Muzungu on Display

I've been called Muzungu (White Person) from the minute I landed in Tanzania. I'm not a stranger to it. I've kinda excepted it and slightly enjoy saying it to the obvious white tourist. When I'm feeling especially brave, I retort one of two ways...with a laugh of course: "Mafricans!" which basically points out the fact that they are African or "Wapi?" which means "Where?" It generally gets a laugh from all parities involved.

The first time it was strangely fun was the other morning at the market in Survey. I was with my Kiswahili tutor and she stopped to buy some bananas The cutest little girl probably two or three came up to me. I thought she wanted to hold my hand. Kids here do that. Instead she turned it over several times and stroked my skin and stared intently. Then she proceeded to lift up my pant leg to see that my legs were the same color as my hands. She didn't think that I was white all over because I was wearing chocolate brown pants. She kept saying Mzungu, mzungu. It was too cute. I bent down to talk with her. I told her my Swahili name - Dalila - and I became Dalila Mzungu. She wanted to touch my face and hair. Then she ran off to get her friends so they could touch me. All the while my tutor is laughing as well as all of the other adults in the vicinity. I was definitely the curiosity for the day. It was an odd occurrence. I'm just glad my whiteness didn't make her cry. Some of the rural babies I visited didn't know what to think of this white girl .