Daniel back in Tz

Hi All. We are back! Sorry for not posting earlier, but settling back in has been harder/busier than we expected. Strangely enough, I think we had more culture shock coming back to Dodoma than we did either coming out here in the first place, or returning to the UK. Maybe because we were primed to expect culture shock and reverse culture shock, but not coming-back culture shock!

.

We had a good time in the UK, and saw lots of people. If you weren't in that category, we're really sorry - it was nothing personal! I think we probably returned to Tanzania more tired than we left, which wasn't really the idea. From what I hear this is fairly normal though - next time we'll try and combine it with a real 'holiday'!

.

One of the things that struck us back in the UK was how many people enjoy reading these witterings. This is encouraging and will help us persevere for another year! Sorry that our posts are not more regular - we seem to slowly slip back in the week.

.

Anyway, I'm sure there will be more to follow, but for now: things that were weird/striking coming back to the UK:

.

* how many cars there were - and how shiny and new they all were

* how busy everyone was, and how fast everything moved

* being able to drink (and wash our teeth with) tap water

* buying milk from a shop! (when you run out)

* how green everything was

* how tidy and clean everything was

* how much variety of food there is. We were kind of theoretically aware of this, but coming back to Tz has emphasised this practically.

.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.

Lots of people asked us how they can tell who is writing any particular post, so we'll try and make it more obvious from now on! [but as a rule of thumb, if the text is justified, it's me (Daniel), but if it's all messy round the edges :) it's Libby]