12/3 Saturday
No visitors last night but Tpid is still sleeping in my room. Every time i wake up, she has turned the lights on and the fans of and is either watching me sleeping or herself in the mirror I bought (which she for the record broke already). I'll have to ask Fatuma to talk to her for me. Cant have a witch starring at me every night, ssteeling my sleep. Grrr.
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Today, me, Sure and Hytham took a bus to Kivokoni. From there, we caught a ferry plus two other hardly woking Daladalas (of which one broke down and had to be pushed my the conductor a few times). The trip to dar es Salaam zoo took abt 2.5hrs one way and it is located in the middle of the nowhere. Tanzanians paid 1USD to enter. White people 20. I had pretty high expectations after looking at the webpage of the zoo, but honsetly, this was the worst thing I have ever seen! I really do hope they use the entrence fee to feed the poor animals. The potential of the zoo could have been great, it had a massive land area but most of it wasnt used at all. The animals were sitting in small cages. Or.....sitting must be considered a vague exaggeration. Lying flat on the ground, hardly breathing, is a better description. I felt so bad watching this animals that I sometimes felt I was gonna start to cry. I kept making sure the animals were breathing....although Im sure it would have been better for them if they didnt. The owner plus all workers on a zoo like this in any European country would have been put in jail.
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Hytham told me that we might have to wait for the bus back home for 2-3 hrs since not a lot of them passes the zoo. We were however lucky that a car stoped and gave us a ride back to the main bus stop. Must say my first hitch hiking experience in Tanzania was very pleasant.!
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We went to see Sure's office on the border Sinza-Tandale. He and his friend Jay rent a little asfalt square with a broken desk and two plastic chairs for 300USD/half a year. On the wall, abt 50 different mobile shells are hanging and Jay explained to be that during a normal day, they would sell between 0-4 of them. According to Sure, we were just meant to drop in and say hi, but ofcourse we stayed for abt 2-3hrs. Not singer custumer came by during this time...
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Everyone finds it very strange here when I tell them i dont really belong to any religion. ppearantly, I am going to be converted to islam by Hytham and to christianity by Sure and Rody. When I tell them I have more faith in destiny, they laugh. They leave everything in the hands of God. 'If God wishes, then I'll sell something today', or 'If God wants, then Ill get a job'. (As if that will happen by just sitting around doing nothing to actively make it happen). I told them that I havent prayed ever and can count the times Ive been to curch, but that despite this, life has been treating me well. I have a university degree, a job if I want and money to travel.
Sure also told me that almost noone here get married because of love, but of economical reasons. I told him I would never marry someone I didnt love. Just another thing they dont understand....
'
Today, me, Sure and Hytham took a bus to Kivokoni. From there, we caught a ferry plus two other hardly woking Daladalas (of which one broke down and had to be pushed my the conductor a few times). The trip to dar es Salaam zoo took abt 2.5hrs one way and it is located in the middle of the nowhere. Tanzanians paid 1USD to enter. White people 20. I had pretty high expectations after looking at the webpage of the zoo, but honsetly, this was the worst thing I have ever seen! I really do hope they use the entrence fee to feed the poor animals. The potential of the zoo could have been great, it had a massive land area but most of it wasnt used at all. The animals were sitting in small cages. Or.....sitting must be considered a vague exaggeration. Lying flat on the ground, hardly breathing, is a better description. I felt so bad watching this animals that I sometimes felt I was gonna start to cry. I kept making sure the animals were breathing....although Im sure it would have been better for them if they didnt. The owner plus all workers on a zoo like this in any European country would have been put in jail.
'
Hytham told me that we might have to wait for the bus back home for 2-3 hrs since not a lot of them passes the zoo. We were however lucky that a car stoped and gave us a ride back to the main bus stop. Must say my first hitch hiking experience in Tanzania was very pleasant.!
'
We went to see Sure's office on the border Sinza-Tandale. He and his friend Jay rent a little asfalt square with a broken desk and two plastic chairs for 300USD/half a year. On the wall, abt 50 different mobile shells are hanging and Jay explained to be that during a normal day, they would sell between 0-4 of them. According to Sure, we were just meant to drop in and say hi, but ofcourse we stayed for abt 2-3hrs. Not singer custumer came by during this time...
'
Everyone finds it very strange here when I tell them i dont really belong to any religion. ppearantly, I am going to be converted to islam by Hytham and to christianity by Sure and Rody. When I tell them I have more faith in destiny, they laugh. They leave everything in the hands of God. 'If God wishes, then I'll sell something today', or 'If God wants, then Ill get a job'. (As if that will happen by just sitting around doing nothing to actively make it happen). I told them that I havent prayed ever and can count the times Ive been to curch, but that despite this, life has been treating me well. I have a university degree, a job if I want and money to travel.
Sure also told me that almost noone here get married because of love, but of economical reasons. I told him I would never marry someone I didnt love. Just another thing they dont understand....
