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.

The Amazing Matatu

This majestic creature can be found in all parts of Kenya, both rural and urban areas. It can move at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour and follows no laws of man. Its roar can be heard from miles away and although they are many they travel alone wherever they go. It is commonly used for human transport and can carry up to 22 passengers – at least that’s as many as Emily and I have witnessed. Legally they are only allowed to carry 14.

The routes are supposed to be painted on the side (you can kind of see it says "Docks" behind the door), but it is always good to double check with the conductor when you get on.

Matatus are the main form of public transportation. They are similar in shape and size to a Volkswagen van but they appear to be made by Nissan. They have five compact rows with three small seats in each row. Each matatu has a driver (who doesn’t count as a passenger) and a conductor (who does). The conductor takes your money and alerts the driver when passengers want to exit, or alight, as they say here. You can let the conductor know you want to get off by tapping on the metal sides of the van.

It takes skills to get in and out!

The matatus have a wide variety of horns and sounds which they use to get your attention so you will board their bus. The conductors will often try to talk you into going wherever their route will take you to get you in the van. If there are several matatus going to the same place the conductors will try to convince you that their van is better than the others and herd you in that direction, although the price is never dropped.

Matatus don’t seem to follow any rules of driving. They are constantly cutting others off, stopping at any time to pick up a passenger and speeding as much as they can. Time is money after all. Although it is illegal they try to pack as many passengers into the van as possible if they think there are no cops ahead. As I mentioned the most Emily and I have been on with is 22 passengers.

The total today was 22, our high score! This was taken from the back row which contained 4 people.

This was a kid from church - don't worry I hardly ever do this to strangers.

We take matatus wherever we go each day. We know the prices for most of the routes we use by now but the conductors often try to over charge us. Our co-workers tell us that it’s because of the color of our skin and everyone assumes that white people, or colored people, as they say, have lots of money. This has been true with pretty much everything we have tried to buy for the first time. For example, the first time we took a bicycle ride (another form of public transport for short distances called a boda boda) the riders tried to charge us 200 Ksh each. I think we ended up paying 40 Ksh each and we later found out that the going rate is 20 Ksh. We have come to love price tags and despise bartering since we don’t know what a fair price is for most things.

Well we got a little off subject with this one but we feel that the tangent was apt.

What time is it? It’s laundry day!

So we have a very nice stackable Kenmore washer and dryer unit. Both of them have glass doors so you can see the clothes spinning and the neighbor kids like to watch it for hours on end.

I may have embellished a little bit. We actually haul our laundry up to the roof of our building where we have a large sink all of our own. We wash and rinse our clothes by hand and then we hang them on the line to dry. Neither of us is very experienced at doing laundry by hand, in fact we had never done it before coming to Kenya. We have, however, developed a pretty good system and it goes pretty fast. (About an hour to wash and hang one load. Then we wait several hours for the clothes to dry before we can put them away.) We always worry that we’re not getting them quite clean enough or that we’re not getting all of the soap out but we’re sure we use WAY more water for our laundry than our neighbors.

We always have to wash the sink before we can wash our clothes.

The dry cycle takes 3 hours for button-up shirts, 5 hours for t-shirts, 8 hours for pants!

After washing our clothes by hand for five weeks we have determined this. Now we have actually DONE laundry. All you washing machine people have never actually DONE laundry. You have loaded a machine that does it for you, but this is the real deal. (Any readers who have done laundry by hand may now pat themselves on the back) Don’t misunderstand; we don’t have anything against washing machines. In fact, we’re very much looking forward to enjoying that luxury upon our return home. We just think it’s a funny phrase we use when we don’t, in a way, actually DO the laundry.

Our laundry room... dirty clothes on the sheet in the bed frame, clean clothes in the suitcases and not-quite-dry clothes hanging on the line.