Markets

MARKETS

Outside the main centres on the east coast of Tanzania, there are three ways to purchase food and goods:

                               1. along the roadside

                               2. in large open-air markets, set up only on certain days

                               3. village shops

In this post, we will cover the roadside and open-air markets.

Next post - shopping in a village

PLEASE NOTE:

Many times we did not take pictures, which would have required focusing and light quality adjustments.  It would have been obvious to everyone what we were doing.  Mostly people didn't want us to snap them as they went about their daily business.  Some felt by doing so we were stealing something from them, something spiritual or part of their essence.  We trod carefully, having no desire to intrude or to be remembered as thieves.

A small roadside selling point

with temporary shade - in Tanzanian colours

of green and yellow!

NOTE:  centre, back, in the shade, is the lady of the stall.  Her husband is in the shade behind the produce.  The crouching man with the white hat,  is examining the produce, before making a purchase.

Here is a more developed roadside market - the shade provided is permanent, left standing when the day's sales are over.

The produce is brought in baskets, woven so beautifully (see close-up below) using rushes and grass.

The strength of the basket weaving lies in multiple triangles in the weaving.

 Bags of fuel for sale along the roadside.

The fuel is of two types:

branches of trees, maybe transported here for many miles - carried in bags across the carriers' shoulders

and

elephant dung, each about one foot long, now dried,
or
 cattle dung patties, collected by herders.

All packaged in white bags

These ladies are standing in a "line-up"
waiting for their turn to make a purchase.

We did not know what was being sold out of the bags

These are permanent

sale shelter areas

shelter from rain in the "rainy seasons"

and shade from the midday sun in the dry periods.

Built in a bend of the road.

Our guides took us here, to visit an organized market.  It was too early for the sellers to open up, but they had come early to claim a site for their stalls.

It was chilly at that early hour, but, in no time, the heat would rise.

The market is on a slope - to allow good run-off in the rainy seasons.

Very soon after this photograph, the stalls had been set up and these were some of the goods we saw for sale:

Some of the produce was expertly piled up.

Every kind of pepper!

The produce on display is of high quality!

Note the weighing scales on the table.   

The largest, organized outdoor market

we visited.

These markets are not only places where people gather to buy and sell.

It is here that people meet and exchange gossip and tell the news from their villages.  These folk have been attending these markets all their lives and they all know each other and support each other.

Next post:

Villages we passed through

Centres of Commerce and of Socialising

Thank you all for reading along.  We have had over 1100 page-views so far!

Honey

BEES  and  HONEY

 To create the mood for a few moments of thinking of bees and their work, let's look at this poem by Emily Dickinson, an American poet who lived 1830 - 1886, spanning the whole life of our Dr. Dillon:

                             THE  BEE          

            Like trains of cars on tracks of plush

            I hear the level bee:

            A jar across the flower goes,

            Their velvet masonry

            Withstands until the sweet assault

            Their chivalry consumes,

            While he, victorious, tilts away

            To vanquish other blooms.

            His feet are shod with gauze,

            His helmet is of gold;

            His breast, a single onyx

            With chrysoprase, inlaid.

            His labour is a chant,

            His idleness a tune;

           Oh, for a bee's experience

           Of clovers and of noon!

Emily Dickinson

[NOTE:  onyx (black) and chrysoprase (green) are gemstones.]

In the past, sugar did not arrive for consumption in bags.  Honey was such a prize!  It was natural that honey production would be of great interest.  Today, this production is supported and encouraged, but on a local scale, with a view for sale at local markets.

We all know it is bees who make honey from nectar they gather from flowers.  Africa has many flowers - to be found on trees, and on the ground.  In a few places they have been cultivated.

 

These are views of the grounds of some of the hotels
where we stayed.

How are the bees encouraged to have their nests in places accessible to the gatherers?

In trees, mostly some distance from the roads we travelled along:

Here are tubes, suspended by string or rope, swinging in the wind, holding bee nests:

This close-up shows 2 sausage-shaped bee hives

 How did the gatherers get up so high to collect the honey?

 

We saw this fellow climbing trees to gather coconuts near Zanzibar.  He has only a strap of rope around his feet, and a circle of string between his hands, to give him traction.  The tree's bark was smooth.

We didn't see the honey gatherers at work, but we assumed they gathered it using similar techniques.

This fellow showed us his loop of string, which he used to climb up the trees to pick coconuts.

All of these trees hold bee nests in tubes!
Too high to be reached by any honey-loving wildlife.

And here's a tube up-close.

And now that the word MARKET has been mentioned

Next time:  Let's visit some markets we noticed as we drove around Tanzania.

Thanks for joining in reading this blog!

Homes in Tanzania

HOMES  IN  TANZANIA

     As in most countries, there are many types of houses in Tanzania.  In the towns there are well built relatively modern structures, and similar impressive buildings could be found in Zanzibar in the mid-1800s.  After all, Dr. Livingstone visited the following building, still standing tall and strong today:

                   Detail of front of building:

This "Livingstone House"

in Zanzibar, has the

 "Dr. Livingstone's Exhibition Room"

containing pictures

 and framed documents.

In the cities, the houses are constructed of cement and plaster.      Here is a typical street in Zanzibar, narrow with buildings painted white. However, as soon as the traveller leaves the city, there are three types of houses built out in the countryside.  I was most interested in these, as Dr. Dillon would have seen similar sights as he, too, journeyed through the landscape in 1872-3.

Cement block houses under construction

close to "rocks" which might provide safety in an emergency.

These cement block houses have metal roofs, so are likely housing families.

Most common were houses built of red, baked blocks

with straw roofs:

The roof of this house is of baked tiles,

and notice the shed beside it,

where the walls are made of straw.

And how are the red blocks baked?

Here is a kiln, and a brick-making area:

Behind each stack of bricks is an opening into the kiln, or "oven."  Into these openings the wood is loaded and then each stack is replaced, resealing each opening.

Inside are placed piles of red soil mixed with water and shaped into "bricks."

The oven is left to cook for several days, with the bricks drying hard inside, in the heat.

Another kiln at the left at back

Stacks of baked bricks

And then there was the third type of housing  - the wattle and stick framed house:

  

This was a very fine example!  

Many were not as well constructed!

These houses usually had a shed beside the main house, where animals spent the night.

If they built an "outhouse" (so-called in Canada) or a"long drop" (so-called in New Zealand), it was constructed away from the main building:

We passed a Masai Compound, surrounded by stacked branches, sealed to form a prickly, impenetrable circle at night: to keep out wild animals and to keep in domesticated ones.

And inside the Masai Compound,

small, windowless family units:

And trinkets for sale to the likes of us!

Sometimes we saw a mixture of dwellings, housing extended family

 This mother and her child were standing in front of their home, showing the two types of house construction behind.

We were always very careful to show respect for people's privacy, and we took photos only if it was acceptable to those in front of the cameras.

Children never seemed concerned or shy, as can be seen in the two final pictures, which show them playing with home-made toys.

Thank you for reading along!

Next time:  Honey-gathering in Africa.

Sign Language

SIGN  LANGUAGE

It was the signs that told us Dr. Livingstone had passed along the same route on which we were travelling in 2004

     Dr. David Livingstone, a well known figure in his time.  How had he become so famous, and so connected with Africa, having been born into a large, impoverished family in a village in Scotland?

     He studied at nights after he had worked all day in factories, and then he decided to train as a Missionary.  At first, China was his goal.  Then, Africa.  After a while,  he found he wasn't too good at the converting, so he abandoned the missionary work and took to Exploring, instead.  And at this, he was way ahead of his time. 

     He didn't require porters to carry his essentials, which were very basic.  He ate what locals provided.  He freed slaves by buying them and setting them free, and some of these travelled with him and helped him. He was financed by donations which poured in during his visits home to England and Scotland, when he would give speeches and ask for help. 

     The only part of his life about which I wonder, is his poor wife abandoned, with a large family, back home.

       You can read all about this in Dr. Dillon's book, which uses easy-to-follow maps, sketches made in the 1800s and photographs taken during our trip.

And what about those signs?

 

Thank you to the "Good Gentleman" who offered this pose.







 

 Detail of sign above the door:

   
It was hard work photographing signs, as shown below!

    

Mostly, it was me begging fellow travellers with good photographic equipment and decent skills, to "Take this one"  or "Over here!"

And our companions were wonderful, doing their best.

And some signs came out FANTASTICALLY WELL!

(See below)

 

 This sign says:

On    This    Site    Resided

DAVID  LIVINGSTONE

After he had met H. M. Stanley at Ujiji

On November 10, 1871.  He left this spot

On August 25, 1872,  to undertake what was

To be his last journey in Africa

(The lower half of this sign is the same message

written in Swahili.)

Inside the building is this display, showing that meeting

Just visible:

Under the Mango Tree

Which then stood here

Henry M. Stanley met

David Livingstone

10 November 1871

The credits along the bottom of the bronze plate's edge read:

This Monument was erected by the Government of Tanganyika Territory and the bronze plate contributed by the Royal Geographical Society in 1927

Here is the building, the Monument mentioned above, near Tabora, where the plaques may be found.


NEXT POST:

More views of this building "then and now"

and of various house types used today in Tanzania

and ALSO - about other explorers whose names are on signs, too:

One Last Sign (I couldn't resist!)  In 1905 the country was under German occupation, and it was the Germans who built the railway that runs from the east coast to Lake Tanganyika.  Railway buffs might like to read more:

Building the Railway

This line is still in operation, and the following sign was attached to the wall of the Railway Station at the western end of this line:

This sign says in Swahili and in English:

 UP MAIL TRAIN EXPECTED AT:

DOWN MAIL TRAIN EXPECTED AT:

UP MIXED TRAIN EXPECTED AT:

(In case anyone was wondering when the mail would be arriving [up mail]

or would be leaving [down mail]

 on Sept. 25, 2004)

We were impressed with the efforts by the Government of Tanzania to preserve this sites and to place explanatory signs, when there are few tourists travelling in these parts.

Welcome to new viewers to this blog site from Singapore and from France.

Your interest is greatly appreciated!