Masai sandals

Tanzanian raspberries and Tanzanian ice cream

Arusha, Monday, February 13, 2017

It was time to do some restocking, so we called Ray to take us to town so we could grocery shop at Nakumatt, the big supermarket and Meat King.  Nakumatt is fairly far away, and I always enjoy the scenes I see along the way.  had I been 20 years younger, I would have told Ray to stop numerous times so that I could check out interesting inventory in many of the small shops, bargained over cloth hanging on fences, bought some plastic containers in the market, and spent time exploring what was available further back in the maze of market stalls. There are so many things I glimpse only in passing that pique my curiosity. Carts full of second hand shoes are everywhere.  Some specialize: a cart only with  high heels, another full of athletic shoes, and still others offering flip-flops and athletic sandals. Right next to the carts of shoes will be other carts with second hand tee-shirts or blue jeans. The castoffs of the western world are everywhere here.

I’d also like to explore the mall of specialty shops that are next to Nakumatt, but the heat and required walking are too challenging for me. So, as usual, I slipped into Nakumatt, got a cart, and began searching the aisles for the items on my list. I found pretty much everything I wanted, and then the issue became one of being willing to pay the high prices of some things.  For example, was I willing to pay nearly $5 for a small jar of peanut butter (yes) or over $3 for a 15oz. can of tomato paste (no)? I was particularly happy to find a brand of yogurt that was half price of what I had paid before: only $4 for about a pint instead of the $7 that amount usually costs. Then, I decided to check the liquor shelves to see if I could find Dodoma wine.  Eureka! Both red and white were available, so I bought a bottle of each at $5. John loaded up another cart with 10 liter bottles of water, and we were ready to check out.

From the label on the Dodoma red: The distinctive characteristics of the organic soil enhance the quality and flavor of this wine, ruby red, well balanced and full bodied with hints of fruits, chocolate, and apricots. Excellent with grilled meat, “nyama choma,” game meat, and mature cheese.

From Nakumatt we drove back into central Arusha to Meat King, where we got our usual order of 1 kg. hamburger. ½ kg. beef stew meat, 1 chicken breast, and two Russian sausages. I no longer try to figure out the exact prices for meat, but I know that except for the chicken it is all much cheaper than at home. John also picked up a small box of raspberries, which one can find here occasionally. Since it was Post-Birthday Day, I let his extravagance pass.

John wanted to get a haircut at a nearby barber, so Ray drove me home alone. But before Ray helped me carry everything into our apartment, he said he wanted to show me something, so we drove a very short distance further up the main road and then turned onto a tiny dirt road and back into an area of shops and workshops one never sees from the road. I was surprised when we turned into a dead end yard, and Ray led me over rough ground and back to a partly built house in which there was a “shoe factory.”  There were half a dozen men sitting on the ground cutting out soles and glueing together the very colorful “Masai sandals" one sees sold in almost every gift shop in this region. Back behind the men, 8 women sat at tables in a dim room doing the beadwork that decorate these sandals. At the end of there work day, someone comes and buys the finished sandals and then delivers them to the merchants who sell them to the public. The man who began this workshop has two more in other parts of Arusha, too. Since we had arrived relatively early in the day, there were not any sandals ready for me to purchase, so I said I would return for that another day. Also since I had no camera with me, I wanted to return to take some photos.

John walked back after his haircut, and for dessert in the evening, we had Azam vanilla ice cream with raspberries. Who would have imagined this in Tanzania?