Masai market

Today after lunch, Kay and I headed downtown to go to Masai market. It's a twice a week open air market about 2 city blocks large, selling mostly souvenir type things. So many white people!

Okay first of all, I swear 90% of the white people here are blond. I claim to know why, but it's just the strange truth. There are some couples, but mostly they seem to travel in small groups of girls. There's basically a uniform that all the females, myself included, wear. Hair in a messy ponytail bun and a hair band. Loose, light weight long shorts (shpants, if you will), and either a tank top or a t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Then Birkenstocks, Chacos, or other gait-considerate sandals. When chilly, a fleece zip up from North Face or MEC. It really is a uniform.

At the market you're supposed to haggle the prices. Everyone knows you never pay more than half their original price, right? Wrong. I rather enjoyed watching some tourists get totally destroyed. The guy would say 800 shillings, and they'd be like, "um, do you think 750 would be alright?" They always looked super uncomfortable. They're also a bunch of stereotypical liberals, and when I make fun of them, I'm totally making fun of myself but it was just so funny. I overheard one person talking to a man who was just trying to sell her something, telling him all about how she volunteered for the Obama campaign, another talking about how much she missed organic fruit, and THREE people asked the vendor if the person who made the souvenir got paid a fair wage. A lot of unctuous self righteousness, but whatever. I think a lot of "well travelled" people tend to be self righteous, probably because they think that since they've been somewhere, they understand it. Anyway, the stereotype is so funny when it's true.

When it comes to haggling, I hate not getting a good deal. If I had money to burn, I'm still not sure I'd be able to resist the allure of saving just 50 cents more. It was great to have Kay with me...they vendors would talk in Swahili, and Kay would translate for me, so I would know they were being fair. They didn't realise she wasn't a tourist, I guess. I'm also really good at acting disinterested, and just walking away. They always run after you, giving you the price you want. My best deals were a leather pencil case, from 800 to 200 shillings, and a necklace from 400 to 75. I'm that good. Okay, and Kay helped. She told me that some of the vendors were being kind of mean to her, asking why she would help a white person save money instead of helping a Kenyan make money.

But I got lots of good stuff, and many of you have exciting times to which to look forward! Then Kay and I got ice cream and took a matatu home. Hamburgers yesterday, ice cream today? Maybe Nairobi isn't so bad after all!