Day 1

A 1,500 Tanzanian shilling to 1 dollar exchange rate is incredibly difficult to use. I thought I was starting to get it, but my first trip to the local Barclays ATM made me realize I didn’t. Not wanting to have to constantly going back to get cash (or paying too many banking fees), I figured I would take the maximum amount out – which was 400,000 shillings. Then, as the machine spit out the thickest wad of bills I have ever seen, I panicked and realized I had no clue how much money I had just taken out. Frantically keying in the division into my blackberry I discovered it was either $267, or $2,670. Boy do I hope it is $267, and I don't have a years supply worth of shillings.

My first adventure in Tanzania occurred shortly after my visit to the cash machine – a trip to the TGA FoodMart. It is on the other side of town, so it was a great chance to see Arusha. The streets are filled with people (literally, actually, because most streets don’t have sidewalks, so they become congested with cars, trucks, buses, men pulling carts, dogs, animals pulling carts, chickens, motorcycles, scooters, and pedestrians).

Pascal, my driver, was nice enough to go through the FoodMart with me, taking me directly to the two items I was going for – bottled water and coffee. I was looking for Africafe instant coffee, which I had tried that morning, and was actually pretty good (far ahead of western style instant coffee). Pascal pointed out a real coffee store on the way out of the FoodMart, and it looked good – that will be a future outing.

On the way home we stopped at the Central Market, which was a chaotic and jam-packed with people. Pascal somehow knew someone loitering out in front of the market who guided us through (the guide leading the way, me wide-eyed in the middle, and Pascal behind me - I presumed at first this was to avoid pick-pocketers, but in hindsight it was probably because there was never enough room to walk in rows of 2 - and so Pascal could make some phone calls). The market is the size of a city block, and full of narrow pathways though heaps of fruit, vegetables, spices, dried beans and grains, fish, sardines, crates of chickens, and local medicines.

The guide zipped me though the narrow alleys as people pushed past. Some tried to sell me things, some ignored me, some game me funny (or, more likely, dirty) looks. My guide was pretty excited, though, and whenever he saw me looking at something, would say “free picture, free picture” – which always prompted me to pull out my camera and take a picture of whatever was in front of me (this is likely the reason there are so many semi-angry looking people in the pictures I took - I'm not sure they agreed with the "free picture, free picture" philosophy).

It was a bit awkward afterwards when the guide asked for a tip. I knew all I had in my pockets was (1) a crumpled up 5,000 shilling note that was change for my coffee and water; and (2) the giant wad of 10,000 shilling notes. Not wanting to pull out the giant wad in the middle of the bustling market, I spent about 5 minutes digging in my pockets, saying I thought I had change, while looking for the 5000 shillings. My jean pockets had many things - but all I could feel was the giant wad of money. The 5,000 shilling note was missing (I later discovered it burried far underneath the giant wad). Eventually, after it became too awkward to bear, Pascal bailed me out and lent me 1,000 shillings to give to the guy. I paid him back with a Fanta (and, of course, 1,000 shillings). Enough adventure for one day!