Is two weeks too soon?

Image obtained from Google

Hey all,

So I was asked a question by a male friend at work a while back. He said that his friends in a group chat were discussing if two weeks is too soon for a woman to ask a man to define a relation. He asked for my opinion and being a African as I am, I replied with a question or 5. My first question was why would she ask that in two weeks? What has been happening that made her ask a guy to define a relationship in just two weeks?

I honestly don't believe a woman or man would request someone to define a relationship in two weeks time of knowing each other unless there is more to the story than what I was informed.

The responses I gave were; 1. A lady can ask a man to define a relationship if they have known each other as friends for a while and of late they have been intimate beyond what ordinary friends do, hence a lady wanting to know where they stand. I would too. Are we friends who get on with it or what? I would want to know so that I know my next move..a.k.a walk away as fast as I can and go AWOL at the response of being 'friends with benefits'. 

2. A lady would ask a man to define a relationship within two weeks if they have been intimate and she is catching feelings. If she is a one man type of woman (meaning, she does not plan to be hooking up with more than one man). She would want to know if he has any intentions to be her beau or if he's just trying the waters.

3. A lady would ask a man to define a relationship within two weeks, even if they have not been intimate, but maybe a guy is acting some type of way e.g, being very romantic, taking her out on dates, sending her romantic messages, calling her and checking up on her constantly which makes her feel loved and hence wanting to know if he is investing in a relationship or if he is buttering her up for a one night stand or friends with benefit kinda thing. I would want to know too.

I must say though, it was an interesting topic to discuss, even though we took it seriously and challenging like a Kilimanjaro climb. I don't know if this happened to a real person of if it was merely a topic guys chose to discuss for fun sake. But all in all, there is always a reason behind what people do and say even if they don't quite know it yet...it helps to get some background information before coming to a conclusion.  

Domestic Tourism

Sunflower plantation in Mlolo / Kikombwe Iringa.

Hey y'all, 

It was an amazing 6 weeks back in motherland filled with joy, calmness, shock, sadness, reality-check, togetherness, and so much more. We had to go to Iringa twice two weekends in a row. Both times were not for a happy reason, but I give God the Glory. On our way back from Iringa we passed through Mikumi National Park, we had our few minutes of utalii wa ndani as we drove through the main road. We came across different animals both times, I made sure to record videos, please watch the video link below. 

Even though I had been to Mikumi National Park before back in 2002 (school tour), it felt different this time around, I desired to go back into the park and not just drive through it. My sister had never been to Mikumi and she wanted to do a domestic safari so badly, unfortunately, time was not on her side. Even though it was not an actual safari, we were happy with what we saw and we still desired for more. 

When I was in Zimbabwe, my cousin Zack asked Kaka about his experience doing safaris in Tanzania. We Tanzanians don't take advantage of what we have as much as foreigners do. It was interesting that a Tanzanian was asking a foreigner for tips to visit Zanzibar,  and whether they (my cousin and his family) should do Serengeti Safaris or Ngorongoro. But my cousin was real, he talked about how we Tanzanians work hard to make money yet do not spend the time to enjoy what our country has to offer. And it had to take some convincing from his wife for them to go back to Tanzania for a break this June to visit national parks as well as swim in the clear waters of Zanzibar. 

I do not have the statistics of Tanzanians who do domestic safaris but I would guess not as many as the government wishes, and I wonder why that is. Do we do a better job of advertising our mother nature to the outsiders more than we do to the insiders? Or do the outsiders do a better job of telling each other about what Tanzania has to offer and that's why they flock in in good numbers? And I say this because when I traveled with Kaka back in 2010, we went to Maziwe Island in Tanga which I had never heard of before he mentioned it, so perhaps the lonely planet has something to do with it. And no, it's not just me, I have mentioned Maziwe Island to a few friends and they had no idea about it. I mean, apart from mentioning the five national parks which we had to remember thanks to the childhood songs about Tanzanian national parks, what other parks can we think of on the top our head? I came to know about Selous national park in 2012 when my supervisor at my first job had taken his family on a safari to Selous on one of the long weekend, I think it was organized by their community. 

How many of us Tanzanians truly know what we have, without being adventure lovers like my friend Suzanne who organizes group tours within TZ and abroad for her family and friends just for fun, or my friend Hasina who owns a Tours and Travel company? How can an ordinary Mamatembo be informed about what Tanzania has to offer, near and far, so that on a lousy day when I have the cash and a long weekend, I can decide to go somewhere for a hike, a walking safari, or swim in our exotic beaches or bath in the water falls? I can give some credit to the government for advertising tourism on some TV stations, or a dedicated TV station that I think I came across by accident. But let's be realistic here, I spend more time on Instagram than I do watching TV, how good are we marketing our national treasures to the social media generation to the point where we are all effectively and equally reached regardless of what media we use?

Anywho, I suggested to my cousin to visit the Ngorongoro Crater and I know he and his wife won't regret it. Zanzibar is a must see as well.

Home

Serviced Apartments

I have just come across a new terms 'serviced apartments' and 'serviced offices' for which I needed further explanation, and I also googled and much to my surprise, I never knew such services exist in Bongo even though I had come across an apartment in Masaki that offers these services. I must admit, I do like this concept, and even though I would not have thought to come up with something like that in a million years, I must give credit to those who did. 

So, basically serviced apartments are fully furnished apartments providing hotel like services and more. So, why would someone decide to stay in a serviced apartment instead of a hotel room or a non serviced apartment you would ask. Well, if you are in town for business or work for a few days, weeks, months or even a year but you are not yet quite familiar with the place, getting a serviced apartment is a better option than renting a non serviced apartment because now you would be fully independent in some aspects like hiring your own maid. Then you would opt to stay in a hotel and lose the homely feel of being in your own place. Not only that, you will get a much bigger living space than you would in hotel room, you get to have kitchen space where you can cook and not rely on restaurants with food that you would probably get bored of in a matter of days. 

You get room service and house keeping services which are also provided in hotels, and other concierge services. Now, most of the amenities  are similar to being in a hotel, like swimming pool, gym, recreation area, WiFi and laundry services, but the good thing about apartments, and mostly if you are staying longer, is that you get to have that homely feeling, especially if your next door neighbor is staying a while as well, you can actually forge friendships like you normally would if you were in your house or apartment back home. Hotels just feel some type of way that take away that homely feel where you can sit back, be lazy and enjoy your space and surrounding.

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Exploring Zimbabwe - Food

Another thing I noticed while in Zim is the shortage of food options, this included fruits as well. The  fruits that were predominantly available on every corner of the street were bananas and avocados. However, we did come across more options in the supermarket (perhaps they were imported).

I like how their supermarkets served cooked food - buffet style, I guess they are not in shortage of food preparation equipment. It was very convenient for us since we mostly ate when we were already hungry. If we had to be at a restaurant and order food and wait for it to be served 10 to 15 minutes later, it would have been so stressful. We ate supermarket food for the most part of our trip and we did not fall sick. The options were not as many as there are in Tanzania but we survived. My favorite dish was Sadza (Ugali). 

BBQ section at the supermarket

The one thing that disappointed me was the lack of small bottles of Amarulas. We hunted for those babies in every supermarket we went to, but to no avail. That was very disappointing. Living the African dream, African Safari.

What apps are you giving access to your personal data?

Hey'all,

A friend told me a story that got me somewhat angry with myself for using a smartphone, it's not something new, but I just dislike the lack of privacy with these gadgets nowadays. So, she’s been getting personal loan through mobile apps, and she had been very faithful in paying the loans as well. Then all of a sudden, out of the blue, she applied for a loan and she was denied one due to lacking credentials to be given a loan. Upon inquiry from a different company, she was informed that giving access to some of the apps also means they get to see your loan trends and how you spend your money and can even access your text message. I don’t know how true this actually is, but it creeped me out, then I realized I have been giving access to so many other apps and to make things worse, I give them access to my pictures and other media as well. I am so not happy about that. 

On another note, as we continued chatting, she said a good number of Tanzanians apply for personal and business loan via apps and mobile money. For a greater part, it has been a good idea that these loan opportunities exist for simplicity of life and it reaches more customers compared to physically visiting microfinance institutions. But I wonder though, how do they get their money back? Especially since they don’t request for loan security. Do they know how to track these people down? How successful are these businesses? I would hope they are able to recover their funds as easily as they make their loans accessible to people. 

Grown up mindset

Hey’all

I think as we grow up, our talk and direction of our thoughts should change to reflect our goals and aspirations.

Lately, a good part of my conversation with my female friends is about buying land or building houses (that’s where I am getting my inspiration from). A friend has been sharing with me pictures of a house she’s building and I am uber jealous (in a non malicious way). I feel like we are motivating each other. Women motivating women. One of my goals for 2019-2020 is to buy a couple of surveyed plots while the prices are still manageable, but not necessarily in Dar.

Anywho, I have been falling in admiration of houses with appealing exteriors and amazing interior decor and designs, it’s making me want to start building my house like asap (yes, I have a plot but I do not have the cash to begin construction work.

My sister and I are looking for interior designers to come take a look at our apartment (sister’s idea) and give us a few sketches on what the apartment could look like. We are looking into getting new appliances and repainting the place. I came across a shop that sells home appliances but I can’t tell if their prices are fair or a total rip off, but I like where the idea is headed. I think from doing this project, I will start having ideas on how I want my house to look like when I am ready to build one.

I like this type of mentality honestly, the grown up mentality (at least I think it is). Investing in land and immovable properties for the future.

Exploring Zimbabwe - Cars

As I continued to explore Zimbwawe, I got a chance to speak with a few people about the country, and guess what I discovered? So Zim being a landlocked country, meaning they do not have a sea or port, they get to import their cars through Tanzania or South African ports. For a landlocked country though, they do have a lot of cars for sale. I have seen a good number of showrooms in Harare as we commuted towards the city center.

Most of the cars that I have seen around here are Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans. Unlike Tanzania, we seem to lean towards Toyotas more than other brands. But lately, I have been seen a few more Mazdas around. It's interesting how Toyotas are heavily available in Tanzania you would think we manufacture those babies. I too am guilty of making Toyotas prominent in TZ because I own one. 

Talking about Honda cars in Zim, they predominantly use Honda Fit as a shared taxi, and boooy are they tiny when 6 to 8 people get in them. I got to experience that first hand. For some reason though, people just don't mind squeezing in for a ride. 

I used to tell my sister how affordable Toyotas are in TZ compared to the US, when she came back, she understood what I meant. She saw every Toyota you could possibly see on this planet in a matter of a week. My African dream safari.

Exploring Zimbabwe - Architecture

Zimbabwe architecture is just amazing. I love their buildings, and it’s sometimes hard to tell if they are old buildings that have been well maintained or if they are new. I like how a good number of the buildings are built with bricks. The western influence in the architecture is a pleasing sight to see. While walking towards the National Art Museum from EastGate, we walked through a garden that was clean and well kept. Some of the water fountains were not functioning, but the overall sight was calming.

A lot of people were at the park, I can’t assume what they were doing, but we saw a few people that were doing photography business, some were taking their meals.  The trees at the park were interesting as well. Of course not all parts of Zim were breathtaking, some parts were like most African countries are, a bit run down and deserted. Going to a somewhat rural place like Masvingo and the architecture still being pleasing to see was mind blowing to me. Unfortunately, I had not seen a single shop selling construction materials, I am guessing maybe they have specific locations for such businesses.

I have been to some other parts of Africa before but I never felt like It’s a place I would want to live for a long time, however in Zimbabwe, I would not mind living here for a while. The weather is so good, it reminds me of Arusha. The houses, oh man, they are huge. They have so much land and the houses are just huge. We got to stay with two couch surfers and both their houses were amazing. One was medium size and very cosy. The other was large, spacious, has a pool, a large garden, a big parking garage. The calmness of this place is what we all need. If I had funds, I would get into real estate in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The African dream, African safari.

My accent is a conversation starter

Hey y’all, 

I have been meeting a lot of new people and when they hear my accent, they ask where I am from. 

When I tell them that I hail from Tanzania they say WOW like I come from Wakanda or something (jokes...Tanzania is way better). And a bunch of questions come flooding in, the usual ones by the way - how is the weather down there, have you been on a safari, what language do you all speak, when is the best time to visit, so on and so forth. My answers are usually the same; if you get to visit Tanzania you must visit Kilimanjaro, where the highest mountain in Africa is located. We speak Swahili - you know the movie Lion King? Well, Hakuna Matata is a Swahili word (and the WOOOW gets additional OOs in between). 

Swimming with dolphins in Zanzibar, eating chips mayai and octopus from street vendors (yummy). Visiting Ngorongoro crater, snapping crocodiles in Bagamoyo. I mean, it never gets tiring to talk about home because I am proud of what we have; the food, the wildlife, the gems, the social life and the incredible Dar es Salaam heat! (I joke about the heat, I don’t like it). The challenges though, is when I get asked certain safaris questions that I don’t know much about, (it happens). 

I sometimes inquire from Google, but I also get to tell them about my friend who owns a touring company and let them do the rest. However, questions regarding flying safaris, chartered flights, that’s something I don’t have experience with, but the good thing is, they do exist and Yellow pages Tanzania, Google and directory.co.tz will do a good job of directing you to the right people and places. 

When you visit Tanzania, do yourself a favor...eat food from street vendors. I mean, It doesn't matter if you are a billionaire, what's the point of being in Tanzania and not experience the wild side of life?

To those with a travel bug like myself, the beautiful thing about being an adult is to actually look forward to go on a vacation that you can actually afford...and 'Tanzania' is one vacation you will ALWAYS be able to afford, trust me.