A stack of cucumbers or a pyramid of tomatoes?

Thursday, June 19th

I drove back to Moshi this morning and headed straight for the wheelchair workshop at KCMC. They had finished making the wheelchair frames but were waiting for the brackets which we had made in Arusha. I had my hands full when I walked in—umbrellas, brackets, tables. There’s a guard who I have to sign-in with at the gate and I can tell she thinks I’m kind of crazy. I can’t wait to roll out of there with the completed small-business wheelchairs and show her what I’ve been working on all this time!

Samson and Albert came up with a neat design to hold the drawers under the seat. It’s slightly different from what we did in Arusha, so it will be good to get feedback on both designs. We welded on the bottom bracket that acts as a stand for the table (and by “we” I mean Samson welded while I shielded my eyes and then checked with the square to make sure it was straight). And then we welded a small piece of pipe onto the side that will hold the umbrella.

On my way home I stopped at the market because Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard was looking pretty bare. I love going to the market here. All the vegetables are super fresh and grown more locally than you could imagine. Rows of women sit with assorted stacks in front of them—piles of oranges, stacks of cucumbers, pyramids of tomatoes, rows of onions. Things are priced by group, which vary by size. So the small pyramid of tomatoes might be 200 shillings while the bigger pyramid is 400. You have to bargain a bit but I’m getting better.