Getting a fire started in Tanzania

The phrase "necessity is the mother of invention" seems constantly relevant in Tanzania, where people earn little and rely on ingenuity to survive.

This is a country where flatbed pick-up trucks have been adapted to allow 40-odd people to squat, stand and hang off the back.

You'll be able to browse markets selling flip-flops made from old car tires and paraffin lamps fashioned from old butter cans and watch kids play with toy cars made from of old soft drink cans.

Even the rims of plastic lids from peanut butter jars and the like are fashioned into bangles and worn by some Maasai women - including sometimes rather ironically those who hawk traditional hand-carved wooden necklaces to foreigners.

The bangles apart, many of these items make some of the best possible souvenirs of your trip or gifts for the people back home - and in buying them you'll help recycle, reward ingenuity and inject cash at grass-roots level - all so very virtuous that you should forget haggling too hard!