What would Phil Collins do?

She calls out to the man on the street
Sir, can you help me?
Phil Collins 'Another Day in Paradise'

Just once, a totally quiet weekend would be nice. Saturday was an awesomely sunny day, so decided to do a solo run first thing in morning, while wifey chilled and made pancakes. Did a nice 45 minute run ended up in the ward of Karanga with a stunning view of Kili over a river valley (to the soundtrack of the randomly shuffled stirring Lord of the Rings sounds on the Ipod). Karanga is where the big local prison is located. That could have explained the sullen looking guy in orange prison overalls hiding in the bushes? I just jogged a bit faster past him...

Got home, chucked on a Hawaiian shirt, despite wifey saying it made me look too touristy then rolled into town to meet friends for a coffee. As we discussed where the wildebeest migration is currently located(in the north of the Serengeti heading south if you must know),I thought my toasted cheese sandwich which tasted a bit...odd...

We then wanted to get a plunger for our toilet/shower combo (don't ask). Wandered into a random hardware store. The twitchy Tanzanian/Asian guy running the store proceeded to give the wife and I a detailed lecture on the drug trade in Moshi, how his competitors were fronts for drug barons etc etc. He showed us his helpful hand written notes on various conspiracies for our 'education'. Just the plunger, dude, just the plunger.

No sooner do we escape that nutbar, than (with the wife trailing behind) I happen upon 4 guys at a Vodacom stand on the path surrounding a girl. One of the guys is twisting her arm back. Her expression and noises do not indicate she is enjoying it. I made a loud 'Oi' noise and stared at them. They let her go a bit then started making smirking tough guy noises at me. Guess the Hawaiian shirt made me look a bit too much like an outsider. I just wish they coulda said what was going on, instead of trying to save face or something. Maybe she was caught stealing something? But it looked more like a domestic thing...then again it coulda been a scheme to distract us to take money off us.

As we were on a main street, people were everywhere and the Police station was just opposite the road, I slowly wandered on. But I wasn't happy just to walk off. In NZ I would expect the person holding the girl to clarify WHY he was doing it. However locals I've talked to since have said I did the right thing...a lone white guy starting a fight with 4 Tanzanians could end badly. A local told me last year a young American in Arusha tried to intervene as a thief snatched a handbag from a tourist and was stabbed with a long screwdriver several times...Luckily he lived..

So yeah, gotta be careful about interventions here.

So didn't sleep too well that night, brooding on that, noises outside the house of toy dogs scrapping, people walking past. Plus I developed a bit of food poisoning (thanks to the odd tasting cheese sandwich). Well the day started off as a good day...

Next day, I felt ill so kept a low profile. Did go for one wander late in the day where we saw...well I'll let the wife explain:

"On the walk home from an attempted visit to a friend's place I saw a dark green and black spotted chameleon on the footpath. I urged Doug to stop so we could check it out. It looked like it was injured as the side of it's mouth looked a bit crusty. I immediately named the creature 'Velveteen.' Since language school I've begun a practice of naming chameleons after types of fabric. 'Chambrey' who we met on the lawn of language school was our first encounter with a chameleon.

I picked up Velveteen and he crawled over mine and Doug's hands. He was so cute! Doug and I debated whether based on his injuries we should take him home and care for him or whether we should just leave him put. I was a bit concerned about how we'd manage to catch enough food for him each day. However, moments later Velveteen gave us the answer - he stretched up his little front legs, as if climbing in mid air, in the direction of the nearest tree. We popped him up there, wished him well, as he started to turn the colour of the tree trunk and headed home."

Postscript:
Velveteen went on to become a DJ in Tanzania, the first representative of the Chamaeleonidae family to do so. He specifically thanked Franatee at his first big gig.