Hello Kisumu and Kanyawegi!

Hello Everyone again. I was planning on writing this last night after my first full day in the village, but fell asleep on the couch trying so I had to give up.

As you have probably guessed, it was a fairly busy day in the end. After having a shower (when I found out that I packed conditioner, not shampoo, oops) and having some breakfast (tea and jipati, which I supplemented with some of the gorp my mum packed for me (Thanks!)) I got all ready for the day. In true Kenyan fashion however I ended up having a lot of time to walk around the compound, take some pictures, read and talk with both Ciprose and Pamella before Maurice eventually made it over. Once here, we began building a long shopping list for town. No point in wasting a good town-run without picking up everything needed. Since I was the first one here, there were a lot of things to buy which would probably last for most of the time we are here (ie. cooking gas and cooking oil).

My humble bed

Our house

Once ready Pamella, Maurice and I headed for the "ndara" (road) to catch a mutatu. Maurice saw a three wheeler one and ran to hail it down (apparently they are nicer since you get a breeze to keep you cool...no complaints there). We then sped off towards town, naturally having to fit 4 people into the two person back seat. We made a quick stop at the junction (where the road forks, and there is a small market / mutatu stopping area there) to let out our other passenger. Thankfully there was nobody else headed to town so we got to enjoy the rest of the ride in relative comfort. The mutatu let us off in town and we went to the bank to deposit some of the bank client's money. They have been saving very well recently as we deposited almost $200 CAD worth of shillings.

View from the mutatu

Off then we headed to the supermarket to pick up some stuff. Which took longer than I had expected, since many of the brands which Pamella knows best were not in stock but eventually we picked up most of the stuff and headed towards the vegetable market. On the way we stopped in a few other super markets looking for the illusive "VIM", which is a cleaning supply. Finally having arrived at the market, we found that it had been closed. Apparently this was because some of the "richer ladies" were shopping. We then went through the open air market which was located nearby and worked our way through the shopping list while we waited for an old gas canister to be delivered to us to be filled. Our bags were getting heavy at this point and it was very sunny so once we had picked up most of our veggies we found a seat and waited for the gas canister to be delivered to us. I must have looked tired because people kept offering me their seats, although I did not feel particularly tired at this point. Finally the canister was delivered to us by a smiling man from Kanyawegi on a motorbike (their name escapes me at this time).

Unfortunately the type of canister was different than what we were expecting and we had to wait around at the mutatu loading area in the sun for almost two hours before finally getting it filled. Maurice must have been tired from looking around for a place to fill them, since I was from just sitting around with Pamela! People seemed to be fascinated by me, but I suppose that is not surprising as I saw maybe two other white people. Amazing the number of hawkers that you see around selling almost anything, ranging from glasses to toys, to candy to drinks, to ice cream, and even locks! They seem to work in teams of some kind so that one leader controls the money and supplies while the others do the actual selling. It may be the business student in me, but I found that pretty cool in terms of people watching. Once we finally got everything together we caught a mutatu (this time a bigger one, but packed to the max such that I barely had room for my legs). We even had a couple people hanging out the door for part of the trip! I don't think these mutatus were designed for people of my size in mind! But all the same I found it very enjoyable to be moving again and to see everyone. It is funny because you can tell when a child especially sees you, because they usually do a double take as their eyes widen and follow you until you pass.

Once back at Kaguya (our compound / house) we unpacked and thankfully Ciprose started preparing some lunch / dinner, since I had not eaten since the small breakfast earlier that day. Pamela was telling me that prices has been rising significantly in recent times. For example the cooking gas used to be at least a few hundred bobs (shillings) cheaper. While waiting for dinner to be made I decided to do a little more exploring, and got to play with some of the local children. I could barely understand a word they said, but they found it hilarious to mimic me! I showed them some of the more interesting balancing / yoga poses, which certainly challenged their mimicking abilities! They then showed me some of their games, for example where one person is in the middle of a circle, while everyone else holds hands. The person in the middle tries to then break free as they sing a call-and-response. When they do it becomes a game of tag to try and catch the person who escaped. Needless to say it was a lot of fun, and we were all out of breath soon enough. They then showed me a river nearby before I had to bid them goodnight.

Dinner was almost ready at this point, so I went with Maurice to meet "Mama", who is basically the landlord. She is quite the woman. Although her husband has died, she still takes care of her many children and grandchildren (and I think some great grandchildren?). She kindly offered me a soda (seems to be the thing here) and we watched some funny Italian (dubbed in English) television. A couple of the kids I was playing with came to join. I think their names are Britany and Silus but I will have to check. Finally I was able to bid them "oriti" or goodnight, and got to have some dinner. Maurice then quickly showed me obambo market before it got too dark and I called it a night. As mentioned I tried to write this post, but was falling asleep so had to call it quits.

Anyways, sorry for rambling on for so long...apparently I was in a writing mood! In a few minutes Pamela and I will head out to pick up Katie from the airport, finally I can have some Canadian company! Then once she is settled I think we will go to the bank and take it from there.
So long for now,
Graham