Roger had invited us to meet them for lunch at a new Chinese restaurant. As we pulled into the parking lot an irate guard jumped into the middle of the road yelling at us to turn around.
I rolled down my window aggravated by the added delay. In my politest and most composed Swahili I asked the guard "to get out of the way!" He stubbornly refused informing us that we weren't allowed to park in the parking lot next to the Chinese restaurant. The exchange went back and forth for several minutes. My car engine was still running in the drive way as the guard pointed, yelled, and demanded me to move my vehicle. I appealed to every form of logic I could think of to get permission to park in the lot next to the Chinese restaurant.
We weren't getting anywhere fast. Then an idea struck me with great force! I pointed to the big sign on the main road. "It has an arrow pointing this way with chinese characters all over it" I nearly hissed in frustration. Un-phased by my attempt at Western logic, the guard cooly replied: "can't you read?"
"READ- READ WHAT?!?!"
"Yes... read....the board" he retorted. "It says no parking in this lot!"
"What are you talking about?!" I demanded- "it's all in Chinese"
"That's not my problem- you should learn Chinese, then you would know not to come into this parking lot."
"err......" I stared off into space.
A no parking sign for a Chinese restaurant next to the restaurant itself in a country where no one speaks Chinese. Made total sense to me. I slowly got back into the car, threw it into reverse, and left.
Who knew? I need to learn Chinese to live in Tanzania. I will have to keep that in the back of my mind for language study possibilities on my next term.
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