T.I.A

A few of us went to Zanzibar last weekend, an awesome vaca of sorts from Dar. A few people had mentioned it as the perfect destination; Tom had advised me to go every weekend if possible in his “what you need to know about Dar” map he drew me before coming. It indeed lived up to this: Stonetown was a quaint town full of character and interesting architecture and trinkets, and the beach was blissful, with an amazing view of a very blue-green Indian Ocean. We’re planning to go back at least twice more in the next month.

While waiting the customary one hour for our food, only to receive a different set of dishes than what we had ordered, the term “T.I.A” came up: “This is Africa.” While this was the first time I had heard this phrase, it had been mentioned in other ways, such as “Africa Time” –

Definition: no time you have arranged is actually fixed (usually 30 minutes may be a good starting point to wait), and you may even end up waiting for hours on end for someone. This is slightly different from IST (Indian Standard Time), where things will inevitably start late, because with Africa time, it may just not end up happening.

Another friend had said that risk aversion goes away in Africa: again, the unexpected becomes expected, and you just gotta go with it. Defining this actually allows otherwise frustrating situations to be rather amusing – ie: it’s okay if your cab breaks down on the side of the road, internet in the entire country is out for a couple of days, and your power goes off for 24 hours. That’s why we brought flashlights ☺