Money...

The official currency in Tanzania is the Tanzanian shilling (Tsh). One shilling is worth, approximately, US$0.0055, or about 1/2 of one cent. A lot of transactions, however, are done in US dollars. Most travel-related businesses accept dollars (hotels, etc.) and tipping is usually done in dollars. I'll be honest - I don't know why the dollar is valued so highly. It is probably because of the relative stability of the currency but I can't say for sure. Shillings, on the other hand, would be more useful for purchasing gifts and other small items.

During our discussions in Seattle, David impressed upon us the importance of tipping in Tanzanian culture. The employees we would encounter at camps, for example, would all be paid a wage. However, all of the camps, hotels, etc., have tip boxes. It was important to use these boxes as a way of acknowledging the staff, particularly the back-of-house staff, for their efforts. This money would be divided by some schedule between all of the staff and would go directly into their pockets to pay for school tuition and uniforms for their children, household expenses, bills, and maybe even go into savings to fulfill the dream of starting a business. In addition, people who provided a particular service (drivers and walking guides, for example) are tipped separately in cash. This acknowledgement is important to Tanzanians. Tanzania spent much of its history under colonial rule, and because of this white westerners are still held in high regard. As one such white westerner, it feels very odd and uncomfortable to be shown such deference. In effect, our opinion of their service carries weight because we are white. If you grew up in the kind of households we did, that statement probably makes you squirm a little. It certainly does us.

One final complication is that credit cards are not terribly useful in Tanzania. Some transactions could be completed this way, but I can pretty much guarantee that the Maasai fellow trying to sell you beaded jewelry won't be able to accept your Visa card. What this all means is that you need to develop a budget and carry a significant amount of US currency with you in a variety of small denominations. David helped us develop a tip budget, giving us an idea of how much per person per night should go in the tip boxes, and how much per person per day we should tip those providing particular services. Once we knew how much we needed for tips, we added in some for the visas (we missed something here, but more about that later), gifts, and a donation we planned to make to the orphanage. I also had some cash in my pocket when we left Seattle, and Catherine withdrew a similar amount in shillings in Arusha. We thought we were being generous in the budget, but in the end we cut it pretty close. How close? Well, in retrospect that is an amusing story, but I will leave that for a later installment.