Used Clothes Extravaganza

Ever wonder what happens to the clothes that don’t get sold at second hand shops in the U.S.?  Based on what I’ve seen people wear all around the country of Tanzania, I can only assume that all of them are sent over here.  Walking through the markets in bigger towns or cities, there are stalls upon stalls full of used clothes.  And it’s quite interesting the clothes that people in the U.S. have passed up on.

            Let’s look at the first category that my uncreative mind can think of: fancy name-brand clothes.  Now, one of my best friends back home was very into designer jeans and labels, and really expensive clothes.  He would have a hey day in the markets here.  Some PCVs found Diesel jeans for only 15000tsh (about $10), North Face jackets can be found for about 2000tsh (about $1.25), Express if fairly easy to find, and knock off Chanel is rampant.  Though it take some searching, you can find some pretty nice stuff.

            Then there are the used shirts and clothes that you can tell no one in the U.S. thrift shops wanted.  I bought a simple black t-shirt that still had the garage sale sticker on it left over from the U.S. (the guy was trying to tell me that it was authentic African material, while my friends and I pointed at the neon green sticker that you find so often at summer garage sales.  I managed to talk him down from 12000tsh and he finally gave me it for 5000tsh—some of the best bargaining I did when I was still learning how to even say numbers!).  I have seen multiple 5K t-shirts (my favorite being the old woman wearing a “Spay your pet” 5K from somewhere in Missouri, while shooing a dog from her house), family reunion shirts, bright pink youth leadership conference shirts worn by 25-year-old men, bright neon colors (which is frankly pretty awesome no matter what), phrases that the people wearing don’t understand (“world’s greatest dad”), middle school gym t-shirts, and overall some pretty funny shirts that I’m shocked people in the States would pass up on!  My favorite has been these knock off beanies that say “Gesus.”  Apparently someone didn’t realize that “Jesus” is spelled with a “j” but people don’t seem to care about authenticity/correctness with some of those things.  It’s still quite entertaining for us Americans.

            So the next time you donate a shirt or pair of pants that you’re not sure if anyone will buy in the U.S., fear not, for it will find it’s way over here and provide lots of entertainment for me and the other PCVs.