cultural comparison

The honey tastes distinctly different here, which, like everything that has been different from what I expected, makes perfect sense.

In my first couple weeks I've spent a lot of time comparing Tanzania to Ghana, or more specifically Moshi to Awutu and Buduburam (and to a lesser extent Accra). A lot of the differences seem obvious in retrospect - Moshi is a growing city, not a small village or a refugee camp. It is also a very clean city. There are waste barrels throughout town and they are very serious about littering. Ignorant muzungus have been hauled off to the police station to pay a fine for dropping their cigarette butts on the street. I hear the term "mzungu," meaning "foreigner, white person," much less than I heard "obruni" in Ghana, which is refreshing. I still get it from time to time, but I have yet to encounter a horde of children running up to me yelling "mzungu mzungu what is your name?" Overall the people seem less demanding and confrontational, but they also haven't been recently traumatized by a civil war and dependent on others as the Liberian refugees were. I've already mentioned the luxury of my house, running water, usually electricity... But I think that is part and parcel of living in the city. I work out of an office. My computer is pretty old and we don't have air conditioning but it's easier for me to get online here than any time I went to Equal Exchange in West Bridgewater. I think I already mentioned the availability of milk and cheese and ice cream, though I will note that the bread upon which to put cheese is not as good as in Ghana. Also I haven't been as deprived of fresh fruit and vegetables as I was in Ghana. Almost every dish from a restaurant here is served with some sort of small cucumber and tomato salad. And I've discovered the delicious and intriguing passionfruit. In terms of water, they do not have the lovely half liter bags, so it's either bottled water or boiling and then cooling and then drinking. Though straight from the tap has been fine for brushing my teeth. I kind of miss the bagged water, and I definitely miss Awutu egg sandwiches. All in all, life in Moshi is much more similar to life in Boston than I expected - more like Boston than like Awutu, that's for sure.