Cars and diamonds

We’ve spent three days trying to open a bank account at the CRDB bank in Dar es Salaam. They require a residence permit, passport photocopies, letter of introduction from your employer and reference letters from other bank members! We finally got all of this stuff together for Ruth but then the ‘new accounts computer went down’ and it has been down for two days. So we have decided to try another bank, although the closest branch to Udzungwa, where we will be staying, is 200 kilometers. I was also thwarted in my attempt to obtain a residence permit so I’ll have to leave the country every three months in order to renew my multiple entry visa. This will mean that I get to see more of Africa while I’m here, and there’s a train line that passes Udzungwa on the way to Zambia and to Ruanda, so maybe it’s not such a big deal. However, we spent a few painful hours navigating the bureaucratic beast to discover this and we were further convinced that paperwork causes brain rot in both the victims and the perpetrator.

Our search for a car took an interesting twist while were having lunch today. We sat next to a table with four businessmen and I asked one of them what he was having for lunch since his food looked so good and we have been having a difficult time figuring out what to order from the menu since we can hardly recognize any of the names. Anyway, the guy, an older gentleman in his 60s, turns out to be from New York and his partners were African. He tells us he’s in the fabric business and he knows a lot of people and he comes to Africa quite often and he hands us his card which just has his name and contact info both in New York and Africa and the word ‘President’ written on it. No company name and no indication of what business he’s in. Let’s call him Frank since I don’t want to use his real name. When he finds out that we are looking to buy a car he says that he can help us out! Frank points to his African partner and says that this man can arrange to have our import charges waved if we buy a car off the boat, and he will bring us to a Japanese guy that brings the cars in from Japan. Frank seemed to be happy to help us out as fellow Americans and at the same time to impress us with his connections. So we say great! Most of the cars in Tanzania are brought in on the ships from Japan and have been used moderately. The local dealers buy them from the Japanese and pay the port fees and taxes and then resell them in Dar es Salaam. So we were going to go straight to the supplier and cut out the middleman! Sweet! Here’s a shot of the harbor showing all of the big ships.

As we are walking back to Frank’s hotel, I fall into conversation with one of the African associates who tells me that he’s a gem and mineral expert and he works with Frank. I am thinking, what about textiles? Apparently, there are many diamonds purchased in Tanzania that come from all parts of Africa - some from Tanzania and some that come all the way from Angola and the Congo. This man consults for the buyers to ensure that the stones they purchase are legit. When we reach the hotel, Ruth and I sit with the African guys in the lobby while Frank goes to the front desk and calls down the Japanese car dealer. While we are waiting for the Japanese guy to come down, Frank brings over the man at the front desk and introduces us to him and says ‘these are my friends, take care of them and help them with anything they need’ in a mafia like way. Frank has this habit of saying everything very conspiratorially so that you have to lean in to listen and smile in a knowing way to play along. The hotelier plays this game too and gives us a funny look and walks away. When the Japanese guy comes down Frank grabs him by the arm and motions us all into the back restaurant where he tells all the people working in there to leave the room and give us privacy! He sits us down at one of the tables and commences to strike a deal on a car for Ruth and I. At one point I try to interject and tell the Japanese guy who has a bemused smile what our price range is and Frank is horrified that I say how munch money we could spend so I decide to stay quiet for a minute and let Frank handle it. However, suddenly the hotel manager comes in and politely asks us all to leave the restaurant because of the fumes. Then I realized that it DID smell funny in there. As we left the room I saw the sign that we missed on the way in which said ‘Room closed for fumigation!” The people Frank had kicked out were the fumigators. We weren’t so special after all it seems. At that point Frank had to leave on other business and he suggested to Ruth and I that we take the Japanese guy down to the bar and discuss cars there. As he left, we thanked him again for his help and he assured us that we could contact him if we needed anything at all and not to make a deal until we consulted him and that he would help us take care of the import fees and the paperwork. He took me aside and he told me not to trust anybody, that he was a diamond dealer and that he would be in leaving to the Congo in a day, that he would be back in town soon after but we could call him if we needed him. Unfortunately, a few minutes alone with the Japanese car dealer were all that it took to realize this was not going to work out for us. He was selling cars which were yet to be shipped from Japan. You order the car from the photo, pay half the money up front, and in one month the car arrives at the port. We don’t have enough time to wait, and now that I think about it, the whole deal sounds pretty shady if you have to pay $ up front, although I think that the Japanese guy was honest and Frank was just trying to be helpful. When Ruth and I walked out of the hotel we had a good laugh about the whole incident, and who knows but we might have to call Frank if we ever get in a jam.

In the afternoon I sat on the stoop in front of the hotel with all the characters that arrange taxis, sell cars and book tours for the tourists from our hotel. We’re getting to know some of these guys quite well since they have been bringing cars for us to look at and have been advising us in our daily trip preparations. We took one of the guys, named Eddie, out to dinner last night. He has been a cook on many safaris and had some good stories for us. He’s sitting next to me and we’re both NOT in the photo below which was took surreptitiously from where I sat so as not to be too conspicuous. Unless we can find a better deal we will probably buy Eddie’s friends’ car tomorrow.