OK, so now I am living at this place called Challenge Farm. An American lady, Sherry has taken in about 120 kids off the streets and has given them a place to live, 3 meals a day, and the opportunity to go to school.
While living here, we eat what the kids eat. *this is where my eyes get real big and eyebrows go up as if to say, “yikes!” with my face! Breakfast is yummy, pretty American and provided by Sherry. Lunch and dinner every day are either ugoli *pronounced “EWWW golly!” and some type of greens, or corn and beans mixed. So…as a team we decided to just make our own dinners for us. This is where going to the grocery store comes in…
Here’s how a simple grocery store run goes down:
Walk a 1/2 mile down the red-dirt, bumpy, full of puddles road; you’ll make your way to a paved road…you’ll stand there for 1-20 minutes waiting for a taxi.
A taxi will come by, it will be a 12-seater van with 20 people already slammed in it, but they’ll make space for you, you’re cool, you’re a “mzungu” (a term for all white people in Africa). So, it will smell SOO good in the van, and there will be 20 sets of beautiful brown eyes staring at you, kids will want to shake your hand, and someone will try to speak broken English to you, and in some cases your right thigh will end up on top of someone else’s left thigh!
This is me in a taxi…there are 4 men standing in the door frame and hanging on for their ride.
All piled in!
After your 20-30 minute, stop and go ride, you’re now in town!
So you go to the big grocery store. But the store doesn’t have ½ the stuff you are looking for. Guess I should define grocery store: a store, with 6-8 aisles of food. There was a time in my previous life I could stand in the yogurt aisle for 30 minutes looking for which yogurt was the best value, has the least amount of sugar, made locally; and then the hard part: which of the 75 flavors do I feel like buying? In Kenya: “humm, which of the 6 containers of this one brand of strawberry/milky yogurt is still sealed?
Ok, so you’ll get all that you can at this one store but then it’s off to the market!
Some picture to try and show you what the market looks like.
Beans? Corn? Whatcha want?
Steak dinner?
Try traveling all the way back home with 24 eggs in a plastic bag! We were down one egg by the time we got home!
You’ll get ripped off because, again, you’re a “mzungu”. So you’ll have to barter for everything, “No, I am sorry I will not buy one single banana for $7.00.” So after stopping at a million different little ‘stands’, searching for the perfect produce, the stand that actually has eggs, and of course from the woman who is not going take advantage of you, you finally have all that you need to make a few meals and now it’s time to head back.
With your backpack full of groceries, and some heavy plastic bags cutting off circulation hanging from your arms, you’ll pass by tons of “street urchins” (as they are called by the locals), kids who live on the streets. They will definitely run up to you and beg for food or money. Most of these kids are 5-13 years old, holding a small container of glue (for getting high), clothes that have been worn weeks on end without being washed, super dirty, and no shoes; so after a few hugs you’ll have to walk to the bus stop to start the journey back home. (We’ve been asked by our contact Sherry, not to give the street kids money or food because it support their habits; and if and when they want help they can go to Challenge Farm).
This is me hanging out with the street kids. They look angry in this photo, but they weren't. They were trying to grab my camera!
While you and your two other attractive (if I do say so myself) friends are walking to the bus stop area, you’ll pass by nasty men who will say things to you in Swahili, and perhaps wave “protection” at you. After you freak out a little in your head and pick up the pace, you’ll find a big purple bus to take you back to your little ‘home’ village. This bus is more like a ‘city bus’, full of people, who are ALL staring at you! Again, men will be nasty, there will be no seats, or personal space, and someone will hold their chicken up to you, for you to take it! *now this is critical: do not panic. It’s only a chicken! Do not show fear! Just look away and maybe they wont see you anymore.
SUCCESS! You’ve made it back home! Now, it’s just back down the beautiful red-dirt road lined with tall cornfields. The clouds will be grey and puffy, the air will be chilly, and the adorable local kids will come running up to you and give you a huge hug and will walk you all the way back to the entrance of Challenge Farm. The ending will be so magical and so life giving that you’ll forget the fact that it’s taken you 4 hours to go to the grocery store!
Now, it’s time to make dinner…hope the power stays on! 🙂
Life is precious. Don’t take your grocery store for granted.
Seventeen weeks till I’m back! Trying to soak it all in! Thanks for your prayers!
