Observations on being away

I thought I’d give you all a little, light-hearted glimpse into my thoughts over the past few days. These are some of my observations and musings since returning to the UK after almost two and a half years in Tanzania. It’s often funny the things you notice after a long time away….!*

• Bananas not only seem to taste of nothing much but also, if this is possible, have another strange taste that I can’t put my finger on! Other than this I am enjoying lots of ‘taste sensations’ and am conscious how easy it will be to put weight back on whilst staying here!
• Tea is a lot hotter because we are so much lower in altitude than Mbeya and so the water boils at a higher temperature (so I am reliably informed by my scientific father-in-law!). I also attribute my increased lung capacity, meaning I could belt out the songs at church the other day despite having had little practice for the past few months, to being accustomed to living at a higher altitude than Ben Nevis for the last 30 months!
• The sunlight has a totally different quality, it seems ‘whiter’ maybe rather than ‘golden’ like it is in Africa. We couldn’t work out why this is as it has to travel through more atmosphere to reach the UK but then wondered if it’s to do with the complete absence of dust in the air! Weird.
• Birdsong wakes me up in the early morning because it is ‘just different’. But it is lovely not to be woken by howling dogs or local bars. We can’t believe how dark it is when we wake in the middle of the night and at first thought there had been a power cut!
• The trees in spring here have a fresh green colour that is amazing but I am constantly surprised how bitterly cold the wind is. What forethought I had to leave my warm boots, hat, scarf, (umbrella!) and gloves accessible for when I got back!
• I had no idea how to put credit onto my old UK SIM card when I realised my top-up card had expired. I imagined some futuristic way of doing it but I just got a new top-up card. Very odd when you don’t know how to function in your own society!
• My hair doesn’t get greasy as fast as it did in Mbeya. Despite feeling cold there the last few weeks I must’ve still been sweating a fair amount! As for the contrast to Dar es Salaam’s climate…it is just so nice not to feel sticky all the time!
• I can’t get over how fat the cats are. We thought our kitten, Rolo, was well-fed compared to the scrawny, local Tanzanian cats (and Tanzanian colleagues commented the same!) but these UK cats are on another level entirely!
• Matt commented that since being back he has noticed electricity cables and how they connect to houses, how relatively neat or ‘un-neat’ (i.e. similar to Tanzania) they are! That is definitely something that never crossed our minds before since you just don’t need to think about how we get our power here!

*Disclaimer: some of these observations may just relate to where we happen to be right now (Wisbey house, Faringdon, Oxon). You will have to decide for yourself if this holds true for the whole of the UK…of course it helps if you’ve recently been to Tanzania too and have something to compare with!