October 15 photo assignment: Soda Night

One of the traditions we've been able to maintain from home is that Saturday night is soda night in the Steen household.  This is looked forward to all week by the kids!  Back home, I would just pick up some at the grocery store, but here it's an interactive family event.  We walk down to the local duka and pick out our choice of beverage.  It usually costs between 500 and 600 Tanzanian shillings, which is between 30 and 40 cents U.S., for a 350 mL glass bottle.  We return the "empties" when we buy new ones.

Unfortunately, Saturday is not always the best choice for soda night since it seems to be the most common day for a power outage.  Hence, the drinks are frequently not as cold as we would like.

Crazy Josh usually goes for the classic...Coke.   He's the number one fan of soda night!

Charlotte chooses another classic....Sprite.  Ever since our flight to Dar on Turkish Airlines, she's been qualifying the request for Sprite as "make sure it's Sprite, TM."  This is because when she ordered Sprite on the flight, she got the Turkish version of Sprite which was not Sprite!

Emily, previously our soda-hater, has discovered a love for Fanta, which comes in many different varieties here than the usual orange found in the U.S.  Her personal favorite is the passion fruit flavor.   Here she is sporting her new Tanzania football jersey!

Tim and I (not pictured!) have enjoyed the flavors that are unique to Africa.  Our favorite is Stoney Tangawizi, which is kind of like ginger ale.  It's a strong taste which the kids describe as "toilet water" but which I would describe as tart and fizzy.  Since I always drink it straight out of the bottle, I never knew it was clear in color until recently.  Other favorites include Krest, a bitter lemon taste, and Novidia, which is a very sweet pineapple soda.  Sadly, even these African brands are Coke subsidiaries.  Unlike the U.S., these sodas are made with sugar and not high-fructose corn syrup as the sweetener.  That makes them healthy, right?