Alex Lindsay's Travel Log

Fresh Chickens!

2011-05-29T03:23:40Z

Yup... He's deliverying chickens... very very fresh chickens.

Mwenge Woodcarvers Market (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania)

2011-05-28T22:46:58Z

I took a day out to see the woodcarver's market... these markets, and the artists that work there, always amaze me. It's a group of markets with a 50-60 artists right behind it working away.

Lathe - Old School

Wall o' Sculpture (not all the sculptures are PG)

Sculptor "Mr. Africa"

He's been working on this for 3 years (on the side)...

Mikumi National Park

2010-05-19T07:46:53Z

Mikumi National Park is about 4 hours out of Dar Es Salaam... It's my third visit here. It's smaller than something like Ruaha but easy to get to and it has many of the animals you want to see... Zebras (here), Giraffes, Elephants, Wilderbeasts, and Lions (though we didn't see any Lions). On one half of the park, you need to be careful of Tse Tse flies (partially because of sleeping sickness but mostly because the bite is painful and sharing blood with Zebras is, well, gross).But in the majority of the park, you just need to pay attention to having enough memory on your cards!

Buying Cashews on the Road

2010-05-18T20:18:32Z

In the city, it's DVDs. In the country, it's fruit, doo dads, and... cashews. It's really part of the culture and it sinks in... you start saying no but it's convenient and fun! By the end of the trip, I wasn't sure I needed to ever go to the market again!

Sunset in Tanzania

2010-05-18T20:09:18Z

5DMkII

Bus Stops

2010-05-18T15:19:36Z

Every 10-20 miles you get these bus/truck stops and tons of little shops peddling everything from food to jeans to furniture.

The Better Way to Carry

2010-05-18T15:03:47Z

Of course, you see this all over the place... women (and a few men) carry crazy things on their heads. I'm told you need to really learn this young to every really be able to do it well. But once you know it... you're hooked, evidently. It's a lot less effort than what we in the west do.

Canon 5DMKII - Shot at 60mph

Movies Anyone?

2010-05-18T14:47:53Z

So, as you are waiting... almost anywhere in Dar... guys come up selling you DVDs... not exactly legal DVDs but, not exactly illegal (here in Tanzania). These aren't in crude boxes, they are shiny slips with chinese branding. Iron Man 2 was available 2 days after it was released in the theater. New movies are usually camera recordings from some odd again while older movies tend to be DVD rips.

The price for the fine facsimile? $3.00 each.

What's interesting is that in some African countries, pirating foreign films is completely fine but local films are verboten. It's often hard to even find a place to buy legal DVDs.

The answer is probably not trying enforce copyright laws in Africa. The most effective way to solve this would probably be to sell DVDs in Africa for $3.00... Not much margin but probably more income than the alternative.

iPhone