The Village

We live about a 15 minute walk away from Mudete, where there is a small daily market that transforms into a much larger one on Mondays and Thursdays. I purposefully avoid the stalls with fish (stinky!) and always feel a bit sad for the chickens (cuckoos) in the cages. Our main targets are vegetables – cabbage/kale/tomatoes/onions/beans and lentils/rice/or maize flour to make ugale. We are slowly getting to know the local prices so that we are not given the muzungu price when we purchase our own groceries. It is a weird feeling to be a minority and to have people stare at you without shame as you pass. Our limited (though increasing) number of Kimaragoli greetings produce smiles from many, and lots of handshakes follow (thank goodness for hand-sani). Even Allison who is of Jamaican origin is identified as a muzungu (though many people assume she can speak Swahili... I think she is getting tired of explaining that she can’t...).

The children along the route to Mudete are so fascinated by us. We pass many young children as well as two schools, and as soon as one child hears that muzungus are coming there is a stampede of children running to the road as the word spreads. They love to practice the little English that they know, so we hear excited shouts of “Muzungu, muzungu, how are you?” as we walk. We have learned to answer, “Fine” as that is the response they learn in school and “Sasa (how are you)?”. We hope to eventually teach them to respond “good”. Sometimes it is difficult to even see where the little voices are coming from as some children are shy and hide their faces as soon as they shout the greeting. It is a very entertaining walk to say the least.

On sketchy areas along the walk (just to give my parents nightmares for the next four months):
There is a store just past the driveway where we are staying where apparently drug-deals occur (as witnessed the other night by some team members)... could also simply be men standing around and being lazy... which we also witness every day, so don’t fret too much about it. One corner a bit further down has a bar, and during the day one or two intoxicated but otherwise harmless men will follow us asking us for money for a few meters. Again, don’t fret. Other than that our security is very safe. We have a lot of people looking out for us.