Nakumatt

A place where we feel a little more at home is the Nyali Nakumatt. This is where we do our grocery shopping and it is very much like a small version of Wal-Mart. (Even grocery stores in Kenya are amazing places, Dad!)

They have everything from bread to entertainment systems, hardware to yoghurt. We can find things like Kellogg’s cereals (which we don’t buy because they are about $15 a box), whole milk in a bag, Heinz ketchup (again super expensive), maize flour, Twix (that melts as soon as you step outside), laundry soap, insect killer, packaged meat (not the animal still to be cleaned), pasta and Prego, etc, etc. When we first arrived it was suggested that we shop at the Nakumatt because the markets were not safe. While we still stay out of the markets, we’ve found several fruit and vegetable stands on our way home where we like to by those things fresh. We’ve learned that Nakumatt usually gets their produce from the markets. That little tip has saved us from stock-piling too many fruits and veggies that go bad WAY faster in this hot and humid climate than at home. Unfortunately we still tend to get the mzungu price so it doesn’t really save us money! We usually shop about once a week and round trip takes us about 3 hours. I will not miss that when I can load my groceries into the trunk and be done for 2 weeks in about 30 minutes!

Loaded with groceries on our way back home we take boda bodas (bikes with seats on the back) to the matatu stage (bus stop) where we got on a matatu that takes us home.