The past two days I’ve spent in Mwanza. It is the second largest city in Tanzania, but it has a much more relaxed feel than Dar Es Salam. I feel like the people here are more friendly.

One story that I have to tell is what happened yesterday.
I stopped for lunch at a local restaurant near one of the ports of lake Victoria. I wanted to get some fish, since this is the place for it.
I ordered fish and rice with a glass of passion fruit juice.

Lunch was good and I even made one new friend, Job, who was sitting in the table next to mine.

When I finished the waiter brought me the bill and I paid shortly after. The bill was left on the table as I was talking to Job. A few minutes later a man walked around us very slowly inspecting the bill that was in front of me. It looked kind of strange, but I didn’t say anything and kept on talking.
The man said something and picked up the bill. Job asked him if he was the manager and he knotted. His expression was definitely reveling something out of order.

He asked me if that was what I paid and I replied yes. He made a face and called his partner who inspected the bill as well. I could already tell that probably the bill was more than I should have paid!

The manager called the waiter and took him to his office in the back of the restaurant. Shortly after they called me to the office as well! I don’t speak Swahili, but all the actions spoke for themselves. The boss pointed at me and said something… the waiter took money out of his pocket and paid it back to me. I had paid twice as much as I should have!

I don’t know what happened to the waiter, but the boss definitely taught him a lesson.

When I returned to my table. Jeb laughed and told me a saying in Swahili that goes like this:

“Siku za muzi ni arobaini” which means ” 40 days for a thief” He explained that a thief will always be caught after 40 times of doing so.

I found out soon after that this was the 3rd time for this waiter….