We woke up between 6 and 6:30 am today to a sunny, beautiful day. After a delicious breakfast of crepes, French toast and fruit (mango, pineapple and bananas), we had a short language introduction and tour of the Home Base compound. Then we went on a two hour walking tour of downtown Moshi.
On this Sunday morning, we found Moshi to be a colorful but rather small town. Both the Catholic and Lutheran churches were holding worship services. We heard wonderful singing from the Lutheran church. The local market was full of activity. Kirk got some shillings from one of the ATM machines that are located downtown. The current exchange rate is approximately 1,400 shillings to $1.00. We found the beans that we’ll buy late in our stay here to fill the cushion for the camera that we’ll use during the safari after we complete our three weeks with CCS. We also passed several stores that sell East African arts and crafts. They were closed on this Sunday morning, so we don’t know yet what we might buy to take home with us. That will be a focus of another trip downtown.
The two hours of walking in the hot sun was rather draining, so we were glad to return to Home Base while others visited a Safari Tour company. Because of the brutal direct sun light, while in the market Kirk bought a cute, broad-rimmed safari hat with a Mt. Kilimanjaro logo. The vender’s first price was 30,000 shillings. Kirk offered 5,000. After several offers back and forth, Kirk finally bought the hat ten minutes later for 7,500 ($5.00). Jean thinks he looks cute in his hat. He certainly looks ready for any trekking that we might do!
We returned to Home Base for a lunch of vegetarian “meatballs” in tomato sauce, spaghetti noodles, tomatoes, cucumbers and fruit. The veggies are served with a delicious salsa. I could live on the salsa, I think!
After lunch, both of us took a nap before returning to the covered meal pavilion for an hour of presentations about “Tanzanian culture” and the completion of work on our resident permit applications.
After we completed all of the papers for our resident permit applications and paid our fees, we had dinner. It included beef in bar-b-que sauce, tomatoes and cucumbers and salsa, bananas and fruit. We’re certainly going to eat well while we’re here.
After dinner, we joined a group of new and “seasoned” volunteers who were picked up by Pristine Tour Company and taken to their office for a presentation about possible trips that we could take. The presentation was well done and professional. They initially thought that everyone would be interested in a safari. Of course, we have already planned a different safari with the Clarks. We were most interested in a trip to Zanzibar and found that others were also interested in that trip. Tomorrow we’ll find out what arrangements can be made for us to go to Zanzibar. We also liked their tour which focuses on a one-day climb of Mt. Kili. Hope to sign up for that one.
Oh, yes, the presentation was accompanied by Tanzanian beer, South African wine, cashews, lots of sodas and bottled water. In addition, Pristine Tours has a lot of experience working with Cross Cultural Solution volunteers. Therefore, they know the restrictions that we experience because of our volunteer assignments.
After the presentation, we returned to Home Base and our beds. It was a great day filled with lots of sun and lots of interesting things to think about.
More tomorrow.
Love from both of us.
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