How I fail as an adult in Tanzania....

For someone with an ego of my size, it is hard to even practice to speak another language with people who speak it because my fail rate is near 99% over the last month. It might be 98.6%.  But, in the spirit of the internet let me illuminate you to other more embarrassing things that I've failed/am failing at over the first month I've been here.

• Simple civilities- In Swahili there are so many civilities that sometimes I don't understand if they're asking me if I have "issues/problems" to which you usually say no, or if they're asking how I'm doing which is usually good... I hope I get this straight soon, it's about time!
• Finding toilet paper- Our organization had to send another intern with us to find some after we had been unsuccessful at looking for over a week and a half on this time sensitive subject.
• When I hand wash my laundry, my rinse bucket is just as dirty as my wash bucket... I don't know how I fail so hard at this.
• When out in restaurants, my go-to is fried chicken and fries (chips na kuku or sometimes called chipsikuku- don't know if there are spaces). Essentially, this feels like chicken strips and fries which seems to be the go-to for parents ordering for their kids at the restaurants I've worked at.
• I step on people's feet on the dala dala buses (public transport, privately owned, maybe some government regulation?). I unfortunately am not as graceful as I'd like to think and man can those buses get packed! A lady swam through people (including myself) the other day, it was amazing.
• Keeping enough change so that the bus conductor isn't scrambling for it, or having to use up all of his.  There are desks full of change at some bus stops that men sell to bus conductors for a price, therefore change is almost always preferred. Hoard it, and always have some in case the conductor does not have enough or suffer the consequences of paying more.
• Trying to remember to look around before entering the bathroom.  There may not be toilet paper in it but outside of it. Also trying to keep in mind there may not be soap at every sink, or a running sink but more often than not people wash their hands before they eat because they eat with their hands. Don't give up, explore where it is.
• High-fives are more often low-fives here. I don't know why they are low fives, but I've been terrible at them because for high-fives I usually use the trick of looking at someones elbow to judge, and this just throws my game off completely

Oh I hope this list doesn't get longer but it probably will ... Stay tuned.