TV Time

This post is about TV in Tanzania, and why I find it amusing. I don't get to watch much TV, as I don't have a TV set or even electricity. But most restaurants and businesses in town have one running in the background, so I get to see a little.

First, the news. I love watching the news here. I usually can't understand the interviews because they talk so fast, but I get the gist of most stories and understand the headlines that scroll along the bottom. I also like when people watch me watch Swahili TV, because I know they're trying to figure out if I know Swahili, or if I'm just looking at the pictures. My favorite part of the news is after the interviews and reports, when they read the newspaper. Yes, the broadcaster just reads the newspaper aloud, while the cameraman zooms in on what he's reading. That way, you can read it too! And you can see where they put a star by the ones they want him to read. And it's not just one paper, they usually go through a whole stack of them. No one has been able to adequately explain to me why they do this. You'd think there would be some sort of copyright infringement going on, but apparently not. Reading the newspaper on TV, good work if you can get it, I guess. The Tanzanian news is usually and inexplicably followed by an English language Russian news show.

Aside from the news, the other main category of shows is foreign soap operas dubbed into English. There are two main groups: the Asian soaps, and the Brazilian soaps. Both have their good qualities, mostly in that “so bad, it's funny” way, but I'm not sure why they would appeal at all to Tanzanians.

There are also the educational shows where they talk about farming practices, health care, exciting new things people are doing for income, etc. These are usually boring, and interspersed with segments of people dancing to liven things up. (Hint: it doesn't work.)