"Proper" Customer Service for an "Outsider"
I was living in the town of Iringa for so long that, not entirely deliberately, I became a frequent customer in many of the town's local eateries. Given that it is rather unusual to see Chinese people hanging out in local eateries, I become a largely recognizable face among the staff of these eateries. And as a recognizable face, I was often treated with smiles, handshakes, and quite a bit of eagerness with it comes to being informed of what is on the menu and recommended for the day. For the longest time, I simply thought such behaviors are just the norms of how staff in rural Tanzanian eateries talk.