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Swahili Greeting:
Jambo – Hello
Habari? – How are you? Or Any News?
Mzuri – Fine
Now practice:
Me: Jambo!
You: Habari?
Me: Mzuri
Repeat until you can do this haraka (fast) with the local people. Quiz tomorrow…
Today was essentially a free day, in between the mountain and the safari. After breakfast, and looking for something “active” to do, Mick and I rented bikes and spent a few hours riding and exploring the area around the hotel. First we rode in a direction that took us further away from Moshi – passed small homes, people walking or on bikes, occasionally a car or truck. Corn fields, rice fields, a sewage treatment plant, millet drying and grinding operations, where it looked like the women are in charge. All interesting.
Mick feels like he's back in the midwest
Often a kid on a bike would follow us for awhile. After we turned back, one boy rode with us and practiced his English- he was very well spoken. He was on his way to school and reluctantly left us at the school gate.
We continued riding back past the hotel, where we waved to
The bikes were these old fat tire single speeds, serviceable but uncomfortable. At least the brakes and bell worked. There is a short but steep and rocky hill just before we reach the edge of town and I was looking at it thinking how I would probably fall over and have to hike it, with the non-existent mountain biking skills that I have. Mick, cyclist extraordinaire, was ahead of me and I knew he would be watching to see what happened to me, so I knew I had to gut it out, not get off, fall off or stand in the saddle, but stay seated and ride, or I would never hear the end of it! So I did – it was probably not a beautiful looking line, but hey, I made it up! And once up, the road soon turned from dirt to pavement. (Hallelujah…)
Once we got into town, it was crowded, so we walked the bikes. The first thing we discovered were Vodacom signs everywhere. The company motto means “we’re here for you”.
Vodacom and Vodacom
Then we discovered several bike shops.
Walked past one of the Muslim mosques, we can hear the call to prayers each morning from the hotel at 5 AM or so.
I have to admit that I loved looking at the signs and names of shops - they usually get right to the point:
Hmmm...he's bald...
Bought cokes at a small café and tried to find mailing tubes (to store the paintings that Sharon and I had bought) at a stationery store with no luck.
We headed into the open market area and ended up paying the women at our favorite fruit and vegetable stand a small amount to take photos. The woman in charge was hilarious, besides generally directing things, she scolded a boy who tried to be in all the pictures and laughed at us, especially Mick, who can get just about anyone to laugh. Every time she saw us that day, she would burst our laughing, so we made a point of passing her several times…We also tried NOT to create an international incident!...
As usual, the boys (including the one in the photo) selling stuff were hanging around but we generally ignored them. Went into a building that houses the “indoor” part of the market with meat, fish, produce, grains, grocery type stuff. Lots of fish heads and raw chunks of meat. Interesting, but unappetizing after awhile.
Headed back outside and asked one of the boys to take us to a hardware store to find some PVC pipe. They had small diameter pipe and after much gesturing they understood that we wanted larger diameter. The shop owner sent one of the boys to another shop and a few minutes later he came back with it. Then the negotiation started on price, started at 9000 shillings and ended up at 5000, about $4.00. (It was big enough to cut in half, so that Sharon and I each had a section to roll up the paintings and get them home without damage.) The guys strapped it to Mick’s bike.
Our next bargaining session was Kilimanjaro t shirts. “Our” boys went back and forth getting sizes and styles; we finally ended up with 4 shirts for about 28000 shillings, less than $6.00 each. At one point an older man and woman came up and got into a fairly heated argument with the boys, it appeared to be about some jewelry she had given them to sell. The woman was angry; I would not have wanted to be the cause of her anger…
Finally finished the shirt transaction and started heading back to the hotel. One guy followed me for about 10 minutes trying to trade a small musical instrument for my Dream Big wrist band plus money. I really didn’t want to trade and I really didn’t want the music thing but he was incredibly persistent! But I’m also incredibly stubborn. So I still have my band and he still has the instrument.
Ate a late lunch back at the hotel and then we all just hung out for the afternoon.
More scenes from the balcony
Babu Roger giving pens to the kids hanging out
At around 5 we met with one of the Zara staff who gave us some info about the safari. The rest of the evening was filled with dinner and sorting out clothes and gear for the safari. We will camp but don’t need quite as much as we took on Kili. Mostly the weather will be warmer. Can’t wait to see more of