To those who are confused - no, they don't speak French in Tanzania.
It's Swahili and English. Before I came, I was thinking "hm that's kinda boring.. no linguistic fun-struggle if they speak English".
Wrong.
English is spoken, yes, but only little. Local, ordinary people speak Swahili, often only Swahili. So in order to communicate with the locals, especially in the rural areas, I and D (another guy here with me on the same scheme) have started taking Swahili lessons :D
ANYWAY (that was not even about the weekend),
Here's a short report of my first weekend at Dar es Salaam :)
First of all.. the picture at the very top, is the typical scenery you get if you walk about in Dar. I walked and walked and walked and didn't bump into really-interesting things. Well, those people (the pic on the left), balancing things on their head, was amusing -they truely make me re-realise that I've come to Africa. 
We also went to a couple of shopping malls (where I met this beautiful kid!), but not the developing country-like markets yet.. yea, that's on the TO DO list for the next weekend!
Among many things I did on the weekend, one to be mentioned is the visit to Tingatinga village -where a group of artists live (I think), draw, and sell these African pictures. Look. How cool??!
This is one of the pictures I bought.. the smallest size available, only 4000Tshs (less than $3)!On the whole - it was a great weekend, but I need to dig deeper.. to see the life of the ordinary people here. so... TO BE CONTINUED! :)
In South Italy women also used to balance things on their heads - my aunt still does that. But this should'nt count as an exception, being indeed South Italy a part of Africa in many respects! :)
ReplyDeleteAs for your previous reply, I do expect much from your blog! And I also want to know about your progress in Swahili... kama yalikuwa yameandikwa kwa lugha ya kiswahili itakuwa kubwa!
Wow, you are learning Swahili now!!
ReplyDeleteBeing able to communicate with locals in their language is really important and useful as we know. Ganbatte :)
Hisayo
Uomo del Monte: ??? whatty?? my kiswahili is not that good yet! ninaweza kuelewa na kusema kiswahili KIDOGO!
ReplyDeleteHisayo: hehe! asante sana, ndiyo - ninajifunza kiswahili (Thank you very much, yes - I'm learning Swahili)
ganbaru! I'll try to update this blog as much as I can so please come around sometime and comment :)
Saki-chan, if you start buying things now, you will end up having to make 2 trips to japan and back in order to be able to carry them all :))))
ReplyDeleteLove your blog, keep writing, keep writing! :)
xxxx
haha Nadja, that is SO true! I'm thinking of throwing away everything I brought and fill my luggage with these lovely colourful stuff at the end of my stay :P
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment (and the compliments!), I'll do my best :) miss youuu!!