It’s A Long Way To Tipperary

Even though we were never more than 160km from the Kenyan border there were some real differences between the Tanzanians and the Kenyans.

When we were walking in the Usumbaras people were coming up to us with pieces of fruit as gifts, just to say ‘karibu Tanzania’ (welcome to Tanzania). The hospitality of the country was really amazing.

Talking to people there was also a sense of national pride that you didn’t get in Kenya. In Kenya, especially after the post election violence, you all too often here people talk about how Kenya is split into the 42 tribes. People in Kenya will describe themselves by their tribe as opposed to calling themselves Kenyan – not so much in Tanzania. This sense of national pride and unity has been attributed to a number of things including the fact that Swahili is universally spoken with no colonial languages bullied into the local population from birth.

I don’t really know why it happens but it’s there and I definitely like it!

Don’t get me wrong either, I love Kenyans and they also offer a lot of things Tanzanians don’t!

Another thing Tanzanians excelled at was ‘muzungu spotting’. Tanzanian children seem to have a sixth sense than makes them just explode if a white person is anywhere within a kilometer of them. We could be walking in the thickest forest or bush and be completely out of line of sight of ANYONE and suddenly we’d hear this eruption of ” MUZUNGU MUZUNGU MUZUNGU!!!!” Now this happens in lots of places but nothing like the level we saw in Tanz! There doesn’t seem to be any expectation for the muzungu in question to actually DO anything other than perhaps wave back, the kids just seem to want to point and shout, endearing at first and in 0ther countries where it happens less but in Tanz it quickly gets annoying!!

I really enjoyed Tanz, the quirky differences to Kenya were really interesting for me. As we never strayed too far from the Kenyan border the countryside wasn’t massively different to anything you’d find in Kenya.

I can’t wait to go back and explore some of the more remote areas and back roads i’ve been hearing about recently! I’m also interested in how the country changes as you head south. Mouth watering stuff, can’t wait until the end of June!!

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