Sometimes things that are considered essential in America are
not regarded as such here in Tanzania.
For instance, I would say that most Americans would put toilet paper on
the ‘household essentials’ list. Here
it is considered a ‘luxury item’. But
there are still a few shops in a couple different villages in the area that
carry it. However, recently, after a
very rainy weekend, there was a landslide that took out a big chunk of one of
the only two roads in the area. This has
made it much harder to get goods in and out of Kafule and the surrounding
villages, meaning that the shops have been particularly poorly stocked
lately. Thus, a toilet paper
shortage. Not a problem for the
locals. Dahlia and I try very hard to
live like real Tanzanians but we have decided to keep toilet paper on our
‘necessary’ list no matter how different that makes us. And we have been running low lately. So over the last two days I have spent a
little over three hours hiking from village to village in search of toilet
paper. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good
walk (especially after our 5 ½ hour meeting yesterday all in Swahili it was actually
really nice to stretch my legs) but 3 hours… for toilet paper… I am once again
reminded of how different life is here than in the States. But at least for now my search has come to an
end as yesterday I found a shop with a few rolls left.
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