Supplemental Blog - Africa Day 2
Moshi
28.09.2009 - 28.09.2009
80 °F
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Tanzania
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We woke up around 8:30 and exchanged dollars for Tanzanian shillings. The exchange rate was about 1,300 shillings per dollar! However, when we poked around in a local grocery store items cost about the same (after conversion) as items in the US. For example a gallon of milk was about 4,300 shillings so it's not like they go that far.
On our way, we got our first daylight view of Kili.
We did some shopping and were approached by entrepreneurs selling their goods. It was obvious we were tourists (I felt like my white skin was flashing neon) and were fairly easy targets, but the solicitors weren't too overwhelming especially as compared to say, Mexico. One guy who said his name was Frank was particularly stubborn (thought polite enough) and approached us 3 times that day. I was at first more impressed by the batiks being sold by a fellow named Secky and bought a painted scene of a Masaai village with Kilimanjaro in the background and a banana leaf batik scene of a giraffe, acacia tree and Kili. We bartered with him a little but still probably paid too much, as he wasn't asking that much to begin with. We walked to the end of the block and I decided I wanted a picture of the artist so we turned back. Here we are.
Then we passed by this cool sign in the center of a roundabout.
Walking around we are aware that even in town there no sidewalks and pedestrians and cars alike use the road. This must be why the Tanzanians love their car horns so much.
After this is when Frank approaches us for the third time and I finally buy a few banana leaf batiks from him partially just to get him to go away but also because another merchant told us what they thought the fair price was.
We made a few more purchases and went back to the hotel in between for meals, since the food outside of our hotel scared us. 
Here's an idea of what our hotel was like.
That night our Kilimanjaro guide, Fred, met us at the hotel to run through the trek with us and answer last-minute questions. Craig told him about the luggage we had lost and his trek supplies that were in there. Fred assured us that this happened often and often the travelers have their bags the next day.
We then met with a representative from the Kilimanjaro Porter's Assistance Program who had come to pick up the bag of donated gear that we brought with us. Craig said he'd go get the back from our room but that there were still two coats that hadn't arrived yet because they were in the lost bag as we had had to rearrange the bags due to weight limits. He came back from the room with...2 coats and a big grin! Turns out we had lost the donation bag and had Craig's bag with us the whole time. What a relief!
Not for the charity of course. Turns out they would have to wait for their donation until we were back from safari even though the fourth bag arrived from the airport that night. What a hassle. We explained everything to the hotel manager, who apparently failed to tell his staff. They wouldn't give the bag to the charity because they thought it was for an orphanage. Or as the guy from the charity said "She told us it was for the beggars."
Posted by JillnCraig 25.11.2009 18:33 Archived in Tanzania Tagged shopping Comments (0)
