First Full Day in Africa

First thing—find an ATM that works! It was easy to find find because it had police guarding it. One thing that we were warned about before travelling to Africa was that ATMs can be hard to find. When you do find them, they may not accept PIN numbers that are more than four characters.


Strolling down the main road

 We ate breakfast at the hotel (boiled/fried eggs), bread, jams/honey, watermelon, bananas, watermelon juice and another juice that was sort of like orange juice (more like tang).  Unfortunately no brewed coffee, only instant, served with hot milk. Also Marsala tea.

As per a past blog, the group that arrived before us had problems getting into the country. They were essentially locked inside their building by police until the mission lead and the sisters could work out the issues with immigration. Needless to say our lead did not want a repeat, so after breakfast we had to fill in some new Tanzanian Visa Exemption forms in duplicate, get photocopies of our entry Visas (that had been stamped on entry) and then head up the street to a photocopy shop which had agreed to take our pictures.



We definitely attracted a ton of attention—a bunch of muzungas walking down the main street. Within minutes we were swarmed by street vendors.



The "other big five" + Savanna Dry

 After getting our pics, we headed to roof top Indian restaurant—excellent vegetarian curry—first good meal since getting off the plane! Got to try Kilimanjaro beer, Tusker and Savanna Dry. Since we were on the roof the 5th floor—all stairs—and we had a great view of the street below.

Election bus

Elections were underway in Tanzania. The candidates would drive around in cars with huge speakers on the roof. Not sure what they were saying but they were obviously trying to promote specific candidates. Some played music VERY loud to get attention (and probably votes).

Later we strolled down the main street to do some shopping. Many of the shops that sold material, had locals siting outside the front of the shop with old style, treadle sewing machines, making clothes to order. Many of the women in our team purchased over the shoulder bags in fabulous batik and colorful fabrics.

 

Street Vendors



 All of the roads that we saw in Moshi, had large ditches which collected trash ~ 2–3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Most of them had slabs of concrete over them, however the ditch around our hotel was totally open. When we had arrived in Moshi, some of us narrowly missed falling into the ditch when getting off the bus to go into the hotel.

Most of the prices are reasonable, if not cheap. There are many curio shops and large, open air markets that sell spices, fruits, vegetables, various forms of salt, dried fish, and meat. One shop was selling sandals made from tires. At one point one of our team was threatened with a shoe because the vendor thought that her picture was being taken.

We headed back to the Haria to catch our bus to Kilema. Picked up Lise and her niece from their house and then headed off for groceries—basically booze and snack food.

Arriving at Kilema Hospital, we unpacked the bus and headed to our dorm. We all sleep in a huge hospital dorm room with privacy curtains, beds and mosquito nets (or "crazy princess curtains" as Jeff calls them)

Sister Clarissa greeted us and wanted to show us the new visitor's centre which consisted of 6 rooms, a large central dining area, 3 bathrooms (unfortunately two of them were squatters), showers, and an outdoor kitchen/prep area.

Supper was an amazing pumpkin soup, jasmine rice, boiled potatoes, carrots in a garlic sauce and a delicious kale dish. After a beer or two everyone headed to bed for a much needed rest.