Being thankful – three

This is part three of our short series on some of the cultural/practical/emotional differences we’ve experienced between our two lives (in the UK and in Tanzania). Use the ‘Blog Archive’ list in the right-hand column to find the previous parts.

Things we miss about Tanzania:
Knowing what the weather will be like. Where we lived in Mbeya there were only really three seasons: dry and cold (May-August), dry and hot (September-November), and wet (December-April)! As a result, unless you were in the middle of the changeover from one season to the next, you were almost guaranteed to know what the weather would be like. Although we did sometimes miss the variety of British weather it was nice to know that today, ‘come rain or shine’ (it would just be one or the other!), it would be sunny and hot.

Things we like about the UK:
The ease of travel. The UK, no matter which way you measure it, is small. There are not many areas of ‘nothingness’ and our transport network (no matter what you might feel about it) is generally excellent. Trains, buses and roads (tarmac ones no less!) go almost everywhere. It has been nice to be able to visit friends and family so easily while back. We just get in the car, or on the bus/train and go. No need to worry about what happens if we get stuck in the middle of nowhere, or whether it will really only take 12 hours to get to where we want to go, or if the driver is actually safe or not! We may have lots of traffic but we still have got it good!