The Chinese Mujungu
Mujungu, a Swahili word that means a "white person". In actual use, it had many connotations that goes beyond describing the light skin folks. It can mean "tourist", "idiot", "stupid", or a "wimp". . ., it really depends on who said it or how it was said.
I have heard the word uttered a few times in my presence, but never paid much attention to it, partly because it was not listed in the guidebook dictionary, and I really didn't know what it means. By the time I got to Zanzibar, I had already spend more than 2 weeks in Tanzania. Things had began to sink in slowly, and I started to get a feel of this place, and most importantly, I began to pickup some Swahili.
It is very easy to get yourself spoiled while traveling in Tanzania, because you are always getting taken care of. You get to be put into the special foreigner only cabin while on a ferry, you get a driver for your safari, a guild to show you the route on Mt. Kilimanjaro., a couple porters to carry your bags, a chef to cook your food, and all hotels and guest houses serves complementary breakfast . . .. So by the time I made my way to Nungwi, the northern end of the Zanzibar island. I was one spoiled tourist(Mujungu). It doesn't help things, that the town turn out to be a resort town, and there we were chewing on foods(US$5) costing ten time what the locals would spend on their meals. Took us two days to realize that we are very spoiled indeed, and we are paying Mujungu prices for everything. This place can take out our wallet in no time, and we need to move.
To redeem our so call traveler's soul, we decided to take the Dalla-Dallas to the southern side of the island for some "Mujungu free" beaches. It'll save us each 4 dollars, but with only $30 cash in my pocket, that is like 10% of my cash reserves.
Well..., let me tell ya first a little bit about the Dalla-Dallas
The Dalla-Dalla is basically a Japanese company pickup/van spending it's second life here after a couple years of service in Japan. Still with its Japanese company logo pained on the sides, they put a wooden roof on top of the bed, and couple planks in there as benches. These are the main transport for much of the island, transporting people, cargo, and live stocks.
My partner, an Israeli, rode on it once. For me, it'll be my first time. The first leg of the journey isn't very bad, a little packed (just imagine 20-30 people sitting in a mini-van, with a couple more outside hanging in the back). We learned that it is really better to be packed with people, because if you are the only one in it, it is entirely possible to get tossed from one end of the car to the other when you hit a bump or when the driver step on either one of the pedals too quick.
The second leg of the journey was a little different. It started out with the half hour wait at the bus station, as the drivers loaded the Dalla-Dalla. I think he was doing the shopping for the whole village..., there were 10-20 bags of fertilizer, bags of this, bags of that....All goes to the roof top. Being the only two guys in the Dalla-Dalla, we were starting to worried that this thing is a little top heavy to be going onto dirt roads.
We were relieved, when the Dalla-Dalla started to take on more passengers. Okay..., at lease this thing won't flip over when we hit a bump or something. But more passengers, also mean more cargo...They loaded a bed up there (he is moving?), baskets of bananas, couple bags of char-coal....So, by this time. Anytime the car makes a slight turn, the whole roof starts to sway from one side to the other, and let out a loud squeak. I had ridden on worst car than this in China, but that rusty tin-can thing makes so much noise, you get so use to it after a few minutes. But this squeak, was really squeaking our confidence away, five seconds at a time. Thoughts of the roof collapsing under all that weight, starts to come up... I did not like the idea of getting hit in the head and die with my nose bury in fertilizers...and neither does my partner there.
So, we worked it out. We'll get off at the next stop and hitch another ride to the south. One not so "squeaky". We told the crew a story that we wanted to get off to see the primate reserve nearby and got off at the the stop, and pretended to walk in that direction until the bus went out of sight. Somehow, I think the crews/passengers in that bus knew that we were getting a bit nervous, and probably overheard everything we said in the bus. They were probably just to polite to laugh in front of us (us being white and all).
While we waited on the side of the road, a local saw us came down from the bus and came by to ask if we needed any help. We proceeded to tell him about the roof and the fertilizers. Well... This guy didn't hold back at all. He let out a good laugh, and said: (while he was still laughing)
"The roof is very, very strong . . ..Hahahaa...."
I swear I can just hear him laughing, "Mujungu, Mujungu.......", but of course, they would never do that. . . . I wish they had, because I feel like one.
Sure enough, we had since saw Dalla-Dallas with far more stuff on the roof than what we had . . ..
Two days later, when we wanted to go back to Stone Town, my partner opted for the tourist transport, while I opted for the Dalla-Dallas, in a last desperate attempt to redeem myself. Fortunately, there weren't any bags of fertilizers up on the roof to test my nerves. Just a couple baskets of char-coals, and bananas. Yes, I was counting.... What can I say?
Mujungu?
I have heard the word uttered a few times in my presence, but never paid much attention to it, partly because it was not listed in the guidebook dictionary, and I really didn't know what it means. By the time I got to Zanzibar, I had already spend more than 2 weeks in Tanzania. Things had began to sink in slowly, and I started to get a feel of this place, and most importantly, I began to pickup some Swahili.
It is very easy to get yourself spoiled while traveling in Tanzania, because you are always getting taken care of. You get to be put into the special foreigner only cabin while on a ferry, you get a driver for your safari, a guild to show you the route on Mt. Kilimanjaro., a couple porters to carry your bags, a chef to cook your food, and all hotels and guest houses serves complementary breakfast . . .. So by the time I made my way to Nungwi, the northern end of the Zanzibar island. I was one spoiled tourist(Mujungu). It doesn't help things, that the town turn out to be a resort town, and there we were chewing on foods(US$5) costing ten time what the locals would spend on their meals. Took us two days to realize that we are very spoiled indeed, and we are paying Mujungu prices for everything. This place can take out our wallet in no time, and we need to move.
To redeem our so call traveler's soul, we decided to take the Dalla-Dallas to the southern side of the island for some "Mujungu free" beaches. It'll save us each 4 dollars, but with only $30 cash in my pocket, that is like 10% of my cash reserves.
Well..., let me tell ya first a little bit about the Dalla-Dallas
The Dalla-Dalla is basically a Japanese company pickup/van spending it's second life here after a couple years of service in Japan. Still with its Japanese company logo pained on the sides, they put a wooden roof on top of the bed, and couple planks in there as benches. These are the main transport for much of the island, transporting people, cargo, and live stocks.
My partner, an Israeli, rode on it once. For me, it'll be my first time. The first leg of the journey isn't very bad, a little packed (just imagine 20-30 people sitting in a mini-van, with a couple more outside hanging in the back). We learned that it is really better to be packed with people, because if you are the only one in it, it is entirely possible to get tossed from one end of the car to the other when you hit a bump or when the driver step on either one of the pedals too quick.
The second leg of the journey was a little different. It started out with the half hour wait at the bus station, as the drivers loaded the Dalla-Dalla. I think he was doing the shopping for the whole village..., there were 10-20 bags of fertilizer, bags of this, bags of that....All goes to the roof top. Being the only two guys in the Dalla-Dalla, we were starting to worried that this thing is a little top heavy to be going onto dirt roads.
We were relieved, when the Dalla-Dalla started to take on more passengers. Okay..., at lease this thing won't flip over when we hit a bump or something. But more passengers, also mean more cargo...They loaded a bed up there (he is moving?), baskets of bananas, couple bags of char-coal....So, by this time. Anytime the car makes a slight turn, the whole roof starts to sway from one side to the other, and let out a loud squeak. I had ridden on worst car than this in China, but that rusty tin-can thing makes so much noise, you get so use to it after a few minutes. But this squeak, was really squeaking our confidence away, five seconds at a time. Thoughts of the roof collapsing under all that weight, starts to come up... I did not like the idea of getting hit in the head and die with my nose bury in fertilizers...and neither does my partner there.
So, we worked it out. We'll get off at the next stop and hitch another ride to the south. One not so "squeaky". We told the crew a story that we wanted to get off to see the primate reserve nearby and got off at the the stop, and pretended to walk in that direction until the bus went out of sight. Somehow, I think the crews/passengers in that bus knew that we were getting a bit nervous, and probably overheard everything we said in the bus. They were probably just to polite to laugh in front of us (us being white and all).
While we waited on the side of the road, a local saw us came down from the bus and came by to ask if we needed any help. We proceeded to tell him about the roof and the fertilizers. Well... This guy didn't hold back at all. He let out a good laugh, and said: (while he was still laughing)
"The roof is very, very strong . . ..Hahahaa...."
I swear I can just hear him laughing, "Mujungu, Mujungu.......", but of course, they would never do that. . . . I wish they had, because I feel like one.
Sure enough, we had since saw Dalla-Dallas with far more stuff on the roof than what we had . . ..
Two days later, when we wanted to go back to Stone Town, my partner opted for the tourist transport, while I opted for the Dalla-Dallas, in a last desperate attempt to redeem myself. Fortunately, there weren't any bags of fertilizers up on the roof to test my nerves. Just a couple baskets of char-coals, and bananas. Yes, I was counting.... What can I say?
Mujungu?
posted by 54 at 2:16 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home