We were so disappointed, especially since this means that we're done teaching because we have to leave for Moshi early on Thursday morning with Hellen! There's a very small possibility that we could see the students again the morning before we fly out of Dar, but it doesn't seem likely.
We trudged back down to the dalla-dalla stop and waited for an hour for ours to come. Finally, we got on a bus, but ended up sitting in a ton of traffic. Hellen called and told us to just get off the bus where we were, but we had a miscommunication, and we weren't where she thought we were...at last, thanks to the help of a stranger that I put on the phone with her, she figured out where we were and came to get us.
Hellen took us with her to the Catholic Secretariat, where she had to file some paperwork to get tax exemption for a container of donations for the clinic. We were instructed to wait for an hour and a half for a letter to be typed and signed, so we decided to have lunch at the little cafeteria. We came back at the appointed time, and were informed that in fact, we'd have to wait until tomorrow for the letter to be completed. Hellen told us in the car that this was not at all uncommon in Tanzania; often you're told to wait for something, then are told that it's not possible in the way that you'd agreed upon. Lesson #2 of the day.
Our next errand took us to the Ministry of Health, where we went through a similar song and dance. Hellen is trying to get the government to approve the clinic so that it can receive financial support and serve people that cannot otherwise afford health care. She was told to come back tomorrow.
Next we went to a craft market to pick up little carvings of animals that Hellen ordered last week to sell at the next Life Project fundraiser. Of course, they weren't quite ready. So Karla and I wandered around while we waited, and then decided to help find some statues that we thought would be marketable in the US. We found some rhinos and giraffes that were beautifully made, and made the vendor's day when we told him we wanted 20 of each. We negotiated a price, then he told us to wait while he gathered them...people scurried around trying to collect these animals and sell us more, but I noticed that they were taking carvings of a lesser quality and varnishing them to look like the original that I had picked out. I explained that I wanted good quality wood and it took a while to get them to admit that the ones that they had been varnishing were different. Finally, the vendor told me that he'd have to make more statues, and that we could pick them up tomorrow. As for the giraffes, he complained that it cost 1000 TSH (around $1) more to make them than we had agreed upon, so he wanted to bargain upwards. Now why hadn't he thought of this when we first bargained? After all that effort, we didn't end up buying anything from him! As Hellen was not in the least surprised when I reported this transaction (or lack thereof) to her, we took this as a lesson in business.
We ended up buying everything we needed from one vendor, then made our way to dinner. En route we tried to find an ATM, but we couldn't find a single one that accepted our cards! What are the odds?
We worked up quite an appetite looking for money, so we really enjoyed dinner. Hellen took us to this nice place right on the water! We had a great time chatting with her and getting to know her better. And despite all the frustrations that today held, it was definitely gave us some insight into some of the frustrations and difficulties that arise for people living here, which may just be more valuable than a day in which everything runs smoothly!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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