Right now we are at Douglas' place in Mtwara. This building is also where the main ADEA office (i.e. one room) is along with a gift shop. Douglas has also set up a little museum here with very interesting items including Makonde masks. The town of Mtwara is in the very SE corner of Tanzania really close to the Mozambique border (do not worry, Avis, we will not go there). There are a lot of shops and markets but it's very different than the states of course. And it's really dusty. This area doesn't seem as poor as others we've visited, however, it seems there isn't much opportunity for incomes for people. There seems to be issues with consistent running water (there has been none this week). Douglas says the electricity is consistently on (better than it used to be a few years ago).
Douglas' place is a little oasis of civility of course. His bedroom is decorated beautifully. There is a fancy bed that he bought from someone (it was being stored outdoors) and then painted it black...now it looks great! Everything is decorated so nice - you feel like you can escape here especially in his little patio area where there are nice plants and decor. Even the walls are painted a cool green shade.
Tomorrow we will travel out to some villages to see about 25 groups doing traditional dances. It is an event that Douglas organized.
Today I bought a piece of fabric at the market and one of the artisans here will sew it into a tablecloth and napkins for me. Neat!! Dealing with Tanzania schillings is interesting because the numbers are so high...one US Dollar is worth 1600 TSH. Today I took 400,000 TSH out of the cash machine...crazy!
Sorry no pictures this time...we'll try to post a few next time. Thanks for reading our blog!!
P.S. Happy Belated Birthday, Marina!
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