Maasai Sandal Shopping

Friday, March 15, 2019

Maasai Sandal Shopping

On Monday, Janet and I went to the Maasai Sandal Factory to order some custom-made sandals. It’s not far from Kundayo but down a little alley that looks impassable. There are several cinder block buildings—some without roofs—which make up the “factory.”

During the rainy season, they move to an indoor room.  Everything is really really dark and I don’t know how they manage. (Ignore the shoes. They were in the way.)

The men cut out the sandals and put them together. There was only one guy when I was there but usually there are more.

The women do the beadwork… again, in a dark room. Notice how the woman in the left picture picks up beads on her needle which is in her mouth. She was very fast.

When we got there, we were shown all the strap designs that we could order in whatever color combinations we wanted. What's your favorite?

I tried on a pair…actually I tried on several so it was hard to decide what I wanted.

Janet ordered three pair—a baby pair for her 2-year-old granddaughter; and, a gigantic pair for Luke, the baby’s father. She didn’t seem to have much trouble deciding which design to order.  I, on the other hand, saw too many choices.

But I finally decided. On Friday, I picked them up. Beautiful! Here’s my pair….

Here are some fun facts about this factory.  When I went back on Friday to get the sandals, John went with me. He certainly knows what questions to ask.  

He asked "How many sandals do people order at one time? One hundred?" 

Noel answered "Oh, no! Maybe 400." (!!!!!! Can you imagine those people making 400 sandals at a time? All by hand!)

John then asked, "Who buys them?" 

Noel mentioned a company and a place somewhere else in Tanzania. He thinks they're distributed to other countries like Malawi.

John asked how many Masaai sandal making factories were in Arusha and Noel thought there were five.  WOW!

I'm so glad I could get factory-direct-handmade-custom-ordered sandals.

Shopping Day

March 12, 2019

Shopping Day

On Tuesday, Janet and I had a day of shopping at Wazungu shops.  Wazungu shops are the rather expensive ones that Wazungus, and rich people from India, go to get a one-place-for-everything kind of experience. These places are usually indoors, spacious with western-style goods that are arranged in a western-shopping kind of way.

First, we went to AIM. I don’t know what it stands for but its tag line appears to be “Discover Your Favorite Place.” It was about 10:30ish in the morning.

 Inside, there is a modern escalator that doesn’t move until you step on it.  Cool!  And it’s totally silent.

There’s a spacious courtyard with a restaurant that wasn’t open yet.

We were actually there to find a jewelry shop that sells tanzanite jewelry. It’s called Isle of Jewels Ltd. Janet bought a ring for a friend…at the friend’s request.

After the jewelry store, we walked around and saw some interesting things.  This is a high-end shopping mall where discounted men’s shirts run about $35. This is many many more times than the average Tanzanian pays for a shirt. Keep this in mind as you look at this picture.  Notice the tag on the shoulder of the dress.

Again, notice the tag on the shoulder of the dress. Sorry, it's a bit fuzzy.

Whaaaaa?????

We went by a Salon where Janet got her hair cut last year.  She said it was a good haircut.

We went by a toy shop.

OK, now…what’s wrong with these pictures?  Yes, there are NO people.  We saw very very very very very few people.

We went on to Shoppers which is way more interesting.  Not high end, although a few places are expensive.  There’s a bit of everything… hardware, housewares, clothes, restaurants, book store, tour and travel agencies, etc—you get the picture.

And here are a few pics of some places….

Flying Doctors….in case you get attacked by a lion or leopard on safari.

InterChick. It has something to do with chickens but I don’t know what.

 Book Centre where Janet bought a bible. The rats ate their Word of God.

A Toy Store with go-carts which one can rent to whiz around the 1^st floor.  Janet said she didn’t want to ride around. Darn.

About $2.00

There were also many restaurants. The most interesting…and maybe disturbing one has been anticipated for several weeks. Can you guess?

And at last…it opens next week. The young man next to this motorcycle was very animated and excited about this new business.

There were other restaurants.

Here's one for you Dru....

A Starbucks Wanna Be?

We ate at the Mexican one.

Janet ordered a burrito and really enjoyed eating it.

My tortillas were really chipatas

While we were having lunch, 2 Chinese men came to eat. We think that they were workers because they were very loud and they came over to our table and were talking and pointing at our food and ignoring us...definitely not like the more refined Chinese men.  They signaled for the waitress and pointed at our food and said “One” and “Two,” to let her know their order. They were loud and intrusive. They then went to the cooler to choose their drinks. They wanted beer. One pulled out a beer.  The other guy pulled out a Red Bull.  Hee Hee. He thought it was a beer too.  And he didn’t even know he was drinking an energy drink. It looked like beer.  Hee Hee.

After lunch, we went to the Bistro Café for ice cream and coffee. This is one of the very few places in Arusha that is air conditioned. But they leave the doors open so I don't know how that works. While there, we got directions to a shop that sells Kangas so that’s where we went next.

This shop is absolutely fabulous! Great! Wonderful! Rachel is the proprietor who made shopping a fun experience.

 We were looking for thin kitenge cloth to make diapers and we found that. Rachel cut it up and Janet washed it with soft pear soap and hung them up to dry. This pic shows the diapers drying after Janet washed them.

Then we found a kanga which is a special large cloth that women use to tie their baby to their back. I’ve seen this all over Africa.  This cloth has special sayings on it and the baby ones say things like “Only a mother knows the true pain and joy of giving birth.”  Stuff like that.

I also bought a kanga. In addition to carrying babies, women wear these like skirts and scarves and the roll them up to help them balance things to carry on their heads.  It’s quite useful.  Here’s my saying… What do you think it means?

I took a guess. I know that Zawadi means “gift” so I thought this might mean “A gift of chocolate in a cup will choke you.”  Wrong! It really means something like “Gifts can be anything. Do not get tired of receiving them.”

This shop had so many nice things and I went a little nuts. 

In addition to a kanga, I got a lovely pair of pants with bling on the belt and a cell phone pocket.

And I really went outrageously wild and got this fabulous dress.

After having loads of fun in the shop, we left, found a bajaji and went back home.  What a fun day.