Okay don't let the title fool you I'm a lefty and I peronally think lefthanders rock hard core, I mean studies have been done that have proven we're more creative, better at sports, and make good leaders, and you can't argue with studies sorry to all the righthanders out there, better luck next life.
Alright now that I've alienated most of my friends I'll get to the point of this blog.
Tanzania is a interesting country, it has a beautiful landscape, the people for the most part are friendly, and fruit is uber cheap! That being said it still has weird traditions. When I first got here, no one told me that left handed people where seen as evil or dirty so I had to find out the hard way, eatting out I would get looks of disgust, writing I would get glares, and everytime I would wave at someone with my left hand they would give me a dirty look.
It wasn't until a month ago that someone told me that in Tanzania toilet paper is not common so the left hand is used to eerr "clean up" whats left behind. Needless to say this helped me understand why people at the dining areas looked like they where ready to throw up when they saw me eat...I explained to the kids at the orphage that I was born lefthanded and couldn't help but use it, and that I used toilet paper, still they started to think that I used my right hand to "clean up" so no one would shake my hand for about a week until I was able to explain toilet paper and what washing your hands with soap means. This got me thinking about friends here, guys hold hands only if they are extremely close friends, and this made sense to me a lot more now cause one of them would have to hold the left hand lol.
It doesn't stop there tho, witchdoctors are very common in Africa and more so in Tanzania, and being lefthanded is normally seen as being evil. So for any leftys who might be interested in coming to help out, you have been warned.
Still Left handed people are just awesome!
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