P.S. Post more comments when you read the blog! We get excited to see people's responses and then we cry when there are none. Quit slacking (everyone that's not J)!!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
T.I.T.S.
Although we're still spending 5 nights a week Robert Nevilled in our room, we have made friends with a group of ex-pats (mostly South Africans but with a few other nationalities mixed in) that give us a reason to escape from the house of horrors one or two nights a week. Many of them are born and raised in Africa and they are a wealth of knowledge on how to get by here. They've also taught us some catchy acronyms like T.I.T.S. - This Is Tanzania Stupid and A.W.A - Africa Wins Again. They apply to all the whacky encounters we have, like the fact that no merchant, (especially the taxi drivers) ever has any change for any amount no matter what. We once had to pay $10 for a $3 cab ride because the guy insisted he had no change--A.W.A!!. Or when Brandt went to meet the guy he thought he was going to work for here at a time they set up 3 days earlier, to then walk into his office and find that the guy had left Dar for Morogoro and would be back in a week. Or when the power goes out for 5 hours just because it rained a little, we can't get mad because T.I.T.S. Or when eating at a nice tourist resort in Zanzibar results in two weeks of unstoppable "intestinal distress" to use Brandt's euphemism -A.W.A. These acronyms can be used at twice a day simply because T.I.T.S!!! Anyway, here's a happy photo of us with some of the new friends at the birthday party we went to last weekend. It ain't all bad.
P.S. Post more comments when you read the blog! We get excited to see people's responses and then we cry when there are none. Quit slacking (everyone that's not J)!!
P.S. Post more comments when you read the blog! We get excited to see people's responses and then we cry when there are none. Quit slacking (everyone that's not J)!!
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8 comments:
How do you say "boo-yah" in Swahili? Or "smack down"?
For some reason I want to put a Jamaican accent on Swahili. Is that racist?
Any luck with the tapeworm? And if you get one, can you breed it and bring some baby tapeworms back to the states? Exercise and eating right is just too difficult.
it's nice to see that even with all the trials and tribulations in Tanzania, Brandt has not lost his ability to coordinate his shirts to complement his skin tone.
Jambo from GF, Many family members are now reading the blog, but are being toooo "shy" to respond. They are definitely lurking. Actually we are letting Jason carry the burden of responding. : )
Way to go Jason! Love (what is the Swahili word), Kwaheri, Mom
P.S. I'm having a college student from Kenya visit my school in a couple of weeks. Plus I'm having all 160 students make Mancala games as part of our Africa fun. Do you think we can get into the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most people playing Mancala at the same time?
Hi Robyn.
Granpa & I are watching your blog...glad to see you are having some fun! Some of the other entries are a little anxiety producing.
Love, Grandma J
The Dowds are here too. Kieran and his friend Nate are moving to Africa, but not near you. They will be in the jungle, not the city, and will be ministering to monkeys in their monkey van. It will smell and look like bananas so as to attract all the monkeys to them. There will be a room for the money doctor to take care of them and a room for the mommy monkeys to nurse the babies. Maybe you can plan a trip to visit them since they won't be coming to you.
Where Kieran will be sounds a lot better than where we are. I think we'll move to the monkey van too.
So you managed to find the crew of white people in Tanzania??? If I just looked at the pic I'd say you were still in Santa Boo-Boo. Wink. just givin you a hard time:)
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