The kids always run up excitedly when we stop our car outside their parent's shop & shout "Picha ! Picha !" (Picture ! Picture !) 
This is the ice cream shop - typical of most shops in Tanzania. You can see 2 of the younger children playing outside the main shop entrance. We have a fantastic ice cream manufacturer here in Tanzania – Azam ice cream. They make cups, pre packaged cones and sticks in various flavours. I can honestly say that this ice cream is on a par with the best ice cream I’ve tasted in countries like the UK & South Africa. (Pretty impressive for a 3rd world country !)
As Tanzania becomes more developed and more villages have things like electricity and back-up generators, you find shops selling ice cream in the most unlikely of places !
A common site is also the “Ice Cream Men” on their bicycles with ice boxes (filled with dry ice) strapped to the front of their bikes, pedaling around the little villages, selling ice creams to passerby. The ice creams are sold very cheaply, at the equivalent of less than U$1 or even .50c per cup/cone which makes them affordable to many people.
In one of the main villages on the tar road on the way to our farm (the last ‘big’ village before you hit the dirt road) is an ice cream shop which stocks Azam ice cream, and we have been stopping here en route to the farm to buy ice creams for a few years now. Nothing makes the journey more enjoyable on a hot, dusty day than to enjoy an ice cream as you bump along the potholed road !
This ice cream shop is run like a franchise from what I can gather. A man & his wife own it & they actually live in a few rooms adjoining the shop. They have 6 children ranging in age from a baby to around 7 years. The kids are always outside playing in the dust when we pull up outside. When they see our car they shriek with delight and the braver (older) ones come running up to see my daughter.
They shout “Mzungu ! Mzungu !” (white man ! white man !) to us as they call their parents from the back rooms. The older ones like to touch us and are fascinated with our hair. I always stop, bend down and chat to them. The last time I was there with my camera screen they shouted “Picha ! Picha !” so I took their picture & then they were delighted to see themselves on the screen ! I taught one of the older kids how to operate the camera, & he delighted in taking pictures of his siblings, and me.
I always feel bad stocking up on ice creams whilst these kids sit playing in the dirt in the heat of the day, so I always leave them with a few coins (or tell their mother to keep my change) & tell them to buy themselves an ice cream, or a soda.
Of course we don’t always stop for ice cream, and when we don’t all the kids wave to us as we pass, beckoning us to come inside & throwing their hands up in the air when we don’t ! Now every time we stop, the kids all rush up to the car and shout “Picha ! Picha” when they see me, and are always a little disappointed if I don’t have my camera handy (which is not too often these days, especially since I’ve entered the wonderful world of blogging !)
As Tanzania becomes more developed and more villages have things like electricity and back-up generators, you find shops selling ice cream in the most unlikely of places !
A common site is also the “Ice Cream Men” on their bicycles with ice boxes (filled with dry ice) strapped to the front of their bikes, pedaling around the little villages, selling ice creams to passerby. The ice creams are sold very cheaply, at the equivalent of less than U$1 or even .50c per cup/cone which makes them affordable to many people.
In one of the main villages on the tar road on the way to our farm (the last ‘big’ village before you hit the dirt road) is an ice cream shop which stocks Azam ice cream, and we have been stopping here en route to the farm to buy ice creams for a few years now. Nothing makes the journey more enjoyable on a hot, dusty day than to enjoy an ice cream as you bump along the potholed road !
This ice cream shop is run like a franchise from what I can gather. A man & his wife own it & they actually live in a few rooms adjoining the shop. They have 6 children ranging in age from a baby to around 7 years. The kids are always outside playing in the dust when we pull up outside. When they see our car they shriek with delight and the braver (older) ones come running up to see my daughter.
They shout “Mzungu ! Mzungu !” (white man ! white man !) to us as they call their parents from the back rooms. The older ones like to touch us and are fascinated with our hair. I always stop, bend down and chat to them. The last time I was there with my camera screen they shouted “Picha ! Picha !” so I took their picture & then they were delighted to see themselves on the screen ! I taught one of the older kids how to operate the camera, & he delighted in taking pictures of his siblings, and me.
I always feel bad stocking up on ice creams whilst these kids sit playing in the dirt in the heat of the day, so I always leave them with a few coins (or tell their mother to keep my change) & tell them to buy themselves an ice cream, or a soda.
Of course we don’t always stop for ice cream, and when we don’t all the kids wave to us as we pass, beckoning us to come inside & throwing their hands up in the air when we don’t ! Now every time we stop, the kids all rush up to the car and shout “Picha ! Picha” when they see me, and are always a little disappointed if I don’t have my camera handy (which is not too often these days, especially since I’ve entered the wonderful world of blogging !)
