Week 7 part 1: "Watch his butt."

👷🛠Eine deutsche Übersetzung ist in Arbeit...💪
Time for our first dancing lesson – inside. When we arrive we see that I am not the only white person. I thought if we join a dancing class I would be the only person having white skin. But now it's the opposite: J is the only black person apart from our teacher. To my surprise I also have to realize that those people are also from Germany. I try to keep the conversation in English to not exclude J from our conversation but they don't seem willing to speak more English than necessary. They are three girls and one guy who made his volunteer work here a few years ago and now wants to show off with his Swahili knowledge. I am not that good yet but I understand words like “eat and go”. He tells the teacher that they will go and eat something after the dancing lesson. He waits for one girl to ask what's going on and gives her a translation of what happened with an air of proud and control. I ask another girl what she's doing and she says she's also a volunteer working in a school between Arusha and Moshi. I ask what she's doing there. She twitches with her shoulders and I ask her again in German and she answers that she doesn't know what she's doing there. I have the feeling that my jaw drops but it doesn't. You don't know what you’re doing? I make suggestions – in German because I have the feeling her English is not that good. Then she says: “I am the girl for everything.” Ok, thanks for the clarification.
Our dancing lesson starts. Our teacher keeps saying its easy but it's not. He is the professional so it's easy for him. But still he sweats the most – it seems like he has his own rainfall over him. When he shows us a part of the choreography where you have to move your hips we all struggle. He tells us to watch him carefully and afterwards we can try. J and the German guy don't seem happy with this part of the choreography. The girls seem to have forgotten that they are not the only Germans in the room and one girl says: “This is a good excuse to watch his butt.”
After the dancing lesson J and me go to a nearby place for lunch and then we go home and take a shower. Afterwards I take my bag and head to “Zumbaland”. I have a meeting with BM. He asked me wether I'd like to swim and I had to say: Yes, I do. The swimming pool is really nice and for 5,000TSH not too expensive. I put my bag down and having my bikini already under my normal clothes I don't mind stripping my streets clothes off in front of everybody else. Then I jump into the water. I swim towards the end where BM is sitting on the edge. He asks why I didn't go into a cabinet to change. “Because I already had my swim clothes on.” He shakes his head with a grin and makes an “ey”-sound. I have to laugh. I let myself float on the back and then I realize that the other guys (there are only guys) are watching me. They start asking me wether I could teach them how to swim. I try to show them but I have the feeling they just ask me to watch me and in the hope I would “rescue” them if something goes wrong. Boys!
When we are finished and changed back into street clothes I see the other guys taking Selfies. Too many of them! I don't know about the pictures but according to the poses they take they look ridiculous. BM and I take a seat at the bar and talk about the horns hanging above us. I get confused when he tries to tell me that a cow has bigger horns than a buffalo. He also tells me that he believes in witchcraft and tries to convince me that there is something like witchcraft. I take my phone, and pretending I just check the time, I text J. I tell him what's happening and he could call me and pretend he'd needed my help in order to rescue me. When J shows up 15min later BM kind of flees. I tell J exactly what happened and J can't hold himself and we have to stop walking so that he can laugh properly. Then we go to the town center and buy some stuff for the orphanage.
After this long day and the crazy week that lays behind us we want to treat ourselves with our favorite place. We want to try something new. After 30min a waiter comes with the cutlery. We are getting excited and pretty hungry. After 20min we ask where our food is and the answer is: It's coming. We wait another ten minutes before the waiter comes with our food. We order new drinks (after this time waiting the drinks you ordered when you came in are bound to be finished). I take one bite and freeze. It's cold. We call the waiter back and ask why this is cold. (By the way: we ordered chips with chicken pieces and bread. But this seems like a sandwich.) She looks annoyed and says she's going to heat it up for us. “Why did we wait that long for cold food?” J asks. I answer: “Because you have to wait this time until is cold.” He's angry but has to grin. “We are not going to pay for the drinks!” “Definitely not!” She comes back and says we should be careful because the plate is hot now. She doesn't apologize or seem concerned that we wait this long. “We are not going to pay for the drinks.” She nearly nods and seems like someone who already had enough for this day. When we are finished and ask for the bill, I complain that we are not paying for the drinks we had when we were waiting. She looks at J and he translates. (Usually she understands my English.) He tells me that she says that she is sorry but there have been too many orders and you’re not able to know wether the food is cold or not. I look at her and she rubs absentmindedly her neckline and looks anywhere but at us. I ask her wether she is sorry because she doesn't look like it and she didn't say sorry at any point. She seems even more annoyed by this “investigation”. I say I won't pay for the drink I had while I was waiting because I was waiting for my food and not for it to cool down. The guy on the next table, who had watched a movie on his phone over the last hour, takes his headphones out of his ears. She seems annoyed and rolls her eyes. J gets angry and says she should go and ask the manager to come. Suddenly she says we don't have to pay for one drink. But J insists and she leaves quickly. I direct Js attention towards the guy who took his headphones out of his ears and we both chuckle. Then I get a feeling of guilt for the woman. It might be true that there are too many orders and that you can't know whether the food is cold now or not. I am angry at her but my feeling of guilt is rising. I tell J and he says I was right from the start. She could have said “sorry” or “You have to wait a bit longer than usual.” I am not completely convinced but when I check my watch and wonder where she and the manager have gone I see that we are waiting for her and the manager now for 30min. I complain and J calls another waiter to get the manager. Instead of leaving and calling the manager she tells him to have mercy with her colleague. When she finally goes to call the manager J complains that our waiter probably asked her to smoothen us. When the manager comes we tell her what happened. Her features harden and without further questions or comments she turns around and says in a deadly voice: “I am going to take care of this.” The guy on the next table, who was apparently listening the whole time, puts his thumbs up in the air. When we pay (without paying for the drinks) and are about to leave the guy next to our table grins broadly and winks to us. The guy stays topic all the way up to the White House. He really made our day.

After school I start my way to the meeting place. I have another meeting with the street-stranger. When I am about to leave the bus I have to be careful: chicken. One of the women who go to the market has stored her chicken under a seat next to the entrance. First I thought it must be dead but it's alive. I have to grin. You would never see something like this in a German public transport bus/train.
We arranged to meet in front of a café. When I wait for him I realize how many men are staring at me. One guy is balancing countless roles and two unrolled maps of the world and the other one of Tanzania. “Buying map?” he asks. I have to chuckle and shake my head. I am still surprised by this unnatural way of selling. But instead of continue to walk the guy stops I front of me. He unrolls another role and shows me a poster of the human body used in biology lessons in school. I say “No, thank you.” And the guy leaves. I write the street-stranger that I am already there and waiting for him when another man approaches me. He asks me where I come from and points at a shop on the other side of the street which belongs to him and inviting me to visit him there. When I tell him can't come now because I am already having an appointment he invites me to dance with him. I am confused how he got that idea and thank him for the offer and tell him that I don’t have time. Then he asks me for my name and when I am not willing to give it to him he says that it would not be bad. Did he meet the guy from my DalaDala ride? He asks whom I am waiting for and suggests it's my boyfriend. When I chuckle and deny this he advices me to try a black guy. I have to chuckle even harder and he tells me the great advantage of a black boyfriend: chocolate. WOW Do all Tanzanians think skin color is able to be mixed? I say I will certainly try to get a boyfriend from Tanzania and he kisses my hand and goes.
Before another creepy guy can come I send the street-stranger that I'm going into the café now. When I found myself a place, I take out my work and order myself a soda. After one-and-a-half-hour I send J a message telling him where I am and that the guy didn't show up and suggesting to have dinner in this café. J is quite furious about that guy and likes the idea of having dinner here. After another hour the street-stranger comes into the café and seems quite relaxed. He asks how I am and explains his lateness with work. I ask what he was been working and get complex explanation about the transport system. Then he asks wether we could shift from the chair and the table to a close by sofa. I am confused how he can be this confident and stupid without apologizing for three hours being late. We shift but luckily after just 20min weird non-sense talk J shows up and the street-stranger somehow flees.

After an exhausting dancing lesson we walk back to the White House and take a shower. When we are finished we take the sweets and drinks we bought for the orphanage and also the clothes and bags J organized for the children. We call a Bajaji to help us transport all our stuff and take off. We say hello and play UNO and a game whereby we play music and the children run around a group of chairs which is missing one chair. When the music stops they have to sit down and the one who doesn't get a place on a chair lost. One girl is extremely stubborn and insists that she was on the chair first. We have to persuade her to play a repetition. She loses again and is extremely bad tempered afterwards. The others try to cheer her up and continue to play. After two hours we go for dinner and before we can leave the children hug us as a goodbye.
When we walk to the White House a taxi comes by and the driver asks us wether we would like to go town for 2,000TSH. This is weird because we are heading exactly in the opposite direction of the towns center.