thursday was canada day and we celebrated like true (or I suppose honorary) canadians. they’ve only been here a few days but already we are very fond of our neighbors from the north. three guys, six girls- a combo of nursing, dental and med students – they tolerate our detailed stories and photos of the hospital so we’ve all been getting along swimmingly. thursday nights in arusha happen to be the night this small town parties down at via via, a bar not far from the hospital. it felt like we were back in college. the hostel itself feels like a dorm, but going over to their place to drink and celebrate before hand, then taking taxi’s to via via for more drinks and dancing, it was taking me back… via via is an outdoor bar/club. i supposed it's kind of nice that it's open air, because EVERYONE smokes here, but it still doesn't make much difference. I think, more than anything, I miss oregon’s fresh air. the car exhaust and smoke and pollution are overwhelming and first thing when I get home I intend to hike a trail to a remote place in the gorge and just breath.
the live music was wonderful and we danced and sang along to the american songs. it was pretty entertaining. so many tourist faces, and too many languages to recognize – what a melting pot! between tusker, serengeti lager and kili beer i’m in paradise. I think the kilimanjaro lager is my fav so far. by eleven the place was packed and at any given moment I was standing shoulder to shoulder with people from probably half a dozen different countries. Fortunately for us, everyone speaks English! Such spoiled americans :) you should’ve seen the outdoor dance floor go wild when they started playing the world cup theme song, everyone joining in and singing along… more world cup last night, what a disappointment that ghana lost :(
today, it is a beautiful saturday in arusha and we woke with plans to go the craft market. what an experience! haggling with the merchants is a lot of fun. most earrings are about 1000 tzs (less than $1 USD) and I bought these beautiful malachite earrings that I think I might never take off. I also wanted to purchase some sandals, they have beautiful beaded leather sandals here and when I set my eyes on a pair I was determined to get a good deal. after some bargaining back and fourth I was at a price I refused to go above (about $7 USD). the guy wanted 3000 tzs more than I was offering so I said, “ok, and started to walk away” he grabbed my arm as they always do and made a slightly better offer, I stayed strong with my original offer and then, thinking he wouldn’t go any lower, I resorted to my last option… I reached into my purse and pulled out a package of condoms. we brought a ton of condoms to distribute here, but we have yet to figure out the best way to hand them out. Thu, amy and I brought them in our purse to the market and I decided, why not give this a shot, so I said, this is my final offer, (plus the condoms, as I held them up for him to see), and the guy smiled and said, you have a deal. I couldn’t help but laugh as I exchanged condoms for sandals, and he thought it was hilarious that I had just given condoms to him. we handed out the rest at various shops and everyone looked very pleased with the gifts. never imagined we’d be the condom fairies, fighting for safe sex in arusha, but it looks that way now. quite entertaining. spent just over an hour at the craft market and left happy but exhausted. haggling is hard work!
No comments:
Post a Comment