John and Ron decided that they would spend the majority of the day visiting Shanga-Shangaa, a coffee plantation with a workshop for disabled adults who then market their crafts in a gift shop (www.shanga.org), and the African Cultural Museum, one of the most unexpected sites in Arusha—or maybe in all of Tanzania (http://www.culturalheritage.co.tz). These are very common stops on the tourist circuit, but both are worthwhile in very different ways. Colette and I had very different plans.
Colette wanted to exchange one of the pieces of cloth she had purchased yesterday, and I was eager to see the cloth store she had discovered with her new friend, Mary. We didn’t leave as early as the men, and we also took a taxi instead of dolla-dollas. Ray drove us to the Central Market (which side, I can’t say because I never know my directions), and soon all three of us were in a small shop which was stacked lie an overstocked bookstore wall to wall and floor to ceiling with beautiful pieces of cloth. I am definitely peeved that I hadn’t remembered to carry my camera with me.
The Yemeni shop owner watched with amusement as his workers pulled piece after piece from the carefully shelved stacks, and we made comments and asked for others to examine. We discussed the various merits of wax prints versus kitengi cloth, and the colorful Chinese prints, some with glitter in them, which felt a bit like sandpaper. I made three choices and then changed my mind twice before my absolute final selection. Colette exchanged her one piece and then purchased four more. I gave Ray one piece he particularly liked so that his wife could make a dress for herself and a shirt for him. Ray must have thought we were crazy, which in a way we were, but it’s been so long since I was last with Colette that I feel I have to live as much as possible to make up for all the lost time.
Ray kept our purchases in his car trunk while Colette and I indulged ourselves with lunch at FiFi’s, another decadent cafe catering largely to ex-pats and African businessmen (www.fifistanzania.com). It was quite full when we got there, but we found a table close to the front door and the breeze and settled in to enjoy ourselves. I ordered their chicken and chips which came with a large salad (12,000 Tsch = $5.45), and Colette had their mutton curry special (15,000 Tsch = $6.82). I had forgotten how superbly marinated Fifi’s chicken is, so I had a moment of ecstasy when I first tasted it again.
In addition to catching up still more on the past years, we amused ourselves by trying to figure out who the 16 or so wazungu sitting together in a long line of shoved together tables were. Colette guessed German, but I was sure they weren’t, perhaps Swedish, I thought. They certainly were not mission or NGO personnel, but they could have been tourist volunteers, which many people, especially Europeans, seem to become these days. Colette also went to the back section of the cafe to look at the few items of clothing and crafts marketed there. She returned incensed at both the outrageous prices and the shoddy workmanship of many of the items. As a seamstress herself, she was especially peeved by a small girl’s sleeveless dress, a very plain shift, for $25. I had to agree that given the amount of cloth we had bought for the prices we paid, we could have made dozens of much better dresses for far, far less.
I had the waitress wrap up the chicken I could not eat and called Ray to come and return us to Kundayo. While we waited for Ray, we sat outside in the sidewalk eating area and made comments on all the cloth outfits worn by passing women. I recognized many as patterns we had just seen and was surprised by how good many cloths I had rejected looked on actual women. I have absolutely no ability to imagine material in another form as a finished product.
We got back to Kundayo before the men did and made no attempt to be very detailed in our report of our activities. However, before we went to sleep, I finally confessed to John how much I had spent, and he laughed and laughed since it was less than $35 total. Prices just sound so outrageous when one deals with thousands of schillings all the time. However, the current rate is approximately 2,200 Tsch per $1, so working out the exchange can be a huge relief to someone like me.
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