Blog Three

Example of what people put on bikes. And then ride the bikes.

Blog 3

Wow. Where to start my third blog. Where I left off, I guess. Okay, so it’s July 3 (Thursday). Market Day. This is a huge part of life here in Kimilili, and the peak of the week for some people. There are several sections of the market, like the textile and clothes part, the agriculture, which is pretty much just a lot of bidding for cows and goats. There’s also a fish section, and miscellaneous electronics/everything part. We all agree that the fish that are and have been on sale for multiple market weeks, which supposedly is okay, since they’re dried, but I’m not so sure… Luckily we don’t have to eat it, though. Whew.

The fish. Too bad cameras can’t take smells along with the pictures.

We (Mom, Matthew, and I) mostly just looked around at the wares, and the only things I got were a cool little oil “lamp” aka tin can with some sort of wick, but is actually quite cool, and a pair of sandals made out of tires. These are not actually meant to be worn, but cost almost nothing. The owner of the store wasn’t even using them. Talk about product confidence. Mom got some cloth things, and we were able to “haggle” whereas Matthew tells the seller that this item is “too expensive”. We actually did lower the price, so that was good. Also, on the way home, the weirdest thing happened. We were sidling along the street, when, out of the blue, some little boy just sprints up, flings his leg behind his head (while standing), unflings his leg, and runs away. I’m not joking about this. It actually looked like he really banged the back of his head while doing this. Maybe he was expecting some money. This is as weird as it sounds. Anyway, that’s all we really did that day, but it was a great experience. Here are a few pictures.

The agricultural section.

Next day, (July 4, Friday), Matthew and I were just touring schools on the premise of planting five trees. It turned out that the actual planting took about five minutes, and the “trees” were actually just branches with soil at the base. Whatever, but the schools themselves were fairly interesting. We got to three that day, and each one has some Kenyan name that’s insanely hard to remember, so I can’t remember. All the schools knew that we would be touring in advance, by the way. Ok, before I begin, let me tell you that a guest in Kenya is given some serious privileges. That means they will try to feed you at the school, and will make you give impromptu speeches in front of the whole student body. Long speeches. Like more than ten minutes. They began giving us a tour of the school, whereas the chairman gave us a full history of the school and at the end, though, it was worth it, because we were presented with the nationally winning choir, of which pictures don’t do justice. I do have video, but the blog doesn’t let me put it on.

The choir.

After leaving, the next school was about the same way, but this time, there was no choir, we planted those “trees”, and the head teacher was welcoming us for lunch however we was running short of time.

The tree planting. With me.

Last school we were very impressed with (the head teacher was gone at the time), and it had actually grown a ton since Matthew had last been there. That took the whole day. Oh yeah, HAPPY JULY 4!!!!!!!!!!!

The good school.

Next day (June you know what it is…) Saturday.
All I can say that this day has seriously taught me a lesson in patience. It was an opening ceremony for a new transformation unit, whereas a seven hour speech, in Swahili took place, along with some entertainment. The end.

The entertainment.