Stolen shoes and Replacements

We have a small veranda outside our house (see picture here) where it was common for us to leave our shoes  overnight. Since we have a wall around our house, it gives a false sense of security, especially since our yard is connected with our neighbor's yard in back. Moshi also gives a very serene and safe vibe but petty theft is quite common, as it is anywhere where poverty and wealth are living side by side. 

Ana was already victim to a suspected stray dog stealing one of her sandals so you'd think we would have learned our lesson. Unfortunately we did not and one morning we awoke to find our hiking boots and my work shoes had been stolen. They had left our two pairs of flip-flops and Ana had luckily left her work shoes inside. I was about to go to work in my flip-flops when I remembered I had brought a pair of running shoes back with me from my recent holiday. Unfortunately I was leading a team conducting a job interview for the hiring of a consultant and my appearance in  tennis shoes (second hand might I add) was certainly not as professional as I wanted. I couldn't find an appropriate time to explain the reason for my poor footwear and besides, the excuse of "thief stole my shoes" is almost the equivalent here as "dog ate my homework". 

I was reassured that I wasn't a total bonehead foreigner when several of my co-workers shared similar stories about leaving their shoes out and having them stolen. I was expecting to be laughed at but my co-workers all expressed a genuine sympathy and shared stories of similar loss. They said the vikaba (small time thieves) are too rampant in Moshi and you have to be careful with your things. 

We waited till market day at the local market and went searching for some shoes. The immediate needs were work shoes for myself and hiking shoes for Ana. I know the concerns of fungus and other hazards that can arise from second hand shoe wear but I think complications are rare (especially if you wear socks) and the options in places like Moshi are limited. Besides, I am a big believer in second hand products reserving new purchases almost exclusively for underwear. In fact, Ana was herself hesitant toward the prospect of second hand shoes before the aforementioned dog incident with her sandal forced her hand. 

I ended up buying a great pair of work shoes for 14,000 TZS ($9.64). They were on the high end of the price range that I heard but the soles were in near perfect condition. Ana scored a pair of name-brand hiking boots (Merrell) in great condition for 34,000 ($20.51). 

We initially foraged through what I can only describe as literal mountains of shoes. Sellers had large stalls with various shoes of shapes and sizes and would yell out a single rate for all shoes, mostly those of 8,000 TZS ($4.83). There are definitely a lot of steals in these piles but it takes a lot of time so go through them so the next tier are "specialty" stalls. They've somewhat separated the shoes and have some with hiking boots, tennis shoes, women's dress shoes, etc. I won't lie, I was hoping to see my shoes in one of these stalls! 

Nice hiking boots!

Work shoes. 

In the end we got what we were looking for and now that we have gotten to know the details of the shoe market I will find some time to go down and sift through the mountains of shoes to hopefully find a deal on new hiking boots!

Mountain of shoes. Or should I say, mountains of shoes.  

Stalls like these could be seen in a 360 degree view. Mountains beyond mountains...of shoes.