a more interesting blog

I think i need to make this a more interesting blog. so i am thinking, what sort of interesting thing has happened here of late. the rains have been falling and the dirt ally-ways muddy. but that's not so interesting.
the other day i was walking along down the hill admiring these three ladies' flip-flops. they were aqua-marine blue, and i'd just bought some of my own which paled in comparison. they were giving me stern looks, noticing that i was staring at them a bit. I thought, i better break the ice, and in Swahili said, i like your shoes! they burst into smiles and said, but bwana, you've got nice flip flops yourself! went back and forth like that. People look stern then you say a word in swahili and worlds open up. I like the older people who come along looking so dignified, and sometimes stern. I say 'shikamoo' "i take your feet", it 's important how you say it. Young people say this to old people with a little urgency, almost like they're asking the old person, how is the world? is it all ok? Then the older person says, 'Marahabah!' "i accept you under my feet" or one interpretation was: "delightful". That's the translation i like, because the older person doesn't just say 'marahaba' quickly, they practically sing it and draw it out. As someone said, 'they have fun with it'. So although this exchange is offensive in that it's a relic of slave-master times, the ritual way people say it back and forth i've come to enjoy, and i think it's a youth acknowledging the elder and checking in, and then the elder declares the world delightful.
Hmmm. don't know that i managed a more interesting blog.
What else. You may be surprised to know how muslim TZ is! I was. It's about a third muslim, a third christian, and a third traditional. I meet very few who've kept their traditional beliefs. in the hills massai spill out of the lutheren churches in all their blankets and so forth, praising jesus. The mosks here compete with eachother with their loudspeaker prayers. i like how the muslims pray so frequently through the day. It's like gramma and grampa stopping their day to have tea at tea-time, regardless of what's going on. When all the various loudspeakers are declaring prayer-time at once though, it gets a bit operatic. My favorite place with the brick-oven pizzas and cappucinos is closed until the end of may! I just found another corner of town where the 'wazungu' means 'european', used for any white people, also means 'those who walk in circles', hang out. These little nooks around town i've decided are 'tanzania light'. when I no longer feel like being in tanzania, I go to one of these spots and I'm almost not. They're full of US AID workers, UN Tribunal workers- the Rawanda tribunal is held here in Arusha-, etc. Another world. Then there's the English woman i've befriended who lives in my neighborhood in a $4.00 a night hotel. (that's cheep even for here) She's been dating a massai guy for four years, who has two wives. I'm going to go out to his village with them this weekend. He's coming to England for a few months, later this year, and hopes to drive a bus. She was trying to explain to him you don't just come to england and drive a bus. there are licenses, and "in England like in america people care a lot about things, like not getting into accidents, things like that"