Singapore and shopping

One of my least favorite activities is shopping as most of you who are close to me will know. I hate malls and generally like to do most of my shopping online so I can look up the product details, etc myself. I guess working at Black's Cameras in my teens wrecked me for life (although it did give me some good sales experience that serves me well today). The ironic thing is that back at IBM some wag decided that I was well suited to selling to retailers so every time a retail opportunity comes up I get tagged with it. Retailers are the cheapest customers on the planet and the most frustrating to deal with! One of the big reasons, I decided I needed some time off was due to my last deal at a major Canadian retailer! So the last thing I wanted to do on my "sabbatical" was to go shopping.

One of the things I most appreciate about Jen is that she is generally disposed the same way I am to shopping and so we don't spend a lot of time doing something neither one of us likes! And if by chance we do need to do some shopping (like for groceries and whatnot) she will generally suck it up and do it without involving me! Unfortunately, the flip side of that is that when we do have to go shopping together for some reason, tempers are usually short on both sides so the occasional eruption does happen which of course reinforces the perceptions both of us have about shopping in the first place! Of course, it's never my fault...

Somehow, both Rachel and Shawn (I think they get it from my sister Gina) have never seen a shopping opportunity they can't take advantage of and have become great little negotiators for the bracelets and trinkets (Rachel) and rocks (Shawn) they have become obsessed with on this trip.

Anyway, yesterday, I HAD to go shopping and Jen wanted to go shopping (or more correctly Rachel wanted to go shopping and Jen was quite willing to go along with her). Shawn had also been bugging the crap out of both of Jen and I to take him to what he figured must be the biggest Apple store in South East Asia. He'd asked just about everyone we met where it was and had three different locations in mind to check out. About the only thing Jen hates more than shopping is electronics and computers so the idea of going into an Apple store had zero appeal to her so it was fairly clear to me that to keep the peace in the family, I had to swallow my Apple bias and spend the day with the OTHER fruit company's number one iFan listening to how they are so much better than BlackBerry.

The reason I HAD to go shopping... well you may remember the South African Airlines fiasco on our first pass through Johannesburg trying to get to Victoria Falls to start our overland... while waiting for our bags (which of course never showed up), the kids were playing with the trolleys and managed to drop and/or sit on our day packs which had the NetBook inside. Unfortunately, this wasn't a trusty IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad which over the years have proven they can take a lot of abuse... I'd given in to my Scottish side and spent all of $199 on it so it was a little plastic HP job that had already developed some cracks around the edges. This treatment by the kids caused some very large cracks in the screen with corresponding large black areas over the screen so typing was typically by braille and/or moving the window around so you could see what you are typing. It was very frustrating and we'd tried to get it fixed in Cape Town but were told that it would cost about $300 which is $100 more than I paid for the WHOLE NetBook in the first place. I guess the IBM Gods were getting me back for buying an HP!

Anyway, all of us were pretty frustrated with it but had been limping around it for about 5 weeks until Jen accidentally pulled the NetBook off the table as she had her foot wrapped around the cord (this happens when you jam 4 people and all their possessions for 10 months into one small room). Now we lost another quarter of the screen (so only one quarter left). Needless to say, this didn't help tempers much either... so in a calm moment, we agreed that I would take Shawn to find his iFruit store and try to get the screen fixed and/or buy a new cheap NetBook where electronics should be dirt cheap.... and Jen would go in a 180 degree different direction with Rachel and we'd somehow manage to do those tasks that we both hate more than almost anything without having the opportunity to take it out on each other (or the poor clueless kids who actually like shopping).

So off Jen/Rachel go down Orchard Road in search of God knows what and Shawn and I head deep into Little India in search of three electronic super malls where we'd been assured we could find nearly anything. (I wanted to get the computer addressed before I tackelled the iFruit store with him as he'd be insufferable after seeing all the recent stuff they are pumping out to the iFanbase and I'd have to listen to it all day). We'd heard that these "malls" were pretty big so Shawn was cool with that.

Well after a couple of miles, Shawn and I run into the first place called Mostafa Centre. It looks like Mostafa used to run one of those stalls where he'd lay out some goods (watches, camera's, electronics or what have you) and try to sell them to unsuspecting customers walking down the sidewalk. Business must have been good for him because it looks like he must have then set up two stalls... one with watches and one with cameras... and then business was even better so he set up three stalls and added electronics to his little empire. Then he decided to setup more stalls... one for each brand of watch/camera/electronics... and so on. Well old Mostafa seems to have done pretty well for himself because he's into everything from watches (probably 20 stalls of different brands) to clothes to pharmaceuticals. He now has a store that is about the size of the Eaton's Centre with 6 floors crossing multiple blocks with all of these stalls in it. Shawn thought he'd died and gone to heaven.

I think if you wanted to find any watch on the planet, Mostafa must have it. Ditto for cameras and electronics. Unfortunately, like everything else in Singapore, the prices are ridiculous compared to what we can get back home. My $199 el cheapo HP NetBook... $699 for a model that wasn't even as good! Doesn't seem to matter for Mostafa though... it looked like he had thousands of employees at these stalls all vying to sell them to you! I will say that Shawn and I were about the only Muzingu - Swahili for white people - in the place, so I guess it doesn't matter what we think of his prices.

My watch crystal had broken and it leaks when I'm any deeper than the bathtub with it so was hoping to either buy a new one cheap or get mine repaired... no such luck. Other than cheap knockoff Bolice watches which were $10 for three, my watch was about 3 times what I paid for it back home. One of the vendors gave me the address of the manufacturer and said they could repair the crystal for me and it turned out they were beside our next stop at Sim Lim Square so off we went in search of OC Tower (17th floor).

Well this wasn't too hard to find... there aren't a lot of 17 floor skyscrapers in Little India so other than negotiating the sidewalk vendors and awnings built for people that think 5'6" is very tall, we didn't have any issues until trying to figure out how to get into the building... they'd wrapped the entire first floor in plywood as they were doing construction on it but eventually we found our way in and Shawn quite enjoyed the 17 floor elevator ride. Unfortunately again, the manufacturer couldn't help me as the crystal was special order and would take 6 weeks.... but they were more than happy to sell me a new watch at FOUR times what I paid for mine. No thanks... so off we go across the street to Sim Lim Square.

You have to see this place to believe it. Imagine a eight floor office tower with each floor having a shop about the size of a small store in a Canadian mall... in other words, about 20 of these per floor. Now imagine, that each of these sold ONLY electronics (although some specialized in say iPhone cases and some in Cameras, Computers, Cell Phones, AV Projectors, etc.). Each of these stores were owned and run by either a Chinese guy or an Indian guy... two of the toughest sales guys on the planet. I thought Shawn was going to be overwhelmed... but every time one of the sales guys would ask him what he wanted, he'd dream up some question that would send them scurrying off looking for supply. (He was keen on seeing some Lenovo computer he'd saw on the Future Shop website before we left for $267). The sales guy would then go through all kinds of contortions about how great his particular computer (usually a Lenovo of some sort) was and then Shawn would take pity on him and tell him that it was 4 times more expensive than what he was able to buy it for back home.

To give you a bit of an idea how big this place was

I tried to get Shawn to say "just looking", and explained to him that there was no bloody way he'd ever find a deal for what he/me would be willing to pay but he seemed to be having too much fun to stop and frankly anything that gets him that excited, is always nice to see and the sales guys didn't seem to mind losing a sale to Canada... just as long as we didn't buy from Rajiv or Frank next door!

Anyway, about half way up the mall, we found a shop that actually claimed to fix laptops and asked them what it would cost to fix our poor NetBook. I got a quote for between $120 and $160 which I figured we could live with so we finished up the tour of EACH and EVERY store (yes, Shawn had to go into every one!) and then headed back to the room to get the damn thing and bring it back (I had zero confidence we'd find a spot to fix it because I'd called HP that am and was told just the part was $300).

So a couple of miles back to the hotel, and a couple of miles back to the mall (still no sign of Jen/Rachel... they must be having a good time shopping) and we hand it over. Well of course, I have the expensive version of the screen and it's going to be $150... but with no other option, I give over the machine and we head downstairs for some lunch while we wait.

All the way leading up to this trip, Jen and I have been telling the kids they were going to have to lose their pickiness around food as they wouldn't have the choice they do around home. Unfortunately for Jen and I, everywhere we've been so far has either hamburgers, pizza or pasta and Shawn's attitude has been "I'll try the alien food when I absolutely have to... until then I'm sticking with what I like". And the kids haven't changed their eating habits one iota. I'd figured well we're finally going into Little India and there seems to be bugger all there in Western food so this is a good time to get him to try something else. Unfortunately, I'd spied a Burger King of all things on the corner block of this mall out of the corner of my eye. So I carefully tried to exit the mall and head outside into the food court without letting him see it. Well the little bugger has his mother's eagle eyes because he saw a reflection on a window and pointed it out to me! "Under no circumstances are we going to eat at a Burger King in Singapore... it'll cost a fortune!" says I.

Well Shawn and Rachel have both been very good about realizing we're on a budget and things we might not have given a second thought back in Canada are out of reach here so he agreed we'd try the food court downstairs... so down we go... and it's all Chinese food and Indian food (not a McD's or A&W in sight) and I'm thinking great.. well of course he's wandering the stalls and seeing hanging pigs and chickens and isn't that keen on any of it... I point out one of my traditional favorites (Singapore Noodles) which has pasta, chicken and shrimp but he points out it also has mushrooms and he hates mushrooms. I order the dish thinking perhaps I'd get him to try one and doesn't he find a booth next door that has German sausage, fried eggs, french fries and garlic toast. He is so impressed with himself that he's tried "Asian" food and likes it! I give up.

So by now, the computer should be ready so we trundle our way back up 6 floors and sure enough... it's looking better than ever. We'd walked what seemed to be 50 miles and we'd found out that the fruit company has no store in Singapore (no bloody way they could compete with the three hundred or so Rajiv/Frank stores that also sell Apple stuff). So back to the hostel we go to to see if the better looking half of the family is done with their particular torture session. They were (and hadn't bought anything I could see) but hadn't had anything beside a tea and a croissant for lunch so back out we go because Jen has seen on the map that besides Little India, Singapore also has a Chinatown and she's got a hankering for Chinese food (she had no appetite for going to the IT mall of Shawn's dreams). So off we go again... this time to explore Chinatown.

Singapore has three different temples on each corner down there and each of them are spectacular so she wanted to see (and show the kids) them so we went off in search up and down each of the streets. Unfortunately for me, each of those streets was lined with stalls of stuff... generally clothes, dollar store trinkets or the odd electronics. Neither Rachel nor Shawn had had their fill of shopping so up and down we go... Jen's got more patience and likes watching Rachel get excited about this or that skirt but I'd about had enough. About the time that I was going to boil over, Jen said that her stomach was telling her that it was time for food so off we go in search of something the kids would eat along with a Chinese food fix for her.

We quickly ruled out any indoor restaurants as the menu items for just dishes of the meal were more than we'd spent on average for entire meals for the 4 of us (even though the places were not overly fancy). I guess I'm spoiled by the dozens of good Chinese food places around Toronto. By now it was about 9pm so none of us felt like eating a huge meal anymore (plus it seemed like it was 39 degrees in the shade) so Jen and I ordered up a couple of dishes from a street vendor and the kids tried a bit. Shawn did his usual... "I'm not hungry" and had a couple of my shrimp but Rachel actually tried my dish (and her Mom's) and liked mine so ate half of that which was fine with me. Jen thought she wasn't hungry but quite enjoyed her dish and polished it off... then for more shopping and back to bed.

I think we walked 25 kilometers and most of it was shopping and we all survived without nuclear holocaust...so I'll call that a decent day - but I made it quite clear, that I was done shopping!

Time flies when you're having....

fun?  Not always, but it's sure been interesting!  Now that we're back from our big splurge on Safari and all the full time attention that required, we've rejoined the normal day to day life around Moshi and have been trying to get the kids back on schedule with the school work and get into some of the "volunteer" work we wanted to do while here.  No pictures this time as we don't feel comfortable taking them in the Orphanages or at the Women's Clinic, so words will have to suffice.

We love the people here, both the expats and the locals, but man can it be frustrating getting even simple things done!  Just a simple trip into town to get a few things for the Women's Clinic can be a two day ordeal.  Our Pamoja Guesthouse is about a mile out of the centre of Moshi.  We have about 3/4 of a kilometer walk on a very rough dirt road beside homes that are either gated and reasonably nice or shacks that would be considerably worse than anything you'd see in Canada - it's interesting how there doesn't seem to be segregation between "nice areas" and "poor areas"...  despite this, we feel perfectly safe and would venture out at night (despite warnings in the guidebooks not to do so|) except for the fact that there are no street lights and power here is very intermittent - we had it for about 8 hours yesterday (which was far worse than average).  They drive like maniacs here and I'd be worried about getting clipped by accident.

The locals never fail to light up with huge smiles when ever you greet them in Swahili (as simple as "Jambo!" (Hi), responded by "Jambo!", or at least 5-6 sentences which we are slowly picking up.  As I've said before, greetings are extremely important here and they really appreciate Muzingu who take the time to learn it.  We've also discovered local shops (there is a guy next door with a small room behind iron grates who will dispense bread ($0.50/loaf), pops ($0.30/bottle), and other usual sundries like fresh eggs (probably from his chickens in his back yard we can hear at all hours - especially the rooster!).  The kids love going over there for a Orange or Purple Fanta (the Purple is sort of like a grape Dr. Pepper - YUCK! But the kids love it).

There are a few ladies down the street that have a table set up and sell local fruits and veggies... so generally, we just buy what we need for the day.  On every second day or so, we run into town to get stuff we need such as more money from the ATM (which only dispenses it in $160 chunks - 400,000 Tanzanian Shillings) or supplies for our project at the Pamoja Women's Clinic.  Even getting something as simple as ziploc bags which we are using to contain the post-partum kits we are putting together is a huge ordeal as 99% of people have never even seen one.  Same goes for safety pins to hold the diapers together!  It seems there is a special store for most items and we've only found two "supermarkets" - and we treat those like gold!

For these kits, we needed to get ziplocs, 2 cloth diapers, an infant baby jumper, a wool hat, some maxipads and then some medical supplies (vitamins, suture kit, surgical gloves).  I think I may have mentioned this but women need to bring these in when they are about to deliver.   We didn't suspect we'd have a tough time finding diapers/safety pins, and thought that the ziplocs/baby jumpers/maxi-pads would present the biggest issue.... but we found an outdoor "mall" called the Memorial Market outside of town that had baby jumpers galore and we were picking up brand name (used) jumpers for 500 shillings each (there are 1700 shillings in a US dollar).  You had to see this market to believe it.  There must have been 300-500 vendors selling stuff at temporary tables (usually covered by a tarp and some temporary roof) with stuff laid out on the ground, on tarps, what ever.  Mostly clothes, but its like the biggest open air bazaar you'd ever seen.  My guess is that this is where most of the stuff you give to Sally Anne eventually ends up.

Maxi-pads were also easy to find and were surprisingly inexpensive although the girl in the store did raise her eyebrows somewhat when Jen told her she wanted to buy 16 large packages of the most absorbent kind.  You could see her thinking... "poor woman"!

Cloth diapers were the biggest surprise.  They cost about 5 times as much as the baby jumpers...  and more than the average woman could make in a day's work...  We have no idea how they afford them.  Even more than the prices of these items, the experience of shopping for them was quite enlightening/frustrating.  The moment we hit the second roundabout in Moshi (the start of the downtown strip), we end up getting tagged with all kinds of touts trying to peddle something.  I'm pretty used to being hassled by street touts but these folks put it into a new league.  They all want to know where you are from (standard old line), then they'll tell you their line about what ever it is they are trying to sell and then when you make it clear you aren't going to buy from them, the continue to walk with you for the rest of your trip, following you into shops and trying to help you decide to buy something from that shop.  We're sure that they work off of some sort of commission  system as a few times, we were walking down the street unmolested (it helps to walk very purposefully in a specific direction and ignore the touts altogether) but the moment we turn to enter a shop, someone would spring off the sidewalk and enter with you and then act as your "assistant".  It's quite frustrating as you know you are going to end up paying more.

I've noticed that they don't do this when you go into the "supermarkets" (basically old style general stores - our Hawkestone General Store would be a "supermarket" here - and in Costa Rica).  I suspect this is because the supermarkets have the prices printed on the items and they use (IBM) cash registers to scan the items on checkout.  We tried to buy some shampoo and a bar of soap at one shop (with a tout "assisting") and they wanted 5000 for the soap and 15000 for a completely generic brand of cheap shampoo.  When we told them no way, they immediately dropped the price on the shampoo to 5000.  That really annoyed us but we politely walked out and then down to a local supermarket where we bought a brand name shampoo in a fancy bottle for 8000.

Unfortunately, this additional "pressure" has made us somewhat reticent to go into town.  It really gets at Jen and I'm not keen on it either.  We know we are representing our country and don't want to be rude, but these folks are SO persistent it's hard not to be.  We've scoped out different ways to enter the town centre without passing by the spots where they sit to pick up their targets.  Its too bad the shop keepers seem to encourage this as I'm sure they'd do a lot more business if their customers didn't feel so much pressure.  We now head into town knowing which banks/stores we want to hit first so we aren't carrying around bags (when you have a bag, you've shown you are willing to buy something - although getting to the ATM also tells them you CAN buy something).  Then we call for a taxi in our last store (the SIM card I bought for my BlackBerry has been a godsend in more ways than one) and put all the stuff in the car and head home directly.  It sure makes you appreciate the super stores back home!

The last few days, we've been doing school work and shopping as well as acting as nurses for the doctors at two different orphanages as they were doing general checkups.  Jen and I would set up an assembly line where I'd measure their height, arm circumference and weight while Jen would create a small school booklet with their name, sex, date of birth, etc.  Then we'd send the kids off to see one of the doctors for a checkup.  Most of the kids were fine, but many of them had fungal infections in their hair or skin that left untreated could leave disfiguration that could result in bald patches or scars on their faces.  They are also checking on the teenage girls pretty heavily as they are mostly all anemic.  They then schedule secondary checks the next day.  We've seen about 30-40 kids at each of the orphanages and we have another one next week.  While Jen and I are doing this, Rachel and Shawn play with the kids to keep them out of the doctor's equipment.

We've found that they are exceptionally well behaved when it comes to following instructions.  We could give them their booklet and ask them to go to the doctors, and they'd wait there patiently for up to half an hour for their turn.  In North America, the kids would be bouncing off the walls.  The ones we haven't seen yet, or have already been through would play games.  The first day, Rachel and Shawn would play soccer or   a game that the kids played (boys against the girls passing the ball to each other).  Rachel has really been missing the team sports so really enjoyed this.  We've made it a point to bring a new soccer ball to each of the orphanages as we've come and it's been a big hit.

Yesterday, the kids had a sand pile (not much more than a sandbox without sides) and two bags of sand piled on top of each other.  They'd run at the sand bags and then use them as a launching pad to do flips and cartwheels of amazing dexterity.  We were quite impressed by how they'd amuse themselves.   The kids are also picking up that each of the kids doesn't have anything... as you'll often see boys wearing pink crocs or shirts with female specific sayings on them... or girls with pants and boys clothes.  As all school kids here HAVE to have their heads shaved, its really tough to tell the young girls from the boys - especially when they are all cross dressing with what ever fits.

We've loved working with them but are under no illusions that we are changing the world.  These poor kids are coming from so far behind, they'll likely never have anything even the most poor Canadian would take for granted.   I was transcribing from the Orphanage records yesterday to make our lists, and they listed the parents of these kids.  About half were orphans with no known parents, the other half had either a mother or  2 parents that were separated.  Its quite sad to see whole families there.  In many cases, the family breaks up and neither parent is able or willing to care for them.  At the orphanage at least they are getting some meals, a place to stay and the opportunity to go to school (if someone donates a school uniform and shoes for them).   If they make it to secondary school (they start primary school at age 7 so go until they are 15 or so and then move to secondary school for 4 years), they will learn some English but most know basic greetings and answers to questions like "what is your name/age?"

We're here in Tanzania for another month and have been trying to figure out how long we should stay here but we know we'll be here for at least the next 10 days or so.  While its frustrating, the smiles of the Tanzanian people and kids, make it all worthwhile.  There are so many issues here its frustrating because the system is so busted its hard to figure out what needs to happen to fix it all.

Free and fair elections would be a good start.  The last bunch apparently the government went around on such a spending spree buying votes that its out of money now.  Between the government and the NGO's siphoning off the aid, very little of it is reaching down to the people who need it the most.  We're very conscious of not doing things that take away other peoples (potential) jobs but it also seems that the folks who do have jobs are all on a union time card system as they seem to spend as much time finding ways to avoid work as doing it.  We're told that this is endemic here and that once they become adults and get a job, they feel entitled and then don't push for change or to get ahead.  Teachers are especially bad as they make nothing and rely upon volunteers to do most of the heavy lifting but then don't carry on any best practices.

The one exception I've seen is the local ditch diggers (they are putting in sewage pipes along the streets|).  These guys are digging a 4' deep trench along the side roads by hand with shovels and picks.  You see these guys hard at it all day long.  Their stamina is very impressive.  None of them weighs more than 120 lbs.  The soil here is rock hard and they are also digging up some very large boulders.  Its great to see them putting in sewage pipes.  Hopefully garbage collection is next.  They seem to dig deep holes anywhere (the middle of the street is OK), and dump stuff in that they can't burn - water bottles, cans, etc.) and fill them up until its about 1' from the surface and then start another hole.  Everyone has a fire going in their backyard (or in the ditch in front of their house) to burn garbage.  At least it keeps the mosquitoes away!

Power here is pretty intermittent and the internet connection was down for 36 hours because something happened to some tower somewhere.  Until they can get reliable infrastructure, any business would be nuts to set up here even if they had a decent education system (which they don't).  A lot of people think the government actually tries to keep the infrastructure back as it helps them keep the people under control.  This is a democracy but there is a large block on Zanzibar that votes uniformly (Muslim) and they have the most seats and therefore the levers of power.  Until they have a (peaceful) change of government with some competition, I'm not sure things will ever change.  For sure the NGO's aren't helping much as most of the money seems to go into providing the expat NGO supported workers with nice homes/cars etc rather than into the people who really need it.  That's one of the reasons we are so taken with what is happening at these orphanages and at the Pamoja Women's Clinic.  They are really run by people without ties to the NGO's and are doing things on a shoestring directly for the people who need it most.

These folks really are saints and make us feel very humble indeed.  I'm glad our kids are getting a chance to see this as its starting to sink in how lucky they are - which was our main reason for doing this in the first place (we aren't under any impression that any work we are doing will make a significant difference beyond easing our consciences a bit).  We'll certainly never forget the advantages we have as Canadian's.  This is nothing WE did.... we were just lucky enough to be born Canadian.  It makes our problems seem rather insignificant in comparison.  You always "know" that, but living this, really drives it home.

We just watched our first big downpour here... it lasted about 20 minutes and came down pretty hard but now is clearing up so we're heading into town to pick up some supplies for ourselves and the guesthouse/women's clinic.  Wish us luck!