Wandering Around Mwanza

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We went to go see the Saa Nane (8:00, or maybe 2:00 if it was read in Swahili time) Museum on Wednesday afternoon. The Lonely Planet Guidebook describes it as a place of weird and quirky things. Basically, a guy with a foot fetish started a museum dedicated to the feet of all creatures, from humans to...well, we don't really know. We (Ryan, Ashley Burns, and I) located it on the map and walked towards it. We finally arrived at the place where the museum should have been, but there wasn't really a sign to the museum. We enter the grounds for the boat tickets to the Saa Nane Game Reserve (an island in Lake Victoria infamous for its abuses of captured chimps) and stumble upon a man who appears to work at the museum. The following is our conservation (we spoke in Swahili, he in English...translated into English here so people can understand, although some of it I don't exactly remember our Swahili phrasing):

Us: Saa Nane iko hapa? Is this the Saa Nane Museum?
Him: *Blank Stare*
Us: Museum?
Him: Yesssssss.
Us: Tunaingia wapi? Where's the entrance?
Him: *Blank Stare*
Us: Tunaingia? Can we go in?
Him: Oh, noooooo.
Us: Kwa sababu gani? Why not?
Him: No.
Us: Kwa nini? Why?
Him: Closed.
Us: But it's supposed to be open until 5:00 and it's only 3:30 now.
Him: Closed.
Us: Inafungua lini? Well, when does it open?
Him: Ummmmm, tomorrow.
Us: Saa ngapi? What time?
Him: Tomorrooooooow.
Us: Saa ngapi?
Him: Ummmmm, 9:00. Yes, niiiiiiine o'clock.
Us: Asante. Thank you. *Turn to leave*
Him: Have a goooood mooooorniiiing.

Goodness gracious. We were ready to murder him. The museum was clearly open he just didn't want to have to work to open the door and let us in. And he talked in such a slow voice. Yes, it was immensely frustrating. Yet we made up for the frustration by going to a random place and sitting down and drinking (coke) for an hour and a half before we were to meet the group for pizza (again).

Pizza was nice still. It's so great to get some "normal" food here. It keeps us thinking of home. And its surprisingly cheap, so all is well. To make the pizza restaurant even better (better than watching a lot of other white people struggle with the complete lack of service and non-verbal communication skills of the waitresses) is that there is a supermarket across the street that sells chocolate. Not just any chocolate, but Cadbury chocolate. For those who have never had the luxury of tasting it, it is absolutely amazing. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that Tanzania doesn't really do chocolate, but Cadbury is so great. Ah, pizza and chocolate - a perfect meal.

Final story of the day (wow, this entry about 9 hours is one of the longest I've typed so far) is about the Mating Game. Yes, it is a geeky/nerdy version of real life events. Basically, everyone gets a random "attractability" number on their back (and you don't know what it is) and your goal is to "mate" with the highest number possible. It works amazingly well if all people involved are labeled hermaphrodites. But when genders are involved (and some people refuse to let others see their number), it gets bad. Add in gifts and blocking, and the game turns violent. OK, we had a lot of fun with it. It probably would have been better if there were 20+ people because then some of us would have "settled" but it was fun anyway. A nice way to spend a night.

Will find out whether this weekend's trip is to Gombe Stream National Park (hopefully!) or to Rubondo Island (still good, just not Gombe Stream). The excitement in my next entry will hopefully be a clue. 😊

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Comments

[Elizabeth]

hmm...
First of all, that woulda really pissed me off, the museum situation...en plus, do you know how Cadbury is actively screwing over its employees/workers in I-don't-remember-which-African-nation-because-we-discussed-it-in-anthro-a-few-years-ago ? Yes...just thought you should know...if only I had more information to tell you there... In case you haven't figured it out/assumed, I am home in the US now...feeling like total and complete crap. I hope that you are doing better...bisous