Wednesday, 14 July 2010

Shamonyi Shopping Centre

Moshi, Tanzania. During the day it’s so hot and humid you feel faint. Nevertheless everybody seems to be out and about. Some people sell random stuff and others wait in the sun and 40 C heat to be hired for work.

The words "shopping centre" would perhaps invoke images other than a single small room packed  to the ceiling with boxes of soft drinks, no working fridge and a guy standing outside - probably because there is no space inside. The sign above the door says "food shop" in Swahili.

People make do with what they have - and it’s not a lot. This guy was selling among other things pieces of used eyeglass frames and bracelets, used shoe polish tins - some without lids, an AA battery bent out of shape and a razor blade that wouldn’t actually cut anything.

These people have something we have lost in our throw away society - respect for even the smallest material possessions. In those parts when your eyeglasses break you don’t buy another pair - you go out, get some spare parts and fix them yourself. We'd do well to take a leaf out of their book.

And then of course there was the two guys with the chicken...I can only assume they were trying to sell it...

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