When we live in another country, the language and culture change, but also our daily habits.
Water
In our western countries, we quickly forget how lucky we are to get drinking water directly in our houses/flats. This is not something we really think about, it has become normal.
Over here, it’s certainly not the case. In the flat where we live, we have water pipes, which is very practical, and we have a water tank in the bathroom that we have to fill regularly and a pump, which gives pressure to make the water go through the pipes.
We have had to adjust though, as the water is often coloured with a brownish tint and if you let it settle in a container, you can see the dirt at the bottom and sometimes a few black worms… We cannot drink the water nor wash the food with it. For this reason, we installed a filter in the bathroom to get cleaner water to wash food, and we drink bottled water. Even though the water is not clean, we are very thankful we haven’t got sick because of it.
Negotiation
Here taxis are really cheap (£ 2.10 or CHF 2.60 for a trip downtown of about 30-40 minutes), and there are many of them. As there is no meter, our negotiation skills are put to the test. It is also a good way of measuring our progress in learning the language.
Everything starts with an explanation of where we want to go and the question of how much the driver will charge. Some of them ask an outrageous price because we are foreigners, but that’s the game; they try. But most of the time we get a reasonable price, just a little over the usual price. So the negotiation begins. If you are not in a hurry, you usually get the price you ask for because there are always other taxis right behind. But if 2-3 taxis refuse, it means the price is too low. Sometimes, they first say they don’t agree, but if you know it’s a reasonable price and you hold firm, they finally nod with a smile and make a typical hand gesture that means ok, come on in, let’s go!
