Winnie and the market

Yesterday I went to the market with Winnie. I usually pick up the things I need when I go to the farm on weekends, but this weekend I'm at school to help the girls review for their upcoming midterms. I'm going to Winnie's house for dinner on Saturday, too!

Anyway so we made a shopping list and hopped onto a matatu heading into town. Winnie brought a shawl to wrap around her head during the ride. She was appalled that I hadn't brought one. "But you hair will get so dusty!" Though hair is an evening discussing topic about once a week, she still can't get over that I shampoo a few times a week, and I can't get over that her head only gets wet every other month, when she takes her weave out. I must say, my knowledge of weaves, previously only sourced from America's Next Top Model, has grown quite a lot while here.

Oh, okay, so I was going to bring my back pack to carry stuff in, primarily because blah blah, let's reduce the number of plastic bags we use to save the rain forest or whatever, but also because plastic bags cost 20 cents. That's a hefty fee by any standard, but particularly when you consider that a giant cabbage is only 50 cents. But Winnie really didn't want me too, because she though people would stare. I told her they are going to stare at of regardless, but she really really didn't want me to bring a back pack. She did impressions of how people would look at me. It was pretty hilarious. Fine, but we're bringing plastic bags with us then. Oh yeah, people here call them paper bags. It kills me. This is very clearly not paper. I never say anything to anybody but Winnie though, because she's used to my lip. "What's that? You want me to pass you a paper bag? Hm, I don't see any of those around, but might this plastic bag render itself serviceable?" She just polls her eyes and remains firm on her nomenclature choice. I like her.

Usually while at the grocery store in town, I'm in a bit of a rush it seems, or at least not at leisure to browse around. Winnie and I were in no rush though, so yesterday I discovered a cookie aisle! Pardon me, a biscuit aisle. I picked up a small, 25 cent pack of these coconut numbers. When we had paid and were back outside, I reached into my bag to crack open the cookies. YOU'RE GOING TO EAT THEM NOW? Yeah. HERE? Um, yes. IN FRONT OF PEOPLE? Yes? WHILE WALKING!!? That was the plan...? Apparently, eating while walking is the most hilarious and most most embarrassing thing Winnie could think of. She tried to talk me out of it, again doing impressions of what people would say if they saw me. She already convinced me to leave my back pack at home, so no, I was going to win this battle. And they were delicious. I tried to get her to eat one, but she wouldn't hear of it. I do not understand at all.

Anyway, after all our travelling we treated ourselves to chipati to in with the beans we were going to cook for dinner. We don't have the cookware required for making chipati at home, and I think the fact that I recently discovered that a store nearby sells them fresh for only 20 cents is going to mean a pretty sharp increase in the number of chipatis I eat. They are so good.