Mambo!
It’s our second day here in Mwanza and already we have done so much. The flight was long getting here, but we were all glad to arrive.
We had a thirteen hour layover in Amsterdam, which originally we thought would not be enough time to get everything in we wanted to see or do; but we soon realized that we were just too exhausted to spend this entire time downtown. We arrived to the Amsterdam airport around 7am, and took the train into town. On a Sunday morning in Amsterdam it was a completely deserted place to be! We noticed two things about the city: Amsterdam was a bike city; bikes were piled side by side everywhere we went. Secondly we noticed the vast amount of garbage piled on the streets and strewn about, undoubtedly from the night before. It was definitely a beautiful city regardless, with canals down nearly every street. We walked around blindly for a while until shops began opening up around 10am and the streets which were nearly deserted were now becoming packed. We found a map of one of the tour buses that visited all the essential sites to see, so we walked following the map for a few hours. Along the way we went past Anne Frank’s house, which had a huge lineup to get in, we walked past many museums, there seemed to be a museum for everything you could think of. And of course we found our way to the Red Light District, which we were told was something you just had to see if you were going to Amsterdam. It was definitely a different experience! On the way back to the airport, Marta and I fell asleep instantaneously. We woke up only to barely get back in side and into the waiting area. We still had 6 hours; this day seemed to go on forever!
Finally, back on the plane now heading to Nairobi meant we would soon be in Mwanza. The flight went by fairly well and arriving to Nairobi we could feel the heat! We were definitely no longer in Canada; it was 17 C at 5:30am. After a short stop, we were back on the plane, this one more similar to the Bearskin airplanes flown in Northern Ontario. It was small, but got us there. Arriving into the Mwanza airport we got to see much of the cities rocky landscape, which we learned was why it is called “the Rocky city”. I loved it already! Waiting for us at the airport was Stephanie (the current intern) and Puis, the cab driver, who is good friends with the interns.
It was only 10am (although 3am back home in Canada) so we were excited to be here, but couldn’t help but getting some sleep. After napping we had fresh fruit, the mango was delicious, definitely the best I’ve ever had! We met some fantastic people, first our housekeeper Margaret. She speaks little English, so it was exciting to try to speak Swahili to her. It’s a fun language to try to learn and hopefully I’ll start to pick up more, it is only our second day so I know I can’t expect to be fluent (yet), but I wish I could understand a bit more. It’s a little overwhelming when people are speaking it and you really have absolutely no idea what they are trying to say. Steph and Olivia are great with it, which gives me hope that we will get better. We also met Esther, Mama Joyce, Mama Asha’s daughter, and a baby girl Martha from downstairs. She is adorable!
For our first day we wanted to take it easy, so we decided to head over to Tunza for yoga on the beach (and yes it was at sunset!). I couldn’t get over how gorgeous Mwanza was. After yoga, we went inside for dinner, where I got the Fish Curry, fresh Nile Perch. It was also delicious; you can tell it’s really fresh! At Tunza we met the owner Jan and his son Hanku, as well as their good friend Jacque. Yolanda and Arja also met up with us out there (they are the Dutch medical students who lived in the apartment with Steph and Olivia). After dinner they challenged Steph and I to a match of Fast Pool; which is played pretty much how it sounds and is so fun. After the white ball stops moving, you have three seconds to shoot it or the other team gets two shots. I played ref for a while at the end, but I’ll need to get more familiar with the rules. When we were all tired out, we went out to have a fire on the beach, where it was still fairly warm out. It was definitely a wonderful way to spend our first day in Mwanza.
On our second day we got to do errands, which was great because it allowed us to get out and walk around down town to see the city. It was really busy, even at 7am we heard people out on the streets starting to set up. In Swahili 7am is ‘saa moja asabuhi’, which means that it is the first hour in the morning, which is probably because this seems to be the time when everyone begins their day. I really liked walking around, but it was really warm. Hopefully I’ll get used to the heat soon. First we went to exchange money in to Tanzanian Shillings so we could go to buy cell phones from the Vodocom shop. This might sound funny, but everyone in Mwanza seems to have cellphones because it is really inexpensive to use. After that we went to get lunch at Kuliana’s pizzeria. We got fresh pineapple, avocado, banana and papaya. Normally I don’t like papaya, but it tasted much better here. We also shared two pizzas.
After having been out and about for 4 hours in the hot sun we made our way back to the apartment, but not before running into Mohammed (Missy’s boyfriend) and his brother Isaac. They were nice and taught us a few new words in Swahili. I wrote out as many new Swahili words I’d heard or things I wanted to know how to say as soon as I got back to the apartment. Margaret was very excited about us learning Swahili and would tell me words to write, while Esther helped translate. For dinner, Margaret and Pendo came with Stephanie, Marta and I down to the big market to get vegetables, fish, and cassava and corn flour for Ugali. Ugali is one of their main foods they eat with meals, so I was excited to try it. The market was pretty busy and quite overwhelming. Getting more practice with counting money will be really important and knowing how much things should cost. Along the way people are always yelling ‘mambo’ or other greetings at you, and of course pointing out that you are white. I even had a boy come up to us while buying Vitumbua (a deep fried flour patty) to tell me that he loved me. I’ve been told you’ll get a lot of marriage proposals, but it’s funny when it actually happens.
Supper was fantastic, so tasty and we ate with our hands. The fish is cooked whole, so you ate the meat right off the bones. It was a nice way to end the evening.
In two days I love this city already and plan to come back as soon as I can. I can’t wait for tomorrow, we are heading to Mabatini to visit the kitchens and the Mamas.
Usiku mwema!
