Saturday, February 27, 2010

Tanzania mania

This morning we have a day off in Nakonde. The Deputy DEBS, Mr. Manga, took us over the border to Tanzania where we wanted to do some shopping, as it is very cheap to buy goods which are imported from Dubai through Dar Es Salaam to Tanzania.

Getting me over the border was no small feat as I ended up requiring 4 different customs stamps in order to enter. Sadly, none of them ended up in my passport because none of it was truly legit. They wrote my name on a small piece of paper along with the number of people I was entering the country with and our vehicle license plate number. They then proceeded to stamp the life out of that small piece of paper.

Once we passed over the border we were swarmed with boys wanting to be our “escorts” who would take us to the best shops and carry our bags for us as we accumulated a gluttonous amount of the best goods Tanzania had to offer. As I disembarked from our vehicle I could hear the calls of “Muzungu” being cried out from everywhere around me. Immediately after we formed a small group to discuss who would shop with whom and how long we would stay, another group of about 12-15 boys swarmed us like bees to honey all of them eager to be our escorts. Little did we know then that the majority of them would stay along our side no matter how desperately we tried to discourage them from doing so – eventually, Mr. Manga resorting to swatting them away like flies.

We then proceeded to divide into groups and poor Mr. Manga ended up with me and Melody. Although I planned on buying nothing at all, I did end up buying a new suitcase because it was huge and well made and I do not have one back at home. It probably cost me 30% of what it would in the US and 10% of what I would have paid in Geneva.

Melody, on the other hand, emptied much of the stores of their merchandise. She handed bag after bag to poor Mr. Manga who ended up holding at least 6 or 7 of Melody’s bags of merchandise. Just for her father alone she bought 3 suits, 3 pairs of shoes, 3 shirts and 3 ties. She went from store to store and bought whatever her little heart desired. Poor Mr. Manga ended up buried in Melody’s merchandise as he struggled through the Tanzanian streets carrying it all. And after she got back to her hotel room and started proudly displaying everything she had purchased, we pointed out that she, too, would require a new suitcase just to transport it all back to Zimbabwe…and so back she went to do just that.

Mr. Rain had been admiring my shoes and said that he wanted to buy a pair for himself so I ended up buying them for him. He was very happy. And it made me very happy.

Once back at the guest house, I plopped down on the bed in exhaustion from shopping but mostly from the tiring week of travel and working very long hours. There I comfortably caught up on my blogging and emails and watched a couple movies in a very comfortable room with cable and hot water and a fridge. It was a little slice of heaven and felt great to chill out for a day.