Vijiji mpya.

I went to Moshi this past weekend to escape the computer work I have been subjecting myself to. It was nice to go to a new town. I have been there three times before, but once was by accident when Nabil and I missed our stop, once was when I was in a rush to make photocopies and return before dark, and once was in 2004 when Dad and I climbed Kilimanjaro. However, I quickly learned on this trip that what people say is true. Moshi is cleaner, prettier, and doesn’t have the hawker problem that Arusha does. I still saw plenty of wazungu but was only bothered twice by people trying to sell me things. When I told them I didn’t want anything and politely asked them to leave me alone, they did! I was dumbstruck. In Arusha, I really had to be mean for the people to stop bothering me. The problem in Arusha is that as soon as one person comes up to sell something, the rest see and rush over to increase the annoyance of the situation. I always leave Arusha feeling like I was a poor ambassador of America because I had to be so rude so that people would let me do what I had to do. But, Moshi was different and I definitely will return. I stayed in a hotel and drank Stoney’s and watched TV and went to bed early. The next morning I went to the salon and got my hair braided. It is fun to do something different and I was really getting sick of hair blowing in my eyes. Problem solved. Please note my “I’m Bringing Sexy Back” t-shirt. I will have to get Rose to take a picture of my all-out Tanzanian mama look, complete with inappropriate saying on t-shirt. In Moshi, I saw one lady about my age wearing a t-shirt that said “I heart hot moms.” There was another girl about 10 years old wearing a shirt that said “F.B.I.: Female Body Inspector.” I never know if I should explain to these people what their t-shirts mean, do I laugh, do I sigh, or should I just be glad that they don’t really understand how perverted western society is?