I'm fine with tourists walking around here — I like seeing new people, and they don't disturb us. It's good that their money lets the school buy materials. I run a campsite in town, and my wife often cooks for tourists, along with some other women from the village.
Most of the other women have separate jobs too, as nurses or teachers, but my wife and one other woman don't, so they have the most time and do most of the cooking. When we cook for a big group, the earnings are shared among all the women involved; for just two tourists, whoever cooked keeps the money.
We're building a new house right now, only possible because of money our children send home. Most of them have moved to the cities to find better work, and so have many others, mostly men — there simply aren't enough opportunities here yet, and tourism isn't providing enough jobs to change that. The ones who do work in tourism make a good living, though.
The little children copy the words tourists use — they say jambo now, just like visitors do, when they should really say ujambo, and shikamoo to greet an elder. It's fine for tourists to just say jambo; we don't expect them to speak our language perfectly. They say bye bye a lot too. Children seem to really enjoy seeing new and different people — and honestly, I think that's fun for everyone.
The children are now saying jambo, just like the tourists, but they should be saying ujambo, and when you greet an elderly person it should be shikamoo — for tourists, it's okay to just say jambo.
A house rising on money sent from the city, and a greeting slowly drifting from tradition.