Markets and Machakos

Duchess. 

I just remembered I can do different fonts!

Caleb had this nice little surprise as he leaned in to wash his hands. He called to mom, mom called to our next door neighbor Andy, a 30+ year veteran missionary. Andy came over, equipped with a fly swatter and a huge can of DOOM. He did the opposite of what we thought he was going to do (note giant cicada on outer rim of cup):

After that traumatizing morning, we drove the hour into Nairobi, and went to the Maasai Market. Our friend and missionary neighbor, Kim Viands, was telling us that not everyone there selling things at the market is Maasai, but it's the most well known tribe in Kenya. Basically it gets all the tourists, so they keep the name.

They kept shoving different things in our faces. When they were distracted, I walked up to the row of skirts, saw the one I wanted, and got it. If they'd just let us do our own thinking instead of, "Mama, which one?" "Which one? Special price. For you." "Mama look." They'd put it up to me. I'd mmhmm it and mumble, "That's nice." Then the only words they would say after that were," That's nice," and, "Oh, looks nice."  We were lucky enough to have our own barterer: Kim. She was fantastic. When things got a little desperate, she pulled out the "four kids at home" card, and the "living in Africa 3 years" card. She was also speaking to them in Swahili, which they loved. 

The boys had a different way of doing it. Caleb went up to the guy selling the knife he wanted. The guy wrote 6500 shillings ($65) on his sheet of paper. Caleb took the pen and wrote 700. ($7) The guy immediately shook it off as a joke, and said, "Give me a real price." The man put 6500 ($65) on the paper again. Caleb was lenient and brought it up to 1,000 shillings ($10), The salesman shunned him again. So Caleb walked away. And the man yelled after him, "1500, alright, 1500!" Sold, for $15.

We took an ice cream break in the nicest mall in Kenya.

My brothers and I were wondering how it took our little friends(picture below) 30 minutes to eat their ice creams, when mom reminded us that we don't eat ours. We inhale them. She also told us to go easy. She still remembers when we actually ate ours. :)

These are my girls that I saw almost every night around 6pm. Mbulah, Irene, Mambuni, Faith, and Mazah. (How about those names?) One evening they asked me if I had any toys. The next evening they clarified they meant dolls. Uh oh. I didn't happen to bring any Barbies. I'm wearing the skirt from the market, if you can see it.

                         

        Both these pictures were captured on the hike of the mountain behind our house. The flowers were super cool: when you looked at the bush they grew on, it looked like you were staring at an orange, yellow, pink, and lavender rainbow.  They all faded into one another beautifully. Also, Caleb has hops.

                                       

 

They had the strangest fruit called the funny melon. It tasted like a mix between cucumber, aloe vera, and the aftertaste of a kiwi. The outside had spikes on it. Appropriate name. 

Anybody for some bubblegum milk? It was a normalcy at the store.

Kim's youngest daughter, just walking home. (It is pretty normal for the kids to roam about here. The campus is extremely safe. A fence around the entire perimeter prevents any escapees. I'll see a one and a half year old walking down the dirt road, and expect a parent. But, no. Wobble wobble she goes. We talked to our neighbor Steve, one of the missionaries here, and he said, "ya, whenever Americans come they are always freaking out that there is not always a parent with the kids outside." yep, I was that American. :) )

We got to play Dominion with Kim and her husband Jaime! We love that game. Mom did too. But I think that was mainly because Kim served Chai tea and Jambo biscuits. (Jambo just means Hello in Swahili.) If you want to test out dad's Swahili, he'd be more than happy to oblige. After all, he spent the first two years of his life in Tanzania. He should be practically fluent.

This is Fergus. He's only happy if he's asleep, laying down, or in your lap.

Kwaheri!

(My mother is kindly suggesting that I tell you what Kwaheri means. It means Goodbye, and for future reference, any word in a foreign language at the bottom of my blog is most likely Goodbye. It would be in the language of the country the blog takes place in. In this case, Swahili. Mom's happy. We're all good.)