Leah’s Travel Page

I only have a few minutes to write before the battery dies on this laptop, but I’ll try.

I just got back from a mall that some of us went to to change money, buy medicine, etc. It was quite the experience, especially when contrasted with our trip to Kibera two days ago. It is located in the part of town with all the embassies (we passed the Canadian one…huge swimming pool and tennis courts and Canadian flags…I’m definitely going to go there later!), and all the huge residences where, we were told, “the Americans live”. The mall itself was absolutely palacial. The layout was like a spanish villa, and there were boutique stores (Bata shoes, anyone?) and mini-golf courses and even a water park. Everything was clean and shiny and clearly catering to wealthy tourists. Nearby there were a bunch of massive homes, with signs up saying no photos allowed. I felt kind of disgusted with myself that I was there, but hey, I really needed to change my money to Kenyan schillings! Up until this morning, I had only seen two white people who weren’t with either our group or the UN. But this was like a Mzungu mall…Most of the patrons were German or Japanese (and yes, Asian people are considered mzungu as well…it’s kind of an all-encompassing term). There weren’t too many from our group who went out this morning, but those of us who did got out of there as fast as we could…I think it was a little too soon since visiting Kibera to marvel at all the luxuries available to us.

Then we got the chance to go to the Maasai market. We didn’t stay long there either because we had to get back for lunch, but it was great to see the way a market works, even if this one was pretty touristy. The vendors would come up to you and introduce themselves and be all friendly and then ask you to come over to look at their items. It was hard to figure out what to do…If someone is being nice and saying hi, I don’t want to be a jerk and ignore them and be the snooty white person, but I obviously know that they’re not there to be my friend. Also, I learned pretty quickly not to point at anything as you’re walking by, because the person will REALLY try to sell it to you, if they know you’re interested in the least. I feel as though I need to master a bit more swahili before I feel totally comfortable in markets. I didn’t buy anything, because I know I’ll be able to get better prices outside the tourist areas, but some other people did. One guy with us was walking out of the market just as we were walking in…it was really funny, because it was like he was a broken man. “They kept hassling me, I couldn’t get away!” The pressure to buy from them is intense, they really know what they’re doing! Most people with me felt as though they had been more or less ripped off, but I guess just chalked it up to experience…I personally feel as though I’m getting the exact same experience while watching them waste their money! Some people feel guilty starting the bargaining really low, since it’s not actually that much from our Western standard, but I believe that it’s inappropriate to overinflate the price of these things. It’s hard to know where to draw the line.

While I was at the mall, I was also scouting the prices on cell phones. The deals you can get are really good compared to what we’re used to. For about $60 CAD you can get a phone that can accept free incoming calls and text messages. I didn’t get one there because it was the first place I looked, but I might the next time I’m in a big city, probably Kampala in a few weeks. That way I’d actually be able to talk to people from home…emails are only so exciting.

We’re off to the University of Nairobi this afternoon. Not sure what we’ll be doing there…probably sit there listening to people talk to us, which seems like a popular theme of this week. Not that I’m complaining (well, maybe it can be a bit tedious…), but it’ll be nice to get to the rainforest and get to do jungle walks ever day! (Or at least that’s what I imagine it will be like in my mind!)

Yikes! Just got a low battery warning!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2006 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Kenya, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.