When I drive a car there and park next to the entrance, I get swarmed before I can open the door. Hawkers of tourist goods (bracelets, jerseys, carvings and the like) can spot a white person at 500 meters despite the crowds and cover that distance in nothing flat. I've learned to either walk or to park the car behind the goat trading section, where none of tourist-hunters go.
Even my broken Swahili works well on Market Day. People are amazingly good at understanding you when they are trying to sell you something.
We have a new doctor from the UK, so I took her down there today, just to experience the atmosphere. I spent most of the time there fending off eager bracelet vendors who had zeroed in on Dr. Jo, but I still found time to pick up a nice leather jacket. $4 well spent.
Speaking of high fashion, here is a picture of Dr. Frank's surgical getup after an operation last week:
We had nine surgeries in the first nine days after the OR opened. Our visiting general surgeon, Dr. Duane, was seeing patients right up to when we had to practically frog-march him to the car, so that he wasn't late on his way to the airport.
BONUS PICTURE: Here is a gratuitous elephant picture we took next to the main highway on a trip to Arusha.
Big elephant! I hope you didn't let him get too close. Is that the first elephant you have seen from the road? I take it that he was not in a preserve but roaming freely. What other large wildlife have you seen outside of the preserves?
ReplyDeleteUncle Bo