Spent the past few days house hunting with Lori, we looked
at some biiig houses and some small houses, some close to the main road-as
requested, others close only in rental agent speak-1km and more. Found a great
place not too far from where I am now, relatively new, needs a few tweaks but
the potential landlord wants a deposit so that he can do the tweaking. Common
practice here, they run out of money, ask for an advance on the deposit then
carry out the repairs. Also common is 6-12 month rent at once, 3 months for the
locals renting smaller houses. This is a big problem for any local person
wanting to rent, even though the rent may only be £10/$17 per month trying to
raise £30/$51 is almost impossible, this is where microloans are invaluable. Need
to think about this. Bought a great sofa in the sales and they will keep it for
me for a month, it’s a bit girly but I can cover it with kitenge fabric
Lori parked, badly, due to a piki piki being in the way,
outside of the furniture shop. We both went in to look at the sale items
leaving Brie in the car. 15 minutes or so later she came running in stating the
car had been chained. Returning to the car we found that an overzealous parking
‘person’ had chained and spiked the front wheel of the car. He obviously hadn’t
reckoned on 127 combined years of angry American/British sisterhood. Calmly we
asked why the piki piki driver had not been chained, he then asked for
50,000Tsh ($30) refusing to answer the question. This circular argument ensued
for 20 minutes or so with several Tanzanians siding with us. Then…a tow truck
appeared, followed by us 3 sitting on the back bumper in a ‘we shall not be
moved’ stance. When I saw them trying to move the truck towards the front of
the car, I moved my bum to the front bumper. One ‘person’ attempted to touch
me, wrong move sonny, I politely, but very loudly, told him that I was old
enough to be his mother and that I considered it assault. Whilst this was
happening another ‘person’ was trying to persuade Lori to part with the money.
Ever heard 2 loud Texans shouting in harmony? I have now and it kinda hurts
your ears. They then removed the chain and spikes without any money changing
hands-we had quietly agreed to pay 20,000 in the smallest notes and coins that
we had-coppering up as they call it in Lancashire ,
but it wasn’t needed. We got into the car pretty sharpish and left the scene of
the none existent crime. Looking back, I think that we actually enjoyed it! Thought it inappropriate to take pictures-ha ha
Lori is a little powerhouse, full of ideas and knows how to
put them into practice, I feel that Tanzania
Spent Saturday morning doing a 2.5 hour walk around the
different areas of Arusha, need to get these last 3.5kgs off somehow. Returning
home hot and sweaty I found the 3 mamas who we’d invited to lunch, Lori
volunteered to cook whilst I was out. This is something that we’d like to do
once a month, invite the staff from the centre to have lunch so that we can wait on them.
She made spaghetti with meat sauce and chocolate chip cookies from the stash
bought from Texas
Samweli modelling his clothes donated by Shelley, perfect fit, thanks Shelley, the ladies-and kids who do lunch and Peanut waving his new sleep suit around. Thanks again to Shelley, he actually tried to eat it earlier
