Through the Seasons

Luxuries and Conveniences

As I think about going home I can’t help but think about some of the luxuries we’ll be experiencing again. I’ll list out some of those I’ve thought of so far…

- We can buy a piece of fruit or a vegetable – and then – eat it. Amazing. You really have to sanitize your fruits and veggies here. (I realize in the States it’s good to wash these things too – mainly because of insecticides and things like that. Here you’re not only washing but sanitizing and you’re trying to get rid of diseases and parasites.)

- When we want to mail something we can walk to the mailbox and drop it in. Convenient! Oh and we could probably bet on that piece of mail arriving to its destination.
- We won’t be sleeping under a mosquito net. These look kind of fun and romantic. Some people in the States decorate with them. But here it’s a matter of safety. It’s important that the mosquito net completely surrounds the bed with no openings, goes all the way to the floor, has no holes, no mosquitoes are actually inside the thing with you instead of on the outside, and that you don’t lie against it at all. And if you have to get out of bed it requires you quickly raising the net, crawling out from under it, and lowering it back down to the floor. When we’re in the States we’ll be able to just sleep, get up, sleep, get up…

- We’ll be able to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without scouring the area for unwanted critters that may have snuck in overnight. We could, technically, get up and go to the bathroom at night without turning any lights on. Here I keep the light in the bathroom on all night so I can search for bugs as I’m walking in. Oh. And I’m pretty confident there won’t be any geckos in the house in the States. Geckos are harmless but when you stagger into the bathroom half asleep and see something scurry away – it can give you a heart attack!!

- Fast food will be – um – fast.  The quickest restaurant here in town (1 of only about 3 restaurants total) is called “Hasty Tasty”.  The food is good.  But hasty?  Not by a long shot.  The service here in Tanzania is good – just slow…

- The temperature will be regulated about everywhere we go.

- There will be plenty of living, relaxing space to enjoy. As well as furniture! Since we’ve been at a campsite all this time, and I’m sure you wouldn’t expect otherwise, we have no couch to sit on. That means when we’re at the banda we’re either in a plastic patio chair or on the bed and either one can hurt your back after a while. It’ll be soooo nice to sit on the couch in front of a fire drinking hot chocolate. Mmmm…

- I will be able to pick up anything purchased at a store without having to worry about the sanitation of it or the need to wash my hands afterwards. Here, when I buy something – let’s say a bottle of ketchup or carton of milk – there’s no telling what has touched the container. So anytime I touch it afterwards I think of how dirty it probably is and quickly wash my hands afterwards to prevent any unwanted side effects.

- We’ll be driving a borrowed vehicle on beautiful, smooth roads. I saw a picture recently of an American road and gasped. I have almost forgotten what they look like! The main road here in Tanzania goes from coast to border and truly isn’t THAT bad – until you put it beside an American road. That’s when I realize the difference! I probably won’t be bounced around at all in the car while we’re home.

- Speaking of traveling, we’ll be able to drive down the road too without having to stop at police check after police check. I guess there are so many here because the police aren’t driving around everywhere. I really don’t know. I feel like we never get too far until we’re stopped again either by those police checks or big speed bumps in the middle of the road – or dodging a pot hole.

- There will be an abundance of things available to us in the States that we’re used to having. That will be a luxury and at the same time we’ll have to be careful. We’re already repeating to ourselves, “We do not need one of everything. We do not need one of everything.”

- Internet service will be reliable AND affordable – neither of which describes the service here.

- I can pick up the phone and make free or reasonably priced phones calls in the States. Not so here! Expensive. Expensive. That’s why most people here send text messages instead.

- Our clothes, dishes, and bodies will be washed in CLEAN WATER. At the campsite all of these are washed with river water. That’s right. Brown, stinky river water. Sometimes I wonder what the point is at all. But I realize there is a point so we still wash all these things. And in Mbeya obviously it won’t be like that. It’s just good old “camping life”. We do use bottled water for washing some things, for cooking, and of course for brushing our teeth but if I used it for everything I’d like to use it for (including showers) we’d be broke already!

- I’ll be able to brush my teeth with warm water from the tap. I don’t know why I like to do that but it’s something I’ve missed. It’ll be nice to have an abundance of clean water to drink, cook with, etc.

All this is not to say that being here is terrible for us. It’s definitely not. We’ve adjusted well and the African ways have become somewhat like second nature. Some things we didn’t even consciously adapt to. Some things just are what they are and we immediately became okay about it. Some of the things mentioned are also because we’ve been living at a campsite instead of our own home in Mbeya. We have things to look forward to there as well!

I think the contrast between the two countries has just become more apparent to me now and will be even more so when we first get to the States. The sanitation thing is probably the most drastic difference. It is always on my mind here. Everything I touch. Every hand I shake. I have to be careful not to touch my face or forget to wash my hands thoroughly with soap. It’s like always living during flu season. You think about it when you’re shopping, cooking, visiting, traveling…always, always, always. It’ll be nice to get that off my mind for a period of time.

I always knew that America was a comfortable, luxurious country full of conveniences but now it has become even more obvious. It’ll be interesting to see how “re-entry” will affect us. We really don’t know what to expect and hopefully it will be as smooth going back as it was coming here in the first place.