Hello again. This week and a half has been a time of new discoveries. We went to the largest mall/shopping center in Dar Es Salam to stock up on some supplies that may or may not be readily available once we reach our communities. For example, good shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste etc. Speaking of which, I was happy to discover HERBAL toothpaste. Why, with chamomile, sage, myrrh, and eucalyptus it seemed like such a good and healthy idea. Or so I thought.
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| Herbal Colgate...just like brushing your teeth with VICKS VAPORUB. | | | | |
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| A very clever use of the toilet seats! |
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| We can be clever, too. Our homemade medicine cabinet. |
We spent some time at the Peace Corps Headquarters in Dar Es Salam where we had more language training and learned even more about the country, culture and safety protocols.
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| Love these African trees at the Peace Corps headquarters in Dar. |
Tanzania Shillings are the currency here. We still can't organize the exchange rate in our heads, but this helped a lot.
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| So, technically, $600 makes me a millionaire in Tanzania. |
It is even harder to determine the time. The sun rises at around 06:00 every morning (asubuhi) and sets between 6 & 7 in the evening (jioni/ usiku) so there are 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night every day. Tanzanians tell time based on this so 7 am is HOUR ONE ASUBUHI and 8 am is HOUR TWO ASUBUHI. Using this same method. 9 pm is HOUR THREE JIONI/USIKU and 10 am is HOUR FOUR JIONI/USIKU. Jioni is supposed to be late afternoon or early evening and Usiku is supposed to be night time, but there seems to be no agreed upon time that differentiates the two. So we remain confused.
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| Does anybody really know what time it is? |
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| One of our very good and patient Kiswahili teachers, Loyce. |
