Day 5: Markets and Mud Slides

Habari!!

Woke up feeling so refreshed this morning....decided to skip breakfast and savour every minute of a proper bed so got up around 9:30, showered and packed up the "night" bag....it almost felt like a holiday at this point as we all headed down to the hotel pool where we spent a couple of hours swimming, sunbathing and drinking ice cold cola and banana split ice-creams...


We got collected by Raymond and the driver at around 12:30pm and were taken back to the place where we had dinner...this time for lunch... The food was okay..a combination of salad, chicken (we think), spring-roll type vegetables and a local delicassy, of which i cant rememeber the name off, which looked like spinach mixed with snot...it was actually really nice though...well you have to try these things! We also found a local Computer repair shop by the side of the road next to the restaurant.....

RM....home from home!!

From here we headed to one of the Markets to try our hand at a bit of haggling. We stopped to change up some money into Tanzanian Shillings and after some Swahili lessons from Raymond on how to say "no, not interested" or "Habana Sitaki" we went off looking for bargains. We split off into pairs and very quickly began getting harrassed to buy anything from dangly plastic bracelets to 8ft wooden sculptures - some of which looked absolutley amazing...but you have to ask..who would buy this stuff! That said I did buy a few begains...a little wooden sculture for the lounge and a couple of oil paintings...many of the others purchased nic nacs, a massia through, hats, chess sets - all at well haggled prices (thanks to the help of Raymond - our official security guard, handyman and now...personal shopper)!

We left the market and began our long drive "home" to camp through Arusha and Moshi Town. On route we passed by the "Centre of Africa" which is literally...as is says on the tin - the middle point of Africa. Now, in the UK this would probably have been represented by a gaint monument or something stunning but here...no..simply a couple of model elephants in the middle of a roundabout!

We stopped a couple of times on the way "home" to collect food and water supplies for the next few days. Whilst stopped in Moshi Town, I am sad to say that we whitnessed a fatal hit and run accident. A driver of a van didn't give way and hit a motorcyclist from the side...crowds of people surrounded the scene (no police or emergency vehicles however). The driver of the van fled and chase was given to catch him [since there is no way of tracing the driver via the license plate like there is in the UK]. The motorcyclist was taken away in a taxi but was clearly dead on impact. We asked Raymond about whether they would catch the driver...and we asked why he ran...he said (which shocked us a little) that becuase he was clearly in the wrong (by not giving way), they would have kicked him to death...it was said in a way that made it sound so "normal" to the way of life out here..it made all go bit quiet. Whilst the driver was in the wrong, it was clearly an accident and to fear his life that much that he had to run rather than wait for the police (who never arrived or probably even got called)!

Anyway....morbid scene over!

We arrived "close" to camp site at around 7:30 but due to a flash rain storm in the afternoon, our vehicle was unable to make it all the way up the mud track to the school. We left the girls in the van (for some weight) and the boys got out and pushed...for 10 minutes we pushed the van until finally it got traction...The girls cheered when we got back in the van and Freddy told us that the experience in the van was terrifying as the van slid towards the edge of the road with a sheer drop the other side of it....fortunatley us boys were victorious over the weather and we saved the day!!!! :-)

Almost at camp, the van stopped again and we were told it could go no further. A smaller van had been prepared to take us the final part of the journey but there was not room for all of us so Paul, myself, Simon and Tom walked the final mile of the journey (after being told it was only 500m)!

What a day...so many experiences wrapped into 24hrs. We were wacked! We managed some dinner which was waiting for us when we arrived back to camp and one by one we headed for the tents to sleep...a mixed night sleep as the rain kept us awake most of the night. Most of us were lucky but a few suffered leaking tents and got a little drenched in the night.