Door-to-door salesman

Sometimes in the afternoon on a weekend day we'll hear "Hodi!  Hodi!" in front of our house.  In Tanzania, saying "hodi" is the equivalent of ringing a doorbell.  Usually we moan and whine and shuffle to the gate to see who is there.  We've had people come by selling fish and baskets, people looking for work, and people asking for money for all sorts of needs like school fees and funerals.  So when we saw a man carrying things and setting them up on display by leaning them against our car, we sighed and went out the door, prepared to explain that we aren't really interested in buying anything.

When we saw his paintings, though, we suddenly realized that this guy was pretty good!  Recognizing that he would be a great illustrator for literacy books, we got his name, number, and people group so we could contact him later.  Since both of us liked his work and we have some empty walls in our house that are begging for decor, we started discussing together which one we'd like to get.  Because Andrew and I were speaking to each other in English and were obviously debating something amongst ourselves, he drew the conclusion that we liked his work but were debating the price.  Without us even asking, he lowered the price on his paintings!  We chose the one pictured above and have hung it in our living room.

A little excitement came about when we went inside the house to get the money to pay him and he spotted a large snake under our car.  It disappeared, but he and Andrew tried their best to find it to kill it.  I hid myself elsewhere, as snakes aren't really my thing.  At all.  Door-to-door salesmen aren't really my thing either, most of the time, but it worked out quite well this past weekend!