Hi there!
Last weekend wasn’t too eventful, but it was relaxing and I got to go shopping! On Friday night, I helped mom cook a vegetarian dinner. I just cut up the vegetables, and she did the rest. It was delic! On Saturday, I went with a few friends to downtown Nairobi. The traffic was really thick as usual, and instead of just waiting with the rest of the cars, the bus drove on the median like it was no big deal! As we continued bumpily along, I was a bit concerned that we were going to tip over, but we made it to our destination safely. We first went to a khanga shop. Khangas are large colorful and decorated pieces of fabric that have a saying on them in Swahili. They can be tied to be worn in many different ways and many women also use them to carry their babies in. I couldn’t find a khanga that I really liked, but I bought a pretty sweet African dress and shirt. I was really excited about my purchases! From there, we went to the Massai Market. The Market is a fenced in open space where people can go to sell stuff on Saturdays. There were a lot of handmade jewelry, purses, sandals, paintings, and khangas. It was really overwhelming! There were a ton of people selling stuff, and because we looked like tourists, we were bombarded with sellers asking us to look at what they were selling and asking for way more money than their products were actually worth. Luckily, one of my friend’s host mom came along with us to make sure that we were getting fair deals. I bought a beaded belt and a bracelet. There were so many interesting things there, I wanted to buy everything! On Sunday, I had my first encounter with washing clothes by hand. I have a new found appreciation for washing machines!! It was a beautiful sunny day and playing around in the water was kind of fun, so I didn’t really mind it. Later on, Mom and I went for a walk and then went to a restaurant that had live music and got mango juice. The band that was there was an accapella group. They were really good! They sang all Swahili songs, so I didn’t know what they were singing about, but it was still enjoyable to listen to. The route that we took on our walk was gorgeous! We passed by palm trees, trees with purple flowers on them, and vine type bushes with pink, orange, and red flowers on them.