I'm not sure what exactly that means, but I woke up one day in the hot African sun and had those words swirling around my head. People have been asking me questions like "did you learn a lot?" "was it eye opening?" "was it hard?". I understand that all these questions are the polite, standard questions you ask when someone returns from a Third World country but it doesn't change the fact that its annoying.
Here's a quick list of the basics of my trip to Tanzania:
1. Poverty abounds. Children begging for food is a daily sight.
2. The average temperature was 30-38
3. The national language is Swahili. I can get by speaking this language.
4. In a way it was eye-opening, however, poverty is what I study. There was little that I saw there that I was unprepared for. On the other hand, how prepared can you be?
5. Africa is as hard or easy as you want it to be. Let's remember that we are rich and white (figuratively of course) and if you want to go 5 star all the way, you can. If you want to backpack you can. Africa was as hard as I could afford... I will not say that I lived in poor conditions, because I didn't, but it had its fair share of rats and cockroaches.
6. I ate a lot of rice, goat and peas. I couldn't care less if I never ate these foods again.
7. Yes I will go back.
Thats the short list. I'll share my musings and also hilarious anecdotes as the time passes.
