Shopping!

Since by definition women like to shop... I figured I'd share with you my shopping experiences here in Kenya. First, there's Nakumatt. Nakumatt is the Kenyan Wal-mart. There's anything and everything, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's cheaper. Their motto is "you need it. we have it." Which is somewhat the case... one week they might have this really great cereal or soap or piece of hardware and the next week it will be nowhere to be found with no timeline of when they will have it again. But overall, it's very convenient & you can find a version of just about anything you're looking for. Nakumatt is the closest grocery for us and it's even a Nakumatt Mega (ie. super walmart).
Our favorite place for produce is aptly named, Zucchinis. They have great service, but they're all the way across town, so we have to coordinate our shopping trips to fit with when someone can give us a ride. When you enter the store there are lots of men waiting around to help you find just the right herbs, vegetables and fruits you want. You can tell them how many, when you need them to be ripe, etc and they'll get the best of everything for you. Plus, it's really good prices. To put it in perspective, we bought a large bunch of bananas, a pineapple, multiple lemons, 3 mangos, a pack of strawberries, 3 green peppers, 2 yellow peppers, 2 red peppers, 3 zucchinis, large amounts of green beans & snap peas & broccoli, a bunch of potatos, a bag of onions and a few other assorted items for about 600 shillings. (600 Kenyan shillings = $7.50).
The other week, I successfully navigated & actually bought things (I've walked through some markets before) at my first Kenyan market. It's called Toi Market (there are barely any toys). There is every kind of clothing (for all ages), household items, shoes, food, decorations, jewelry, etc. In typical market style, you could find any combination of items next to each other: such as mangos & bananas next to a stall filled with men's pants.... Before going, I had braced myself for the worst. I fully expected to be accosted by tons of people, have to work my way through crowds and deal with all the locals seeking out the mazungu who has money to spend... Thankfully this was not the case. The Kenyans were very friendly with their "hellos" "how are yous" (they actually say those words plurally quite regularly) and "welcome customers." But they gave you space to look around and when you said no, they didn't keep bothering you (phew!). A friend of mine, Marti (another MCC-er) showed me the ropes. I successfully haggled down some prices and spent a grand total of 360 shillings to get 4 long skirts and 2 pairs of dress socks. I felt very accomplished. As we left I was already dreaming up plans of bringing Matt along or bringing our visitors to the market and having them experience it for themselves...