From my brother, Chris Reid, who resides in Mwanza, Tanzania:
One of the more amusing quirks of Tanzanians- or rather, the Sukuma people among whom we live- is the way they pose for pictures. In general, people here are super friendly and are always quick to smile despite all the challenges they face in life. And while many locals here have cameras, people still get excited when you take their picture. They'll get excited with huge smiles on their face, get in a pose, ready for the picture, and then right when you take the picture, they look away from the camera and drop the smile. If they do look at the camera, they almost never smile and often have a slight scowl as well (imagine your typical DMV divers license shot}. I assume that people feel they must be "serious" to look like respectful people, when in actuality they look depressed and not just a little mean. This is the same culture that expects a bride not to smile on her wedding day lest she offend people by looking happy to be leaving her family. Anyway, as with all generalizations, this certainly doesn't apply to everyone, and this is also not limited to Tanzania by any stretch. Regardless I have numerous pictures where everyone is just staring dead-eyed into the camera only seconds after having been the epitome of happiness and smiles. So my friends and I here all like to take pictures "like a Tanzanian."
And now, I present to you, The Reid Gerdes crew in Paris. Enjoy:
Hey, the people on the fountain were doing it, too!
I lol'd big time at these. They make me laugh a lot.