Looking Back - Day 3 & 4 - Moshi

Day 3:
We arrived in in Tanzania about 10am and met our bags with a sigh of relief. A 45min drive to the town of Moshi left me staring out the window of our van the whole way, a whole other world from what we know.

Arriving @ Keys Hotel, which would be our 'home away from home,' we quickly got our gear in our room before meeting our guide for the Mt Meru climb. His name was Kassim, and we got to know him quite well during our time in Tanzania. He let us know what we would need to bring, and what we would be in for day to day on the 4 day trek. With the plan in place, we left for a bit of a walk around.

Keys is just north of the town of Moshi, and with not too much time left of daylight, we decided to head down the road for a bit. We were situated just south of the equator, which meant that the sun would rise and set at nearly the same time all year round (6:30am/pm). Wandering down the road we passed kids coming home from school, and people coming home from work in Moshi. Everyone was friendly and we would greet each other with 'Jambo' which is 'hello' in Swahili. We met an older gentleman who spoke very good English, and he told us about a market down another road. We followed along and chatted about the area and the people with him.


Arriving at the market, he passed on through and we were left right in the middle of the 'market'. People had everything from vegetables to little battery powered radios. There would be a pile of used clothes on a blanket, and people would be rifling through them. One man had a pile of 'flip-flop' type shoes made out of used tires. What really struck me though, is that for the first time in my life, I was the minority. Hundreds of eyes were looking at us as we made our way down the road in this market. It wasn't a feeling of being threatened, but it was a little uncomfortable. Here I am, walking down a road through a market for the locals, with a camera on my side that is worth more than many of them would make in a year. It was a tough thing to swallow, and I am still trying to process it all. Heading back, we had some dinner, and then to bed.

Day 4:
The next day was a free day for us, so we headed to Moshi. We met a lady named Janice from San Francisco at Keys who tagged along with us, and we caught a cab to town. Not really knowing where to go ourselves, the cabbie conveniently dropped us off right near one of his "friend's shop", where we were soon meet our Moshi entourage.

Obviously we stick out like a sore thumb, and were quickly targeted by a host of guys looking to sell us things, and take us to their shops. The guys took us on a whirlwind tour of Moshi, we chewed on sugarcane, and took some photos. It just so happened that we ended up at their 'shop' at the end of it all. I wandered around, and my Dad started picking some things out. Of course, there were no prices and we would have a package deal at the end. Picking out some paintings, carvings and the like, they grab a calculator and come back with a price. 850. "uh is that in shillings of dollars?" "Dollars." This was pretty crazy, and although we didn't know what things were worth, we certainly didn't think $850 was reasonable. Taking a few things out, it magically became $130ish. We offered $65 and he seemed offended, while we countered that we didn't know what things were worth because we hadn't seen anything else yet. After much ado, we left Jay and told him we'd be back to see him. We wandered around town a bit more, hunting down places in my fantastic Kilimanjaro book. We were always followed where ever we went, until we finally hopped in a cab to Shah Industries, and then back to Keys. Packing up, then early to bed, we were off to Arusha National Park & Mt Meru in the morning...