Exploring Moshi

Monday, May 28, 2012


Today was our first morning in Tanzania, and oh my goodness the weather was absolutely beautiful. Our plans for this morning are to head into the Town of Moshi and exchange US money into Tanzanian shillings, buy a phone, and meet with someone from the orphanage we will be working at.

The trek from the volunteer house to the town of Moshi is about a 45 minute walk down bumpy, rocky, and dusty dirt roads… and I’m wearing flip flops. Funny thing is, my whole life I’ve been the type of person who would rather be barefoot than wear shoes, so the fact that my feet were practically black by the time we made it back to the volunteer house didn’t phase me at all. However, the flip flops didn’t provide the kind of support I would need on these daily walks, so from here on out I will be wearing my sneakers to the orphanage.  To be quite honest, the walk to the town of Moshi was very peaceful, even though there are dozens of cars, piki-piki’s (motorcycles) and dala-dala’s (buses) passing by every few minutes, the rugged beauty of Tanzania overwhelms me. Many of the homes are in very poor condition with none of the kinds of resources that are available to us in the States, but there is something about them that makes them absolutely beautiful. Perhaps it is all the smiling faces you still see peering through the windows, sitting on the front step, running through the street. I find that many Americans are good at putting on a fake smile when someone asks them how they are doing, but the smiles here in Tanzania FEEL so genuine. You’re probably wondering, what the hell are you talking about? How can a smile have a feeling? I don’t really know myself, but these children, men and women are all so welcoming, it is almost as if you have known them for years.

I should warn you though, not everyone in Africa is always so nice. “Fly-Catchers” are people who walk around the town looking for mzungu’s. They will follow you around nonchalantly, waiting to find out what you are searching for, then try and steer you in the direction of where that item is, but then jack up the prices on the items. For them, they are only trying to make a living, as whatever business they bring to the shops they receive commission on. However, after you witness this once, it gets very annoying, and sometimes you have to be rude in order for them to stop. Within ten minutes of leaving the house, I encountered my first fly-catcher. He very mysteriously followed us into town for about twenty minutes before he confronted Deb and asked her what we were in town for. She politely declined and in Swahili said “no thank you, not this time” and the man stopped talking but continued to follow us for another ten minutes before asking again.  I don’t know about you, but I was not grown up to be rude to people, so I find it very hard to tell these people that I’m not interested. I feel bad, and many times feel compelled to buy from them because perhaps my purchase means they will get to feed their children this week. But I also have to keep in mind that they also only see me as a mzungu, a mzungu that is made of money, because of course all westerners are filthy rich.

After converting our money from US dollars to Tanzanian shillings (tsh) we purchased our first Tanzanian cellphone! While I have re-hashed my relationship with my Iphone after suffering through my blackberry phase, I was a little disappointed to find out I would be stuck with a Nokia. There are other options available, so far as to a blackberry, but they are far more expensive. Considering we will only be in Tanzania for 5 weeks, we agreed that the cheapest phone would do for now. No QWERTY keyboard though, so I have had to re-teach myself to text old school style. Our first lunch in the town of Moshi occurred at the Kilimanjaro Coffee Shop. A quaint little shop with a full menu and outdoor seating. Many of my friends and family were concerned about what kinds of food I would be eating, but surprise surprise I had a "beef burger" with fries... real fries... as in freshly peeled and chopped potatoes. The beef burger is not exactly the same as I am used to at home, but the seasonings make it absolutely delicious. I have been pleasantly surprised with all the amazing food I have encountered in the past two days.

Our first dala-dala ride was quite an adventure to say the least. For those who don’t know, a dala-dala is sort of like a bus, or a big taxi. Certain dala-dala’s go to certain locations so you have to be really persistent when asking if it goes to “Moshi mgini” which means Moshi Town. We grabbed our first dala-dala in Moshi and rode it to Pasua, which is where the orphanage is located. It is about a 15 minute ride, but it is the most uncomfortable 15 minutes you will ever experience. These run down vehicles seat about 10 to 15 people, but I swear they will cram up to 30 people into one dala-dala. All consideration for respect and decency goes out the window as 9 out of 10 times you have someone’s chest, armpit, or back end in your face. To the best of my knowledge, the reason they cram so many people into one little bus is because the rides are very cheap. They are about 300tsh per person, which equates to about .20 cents in US dollars. There isn’t any place in America that I’m aware of where you can hail a ride across town for .20 cents. Back tracking to the mention of armpits before, I hate to turn gross on you but the hardest thing to get used to (in my opinion) is the body odor. It seems that many Africans do not use deodorant, so not only are the dala-dala rides physically uncomfortable, but it also isn’t very pleasant on your senses. Growing up in a country where personal hygiene is so important, it’s difficult to understand the lack of cleanliness here. I shouldn't say a lack of cleanliness, because they are clean, it's just that personal hygiene products such as deoderant are not important to them. I’m hoping that over time I can grow used to it, we will see…

Our first visit to the Kilimanjaro Orphanage Center was fairly short only because we got a late start to the day. When we arrived, all the younger children were napping, while the older ones were still off at school. We met Lucy, who is in charge of the orphanage. She is a beautiful African woman who never gets tired of saying karibu (welcome). The other “employees” are Stella and Zuena. Although I am still unable to understand what Stella is saying to me, she always manages to make me laugh. She has a very upbeat personality and always has a smile on her face. Zuena is an older woman, but that doesn’t stop her from working just as a hard as the others. She also has an awesome personality, and you can tell the children really love her. The orphanage consists of one classroom, which doubles as a TV room, a reading room, a make-shift kitchen, a machinery room where they grind maize, and four dormitories. The dormitories are split into two dormitories for the girls and two dormitories for the boys. Each room consists of two bunk beds where approximately two or three children sleep on each mattress. During our introductions one little girl named Deborah woke up from her nap. She is about 3 years old, one of the youngest, and she is absolutely adorable. For twenty minutes she kept hiding behind the door playing hide and seek with me and every time she saw me she would scream “teacher!” Within a few seconds I had created a friend for life, which I find ironic because sometimes it can take years to build the level of trust she built with me in just a few seconds. This concludes our time at the orphanage for the day, as we have a long trek back to the volunteer house.