Me and Megan walked down to Tengeru (about 45
minutes away) and Tom and Kristina got the piki piki’s down because tom is lazy
hahaa, and Kristina wanted to get an Avocado from the market before we left.
Her and Megan eat so much guacamole it’s untrue.
We got the dala dala in, and surprisingly we got
seats (the same isn’t true for on the way home). We walked straight to the Shoprite
complex and went to the internet café. I went on Facebook properly and it made
me miss home so much.
All week everyone kept talking about Chocolate Temptation
– a shop in the complex that sells cakes and chocolates of all sizes. Tom
wanted to go for his last day and I wanted to go for my first and last time. It
was so beautiful; the cake was to die for. After eating plain rice, plain
spaghetti, plain maize and plain mash potato as main meals, chocolate and
vanilla cake with mini meringues on top was so yummy.
We set off to the Massia market through town. I
may have not mentioned this because it’s pretty much racism, but it seems to be
accepted here. When us 4 volunteers, all white in skin colour, walk through Arusha
locals shout and whistle at us, which is understandable; we stick out like saw
thumbs. Then they will shout ‘Muzungu’ over and over, which literally means ‘white
person.’ They don’t mean it offensive and we didn’t take it offensively, in
fact previous volunteers have made games that allow us to get involved…
Muzungu Safari
The rules
·
Volunteers can point out a Muzungu
anywhere, loud enough for all of us to hear, and they get a point.
·
A group of Muzungu’s only counts as
one point.
·
Muzungu’s can’t be called in the Shoprite
complex, (Muzungu heaven) Safari vehicles or tourist centres.
·
If Muzungu’s are called in any of
these places, points are deducted.
·
Muzungu’s called in the Shoprite
complex are penaltied with said volunteer buying everyone else a soda (which
Tom never did by the way).
We asked directions to the massai market and 4
people (locals) told us completely wrong. Eventually we got taken there by
someone who later helped me get cheaper sales.
At the Massai market I was more savvy with how I
carried myself; walk fast past the stalls to prevent getting asked in. Ignore people;
it’s rude but last time I got nothing done. Lastly, poke your head in the shop,
rather than going in, to see is there is anything worth looking at.
The man who I very nearly bought the bookends off,
remembered me, but he seemed so happy to see me, I don’t think he remembered
who I was, just my face. I bought a really lovely painting and some other
things and then we went to dinner. For all the things I bought I spent about
£9.80 in total.
At dinner we found this Italian guy, a very old
man who looked like a tourist, stood near the toilets mumbling to himself and
looking in his pockets. He was saying he had been robbed but it was very early
in the day for someone to be mugged of so much; his phone his money, but not
his passport or his wallet.
He kept changing his story, his daughter was
away, then she lived in Arusha, he wanted to go home, he needed to go to church
to see his wife. All the numbers he had for family members were disconnected.
Eventually he was trying to explain that he ‘had
no mind’ and his memory was bad. So we realised he had dementure. Also he smelt
distinctly of alcohol. This whole experience was made more difficult by his
inability to speak English, and ours to speak Italian, we all managed to
converse slightly using French and English, but the boss of the restaurant we
were at was Italian, so we left him to meet him when the boss arrived.
We went to change up my remaining money into sterling
and then got the dala dala home. I got on and sat down and Tom followed next to
me, but the woman sat next to me was like ‘this seat is taken.’ Who knew you
could save seats on a bus, let alone a makeshift dala dala type bus! I had nowhere
to go so I ended up on toms lap, I bet everyone else around us was so confused but
it was impossible for me to go anywhere else, then the woman turned up and took
‘her’ seat. So all the way back nearly, we were sweaty and sliding about on a
seat with no back. It wasn’t pleasant, but Tom was comfier than a metal bar
between 2 seats so I didn’t complain. Much.
We got the piki piki up to peace Matunda and
right at the bottom I dropped the paintings I had bought, I didn’t know how to
tell the driver to stop, so at the top Kristina went back down and looked for
it but there was nothing there! I’m so sad, she kindly offered to sell her
painting to me, so I bought it off her; now at least I have something.
In Tengeru we went back to the market to get
another Avocado. The one in Kristina’s bag was completely smushed into pieces
because the dala dala was so squashed.
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