Yesterday, we the trek down to mountain to Kisumu to do some shopping. The 40 minute drive down the mountain to Kisumu is absolutely breathtaking. The lush green valleys dotted with workers tending fields as you descend down from the mountains of Maseno. Numerous tiny tiendas dot the roadside, often the entire building is painted in advertisement (such a red building being painted with coke ads). Many of these places are named after a random country or city that has nothing to do with its function. The Tokyo bar, for example, which is neither Tokyo nor bar - it is a brothel for truckers. Along the way, shepherds tending their herds of cows walk on the grassy shoulder of the road-eating their way down the mountain. I would have loved to take pictures but I was strictly warned against bringing a camera with me. The police will confiscate any cameras they find because people have been taking photos of them taking bribes, so if you use a camera, you can expect to have it confiscated or else get a full metal jacket souvenir to treasure for life! Kisumu is a wondrous place located right on the shining bay of Lake Victoria. Urban and sprawling, it stood in stark contrast to the National Geographic version of Kenya I knew from Maseno. While walking, and the ubiquitous motorcycles and bicycles were still in use-the majority of people drove cars-which are a rare finding in Maseno. Multistory buildings and expensive car dealerships with expansive showrooms s stand in stark contrast to the tin roofed fruit stands on the side of the road of Maseno (although these stands are found everywhere in Kisumu too). While the description sounds much like New York, the actual city retains this charm of its old buildings and relatively few skyscrapers like a boisterous city in Mexico or what I imagine Havana looks like. Actual restaurants and shops that sell non-produce, non-freshly killed animal carcass items are everywhere. Latest generation cell phones from Japan, filled to the brim with functions and capabilities completely incompatible with Kenya’s cell phone network hide behind locked showcases in many stores.
When we arrived, we shopped at a craft market for gifts. The craft market is where the Nzungo go to get scammed! It reminded me of Maseno, tin roofed with tons of polished crafts. At first I totally impressed with the quality, until I went from stand to stand and started seeing mostly the same things over and over again. The folks that run these stands say they buy the crafts completed, and then paint them by hand before selling them. The market was more annoying than enjoyable, every owner of every shack that lined this dirt path ran out to meet me and drag me to each and their store. Then if I didn’t buy anything, they told me they wouldn’t be able to feed their family. You also have to barter on all the prices, which if you are not used to doing this and know the tricks, you WILL get absolutely shafted. Their initial price is probably around 2.5-3x more than you can get it for. I picked up a few items there and we headed off to our next destination-the Nakamatt!
The Nakamatt is much like a super Wal-mart but that sells hard liquor and allows you to drink it in the store. There are some other very notable differences though-the prices are on the high end so it’s mostly well-to-do that shop there. Also unlike Wal-mart, instead of door greeters, there’s guards with M16s…you decide which is the more effective shoplifting deterrent. It has the equivalent of a Sears inside, so they have TONS of refrigerators, washing machines, stereos, and high definition TVs which cause massive strain the Kenyan power grid like an old man with constipation
I couldn’t believe the cultural diversity of Kisumu-lots of Indian and some white folks. Surprisingly, no one said “hi, how are you doing?” in English or Swahili to me-which in Maseno I hear maybe 50-100 times a day. With the hustle and bustle of the big city no one has time to say hi. While at the Nakamatt, we ate at an outdoor café called “Mon Ami”, which had American, Indian, and some Kenyan food. I had excellent Bangers and Mash (which is a British slang for bland sausages and mashed potatoes, not a movie you find behind the “adults only” curtain of your video store). Helen was far more adventurous and got a typical Kenyan meal of a whole fried fish, Ugali, and Skilowiki (which I will explain in a later entry). For such a thin girl, she sure could eat! After eating, we went grocery shopping at the Nakamatt and I stocked up on snacky foods that Emmah won’t serve us. I also picked up 1 of every Kenyan Beer I could find!
I figured at least if my birthday sucks, I shouldn’t have to remember it (those are half liter bottles!)
After the Nakamatt, per Helen and David’s request, we went looking for “Kangas” which are the Kenyan wraparound dresses many women wear. Buying Kenyan clothes for someone back home is tricky, most the women’s fancy outfits and dresses are custom made to size, so Kangas are the only really safe bet. They are made here in Kenya and come in a variety of patterns-many of which have a religious phrase in Swahili that is meant to be worn in the back. After running around to different stores which tried to rip us off with low quality Kangas at high prices, we finally found a fabric store which had good quality Kangas at reasonable prices. As the sun was starting to set (and you don’t want to be out at night here, there’s no artificial light anywhere and it’s dangerous) we headed back to Maseno after an awesome day.
Learning Swahili-Hey, at least it’s not MY husband
Mume wake ni mpenda fujo
Her husband is a violent man
I was looking up kanga online and found an interesting article about why this garment is significant, which was helpful to me because it looks much like a sari at first glance:
ReplyDeletehttp://www2.astate.edu/a/museum/wearing-what-cannot-be-spoken-page-1.dot