One of the amazing things about development is how fast things can change. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it isn't development, just life, and I just don't recognize it sometimes. From my experience leaving home, there are always small differences when I come home again - maybe a new store window in West Newton Square, or a billboard proclaiming "Cowboy Up" (that slogan somehow never made it to Richmond, Indiana), but from my experience here in Africa, the changes are big, and they can happen seemingly overnight.
A few weeks ago, the cellphone network provider 'Zain' was bought out by 'Airtel.' The buyout actually happened months ago, but one morning in December, absolutely everything changed from the purple zain logo, to the red airtel logo. From the vests worn by street vendors, to the billboards, paintings on stone walls, even the watertower in Chelstone all read Airtel. Considering how long it takes to finish just about anything - roads, construction, etc, it was absolutely amazing to wake up one morning to this.
Another example - Over the past year or so, Lusaka has been in the progress of building a brand new mall - the Manda Hill Mall. For the entirety of my time in Lusaka, shopping there has been like walking through a construction site - corridors roughly 3 ft wide and 8ft tall, lined with dry wall, and occasionally opening into a tired looking shop, buffered on either end by the Game department store and Shoprite grocery store. Each time you went, the maze to get from one end to the other was slightly different - an entrance or exit had been sealed, the route had changed, and in the unlucky case you are driving, by the time you left the way out could be different than the way you came in. And then, one day, I arrived to find something completely different - a real mall! Wide, tall tiled corridors opening into fancy shops with the kind of clothes makeup and hair products that had been previously unavailable. There are sports stores, jewelry stores, electronics stores and clothing stores. There is an outdoor foodcourt and fancy fitting rooms. The parking lot is no longer a pile of construction rubble, but a (mostly) orderly area with signs and ground paintings directing you where to go. And there is an escalator! My 5 year old neighbor on entering exclaimed "this is the best day of my life!"
And so now I come to Tanzania. I arrived here Monday night on holiday, and am excited to introduce my family to friends and places that have been like home to me in the past. In some ways it feels like ages since I have been here, but when I arrived and begain the familiar drive from the airport, it seemed like it could have been just yesterday. Walking through the streets, I still encounter people who remember me. When I dropped by backpackers hostel last night, I was asked why I have been out in Monduli for so long. I explained I am actually living in Zambia now. But things are different too... There are a myriad of new shiny mulitstory hotels that have opened their doors since I was here. Dropping by Imma's house, I couldn't believe it was the same place I had left - A complete makeover including a porch with a railing, and computers and large screen tvs with kids playing motorcycle racing and bad guy shooting games. And here is the real kicker - In the frozen section of shoprite, there are veggie burgers. Imagine. There is a fake meat section to the grocery store here - in a town where one of the predominant tribes historically ONLY eats meat. In a town where refusal of meat in your dinner prompts the question "what's wrong with you." So Burger King, McDonalds, wisen up. If you can get a veggie burger or fake chicken strips along with your milkshake in Arusha, you are seriously behind the times in the US.
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