I thought we were done with a tour of Geita. But Elly had one more recommendation: Geita Gold Market.
“They sell gold there,” he told me. That made me curious.
Elly is not a professional tour guide. He operates a three-wheel taxi, popularly known as a Bajaj in Tanzania.
I wanted to visit the Gold Market before calling it a day. There was one problem, though. It was Sunday, and the market was closed.
Initially, the plan was to leave Geita at 6 a.m. the following day. But since I went to bed with unfinished business, I had to delay my departure a little.
Instead of checking out of my hotel early and rushing to the bus station, I kick-started the day with my customary 2-km run, followed by 100 push-ups.
Somewhere between checking out of the hotel and heading to the market, I stopped at a cafe for tea and vitumbua. I love these little snacks, and Tanzanians are really good at making them.
There were police officers with guns at the entrance, which immediately reminded me that I wasn't walking into an ordinary shopping mall. But once inside, the place felt surprisingly familiar.
In fact, my first impression was that it was a mall. The only difference? They sell gold there. Or should I say, they buy gold? I had no idea how this gold market thing worked, so I decided to find someone who could explain it to me.
There was already someone being attended to when I arrived, so I sat on the visitors' bench outside the official's office and waited for my turn.
That's when I noticed the notice board.
It showed the current gold buying prices at the market alongside international prices.
When my turn came, the official explained what it takes to operate at the market. There were licenses to obtain, procedures to follow, and space to rent. Anyone could trade gold there, as long as they met the requirements.
It sounded surprisingly straightforward.
After the conversation, I thanked him for his time and walked out of the office. But I didn't leave the building immediately. Instead, I walked around, poking my nose into other people's businesses. Gold businesses, that is.
There were offices occupied by gold dealers, or at least that's what I understood them to be. They buy gold mined in the area and sell it on the international market. There were middlemen too, because apparently even gold cannot escape the middleman.
I came across bank branches inside the building, which made perfect sense. I also spotted eateries and a couple of law firms.
It wasn't simply a place where someone walked in carrying gold and walked out with money. It was an entire little ecosystem built around one precious metal.
Behind the main building, construction was in full swing. The gold market wasn't exactly sitting around waiting for business to come to it. It was making room for more.
But the most interesting part was still waiting for me behind the door of a room I had noticed earlier.
Smelting Room.
Outside the door was another visitors' bench, occupied by a few people. They had brought small packages with them. Nothing about the packages screamed gold. They looked rather ordinary, even a little shabby.
Then I saw someone come out of the room.
He was carrying something small and neatly packaged. It looked almost like a chocolate bar. Except, presumably, this wasn't one you would want to eat.
I'd been to plenty of markets and wandered through a good number of malls. I'd seen people buy and sell all sorts of things. But I had never seen anything quite like this before.
And just like that, Elly's last recommendation turned into one of the most interesting stops of my time in Geita. The visit allowed me to peek into a world I knew very little about.