Today was our first full day in Arusha, Tanzania. After about only an hour and a half of sleep the day got started at 6:15 am. On our way to breakfast we saw our first monkey playing in the trees. We had an orientation class this morning about the TCDC Training center for development cooperation, and then Facts about Tanzania. Which was really interesting, especially when they started to talk about the poverty in Tanzania. According to our teacher Tanzania is not poor, they are actually very rich in resources including lots of minerals, coffee, gold, maize, and tourism. The issue is it is all being privatized and there is a ton of corruption from the government so the common people of Tanzania are not getting any sort of income from it. All the income goes to the investors outside of the country. Another thing that I found really interesting was that the government has set up a food bank where during harvest season the government buys food from the farmers and stores it incase a dry spell comes and there is a drought. Then the government sells the food back to the people at a low price.
After our history lesson we had our morning chai (tea break) and then headed down to lake Duluti where we sat outside and had our first Swahili lesson. After a picnic lunch by the lake we then headed to the heart of Arusha to put our new language skills to use. We first went to the currency exchange place where we got 1130 Tanzanian Shillings to the US dollar. We took a brief tour of the city and then went to the first market where they sold all sorts of fresh meat, produce, and dried fish. This was our first interaction of standing out in a crowd. The people are really friendly and want to sell you their products, so they will say "Karibu" (welcome) and"Sister sister look at this!!"and some will even try to get you to marry them. Our teacher told us to say yes for 10,o00 cattle. (This was a joke Mom and I promise I will be coming home and not some cows) Since, were warned about this before hand we were given some polite saying to say no thank you such as "Hapana Asante" and another longer one that I'm still learning. At first I was really hesitant to say anything at the first market, but by the time we got to the second market where they had arts and crafts I started to be more confident and was able to say "Jambo" and "Karibu" back to the vendors and even tell them "Hapana Asante" and they actually listened!! I even got enough confidence where I made my first purchase, which is a handmade bag and I even bartered to get a better deal!!!! We stopped by one last market to pick up our Kangas (fabric that you wrap around your waist to make a skirt) and our teacher Steven was with us and told us not to buy one for more than 5000 shillings (a little less than 5 us dollars) and I was able to barter again gaining with more confidence this time.
It has been one very long day, but a wonderful first day too!! I am excited for what tomorrow's adventures might bring!!
Love you and Miss you all!!!
Wendy
No comments:
Post a Comment