 hours, and so on. 

     Not being able to rely on power makes you modify things a bit. First of all, I have to have a gas stove/oven.  That ensures that dinner won't be ruined if the power goes off while I'm cooking.  We have a generator to recharge our phones and computers when they run low.  I only let the kids have 1/2 hour of computer time a day, so they are used to entertaining themselves without power.  They really don't notice it if we lose power during the day.  We have candles and kerosene lanterns for nights if we don't want to run the generator. 

     Those are some of the differences between Tanzania and America when it comes to power.  To be honest though, most people here don't have power at home.  So, when there is a power outage, it doesn't affect them at all!