What a Good Friday

So yesterday was Good Friday; which in turn meant we did not have Swahili--or any class for that matter. A college students dream: classes cancelled for religious holidays. So we couldn't just let the day go to waste--carpe diem. What did we do you may ask?!

Well, Julia and I waited at the "bus stop" (wherever people want to wait for the bus...often changes on the daily) for about 10 minutes. We were told by St. Lawrence to only take the city buses, Citi Hoppas, because the other companies are "sketchy" and "unreliable". Just to spite them we decided to be hard core and take a bus called the Compliant. (Not actually to spite them, more because there were NO Citi Hoppas to be seen) So we hop on and there is a lady standing in the front of the bus, swaying back and forth with the movement of the bumpy roads. She is shouting enthusiastically in Kiswahili and reading out of the bible. Welcome to Good Friday in Kenya. She had the whole bus singing and repeating after her. Rock on. NOTE: from my experience Compliant buses are completely okay to take....

As we arrived at our destination we were sent away with parting words from the preaching lady...something about being eternally blessed on this special day. (That's all I could decipher form her Kiswahili).

Julia and I had a great day on our Good Friday adventure. The Toi Market it a HUGE open air second hand clothing market. It is like Goodwill times a million. How it works is each vendor (there are probably 100+ vendors) buys a "bundle" of clothes. It is a legitimate bundle, weights upwards of 30 lbs. Not knowing what they have purchased (its part of the whole mystery of the business) they open up the bundle and lay their clothes in a big pile for people to search through. The clothes are very cheep and there is A LOT of variety.  I got 4 shirts for 30-100 shillings ($.50-$2.00). I got a sweet pair of "Aladdin pants" that have funky shapes and colors for $4.00. Scored. The bartering is the best part and when you do it in Kiswahili they lower the price even more...!

At the very beginning of this trip I broke my sunglasses and it has been a huge bummer because it is always sunny and my eyes often get sun burnt (yes, it is actually a thing...Kat remember Tampa?). SO I have been in need of sunglasses... Anyhow, at the Toi Market there are vendors who sell "Ray Bands". As I was waiting for Julia to barter for her purchase I wondered over to the Ray Band guys. They were heckling me to try them all on, they were saying comments like "you look smart" (Kenyans word for good looking). They were telling me that the sun glasses were real Ray Bands made in Italy....clearly this was not true...you could see the painted label on the side. Anyhow, I proceeded to begin my bartering they started at 2000 shillings ($24.00). I said no way, my friends came earlier and bought them for a lot cheaper. He lowered the price down to 800 shillings ($9.00). Now mind you, this is all in Kiswahili. I thought I was being a good bargainer and thought I said 200 shillings but instead I said 20,000 shillings...classic. The vendor laughed and told then proceeded to walk around to his other vendor friends and tell him what I had just said...hahah jokes on me. I ended up getting the sun glasses for 200 shillings though!

After a very successful and long day at the market we got aboard the Citi Hoppa to head home. Again, there was someone preaching from the bible. A man this time, he was walking up and down the isles of the bus and shouting versus from the bible. He was going between Kiswahili and English (Swinglish) so it was easier to understand. We stopped to let the preaching man off and on came another man, he was blind and had a walking stick. He stands up in the middle of the bus, says something in Kiswahili about his health and then proceeds to do something I have NEVER seen (or even thought was possible). This man spreads his eye open, grabs his eye ball and holds it out for everyone to see. It was clearly a fake eye, but the grossest part was that you could see into his eye socket. This was probably the most shocking and disturbing thing I have ever seen...ever. He then is waving it around saying something that I cannot understand. I was so thrown off guard and distracted by him waving around his eye that I wasn't understanding what he was saying. Too bad. He then put the eye back into his eye socket and walked up and down the isle asking for money. Culture shock...maybe?

We got back to the compound and had dinner with the new Swahili adjunct who will be teaching at SLU next semester. He had dreadlocks and was very well spoken, sweet and funny. He'll do just great at SLU. His biggest fear was the snow, rightfully so, and was really worried about the cold. Kenyans think 60 degrees is jacket weather...I think he'll have a great time in Canton!

On Sunday (Easter Sunday) we are leaving for Amboselli National Park. I am getting really excited for our game drive and home stay with the Maasai. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. Have a great week--stay tuned. Happy Easter!