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Published: January 25th 2008
Conquering the Market Place!
With all their finds! Emily & Maddie had a great day and were ready to head home! I had been wanting to take pictures down at the Market here in Moshi for a long time, but I had never wanted to attempt the digging style shopping, bending over pile after pile, holding tight onto my bags, along with trying to keep up with the camera and not get it lost along the way. But this week I was able to do just that… I went along strictly as the photographer for Miss Emily & Maddie’s trip the clothing market here in Moshi. Maddie is the daughter of Sean & Anita Hochdorf, one of the new Missionary families we have working with us here in Tanzania, they arrived just over a week ago and they are living in Arusha, but we brought Maddie home with us to Moshi to spend a few days playing with the kids.
There’s so much joy in being around our kids, their laughs their smiles, their growing experiences in life… Being at this “Pre-teen age” and living in the middle of a third world country, can be somewhat strange to what little girls may have to deal with while living in America, For
instance, perhaps the difference in shopping at a walmart or at the local mall vs. shopping in a third world country, bartering for prices in the local market place. So, the girls wanted to do something fun today, something silly… so what else, but “GO SHOPPING!” they said. Well without the walmart around the corner and the Mall nowhere to be found, you just have to make due with what you’ve got and here in Moshi, what we have is, our own version of shopping excitement…. what we affectionatly call, “The Tanzanian Mall” or in reality, “The Clothing Market.”
It’s so large of an area covered by various outdoor, stands and little wooden frame shops, that I have yet to cover the entire place on foot in a single day’s trip. It looks like a huge shanty town from a distance. There are blue & Orange tarps strapped down all through the area, creating some shaded shops and small alley ways between the rows and rows of imported clothing. ~ You can see the whole process happening right before your eyes… trucks drive into the market coming from the coast, after buying bundles of clothes off the port,
Can you find the Sales Lady??
She's hiding in the Old bags section.... for a certain price (to cover shipping and there it all begins)……these trucks are loaded down with big bundles of clothing, donated goods from foreign lands, donated items from the salvation army & Good Will services around the world. Bundles that after having been through the system in the states get gathered together and sent over by ship to Clothe Africa with our Western styles and slogans on T-shirts, hats, jackets and bags. So this in turn causes you see little pink, Hello Kitty T-shirts on grown men walking through the streets in down town Moshi & Arusha… and you laugh and wonder how that happens! (well, This is how)
At the market the auction begins, and the truck driver sells the bundles to someone on the ground. That person in turn, breaks open the bundles and begins to sell everything right off the torn open bag, shouting “Mia Tano, Mia Tano, Mia Tano” Which means 500 Tshillings.. over and over again, everything in the pile for the bargin price of about 35 cents each. That’s when the next buyer, digs through it all and purchases specific items at low costs, to take and sell a few rows
The Bundle Opening area...
(the blue light special so to speak) over in their specialized shops, at a higher cost. Some sell just shoes, or just belts, there are shops of all varieties, hats, dresses, t-shirts, children’s wear, jeans, slacks, skirts, socks, and even as bad as we all know this would be, underware. The little shop keepers usually mark up their items to around 1,000 Tshillings (about 85 cents) from there they start to hem up holes and mend the clothing, cleaning things up, ironing and hanging them on display and those clothes are usually in the 3,000 - 10,000 range (about $2-$10) …. So where is the best place to start????? Of course the broken bundles on the ground, (Our version of the American Dig Store) as you first enter the market, you have to dig, and dig and dig… a little dirt and dust to contend with… but if you get there first you might actually find a treasure that you never thought you’d see in Africa. Today, I found an Eddie Baur T-shirt, new with tags… on the dusty broken bag in the market floor and paid just 30 cents for it… What a deal! You just never know what you’ll find.
I gave both
Mom & Emily at the Market...
Following the girls around for protection ... (and laughs)... They really did have a fun day! girls 10,000 Tshillings (about 8 dollars) to work with and they both got some really cute stuff! Both got a skirt and blouse type outfit as well as a jean and t-shirt outfit, then of course accessories: belts & Scarves and Maddie found a great pair of camoflauge high tops… which she couldn’t believe she bought in an African Market place. I think they had more fun at making deals than they ever would actually shopping anywhere in the states. You have to think of it like a game, to make it all bearable and fun. Maddie actually got really good at it quick and jumped right in there, she would make the deal, and then turn to Emily and I to see just exactly what she had agreed to. So much fun to watch!
At one of the shops we were looking through, there were 3 or 4 men standing around and one of them, smiled at me through his “rastifarian” dreadlocks and then asked me how much I wanted for my daughters in swahili. He went on to tell me he was a very rich man in his village and they were very beautiful, so he
mostly rubber shoes...
but at least stand has them in matching pairs would give me 30 cows for Emily and then the guy next to him agreed and said he would give the same for Maddie… Well, seeing how Sean & Anita weren’t there, and I didn’t really think Brent needed that many cows just yet…. I just chose to speak on their behalf and refuse the offer…haha! The girls were mortified and wanted to RUN away as fast as they could to another shop, in a completely different area. You have to laugh, just never thought I’d have an offer of 30 cows for my 10 year old daughter! The market place can be somewhat overwhelming at first, and although you do need to be cautious in being down there, it is also a fairly safe place to go. But you can imagine to two little girls, struggling with the lack of personal space that is so common a thing in this culture, the different language, the stares you get as you are shopping, and all that comes across as strange, awkward and weird. I do think the guys who offered to buy the girls, were Somewhat joking... (I think, or at least I hope!) But hopefully it was still a
Maddie, Learning the art of Bartering....
Of course she was trying to lower the cost in English, but she was very persistant with them. good experience over all.
~ Just another day in Africa! Love, Julie The girls also, both wanted to share their favorite parts of the day with you in their own words, and I figured they could give you their own perspective on Market Shopping.
Maddie’s Favorite part of the Day: “I thought it was really cool that I was able to pick my own prices, and bardering with all the people was a lot of fun. If your willing to go through the piles, you can find some really awesome things. I did get pretty scared when this crazy dude came up to me and started to grab my arm to sell me something (I tried to pull away…he wouldn’t budge, lol!). one guy also tried to BUY Emily, and when we said no, the other guy said that I would be fine too.( he had dread locks…blah!) I'm not very good at swahili so my bardering wasn’t so great, but it was a lot of fun to be able to lower my prices as I go! Me and Emily had lots of fun shopping together, and I hope we can do it again soon! We’ve become
The Belt Stand
A good shaded area.... for the heat of the Moshi sun. really good friends. Beside all the weird dudes around the market, we had a pretty awesome day!” -Maddie
Emily’s Favorite Part of the day: My favorite parts of the day were that I got some really cute clothes, and I liked helping Maddie and my Mom pick out their clothes too. My very favorite part was watching Maddie try to barder in English!, It was pretty funny!!! There were a couple of crazy guys too, one of them was trying to stuff things into Maddie’s purse and making us pay for them, the other one asked my Mom how much I cost, and then he pointed at Maddie and said that he would take her too!! Then later, she and Maddie joked and said that she should have said 3,000 cows and 5,000 chickens! But aside from all of that stuff… we had lots of fun!! After we finished shopping we went back to our house and we tried on our clothes . It was a really great day! ~Emily
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