It’s our first real weekend here. I know we were here last Sunday, but it’s the first time we have the full weekend. It’s also the first day that I have done any real exercise. Eliza and I slept in until 7:20 then went for a 20 minuet run (her stomach was hurting). As we ran people gave us funny looks, but to be fair I would have looked at someone funny too if they had been wearing what I wore today. We then came back and did the core challenge. Eliza did soft, and I did not too bad. After that we shucked beans for an hour then ate breakfast. Mama Agnes had an event to cater later in the day and people filled the courtyard helping her cook. During breakfast Mama Agnes caught onto my not eating makttoke and gave be bread to eat with my eggs instead. We also got a treat of drinking ginger milk! After breakfast I went to town to go dress shopping with Sandra, Courtney, and Peace (their host mom; she was going to make sure we didn’t get ripped off). On the way I took a boda. He told me that it would be 10,000. I told him I knew it was supposed to be one. I settled and gave him 4,000. It’s around two dollars American, and he had dropped me off at the bank. Next time I will make sure not to get on a boda unless it will only be 1,000 shillings.
From there I went to check on Jenna. She looked better, and that made me happy. Then I wandered in a circle trying to find Sandra and Courtney’s house. Along the way I was invited to breakfast with some lovely people, but felt the need to decline. When I finally did make it we had mango, while Peace finished doing her laundry. We then went to a nice little stall where Peace said she bought the beautiful dress she had on. Each of us bought two items. I bought a pleated long skirt, and a multi-coloured long sleeve dress. When Courtney asked about where to get dresses made Peace took us to a fabric shop. I fell in love with one of them. I bought it and Courtney bought another. The patterns were more traditional ones. We then went to a dress shop where Peace had to pick up a dress from anyway. The shop was a bustle with people. There were three sewing machines in the front of the shop. Each worked by foot. It reminded me of Fiddler on the Roof. There we many patterns on the wall. Long, short, traditional, modern, anything you could think of. Courtney and I decided that instead of getting dresses we would get a top and wrap skirt made. This would be more versitlile for us, and was an option that the dressmaker gave us. Courtney chose a dress with a v in the back, and I wanted mine to be a razor back dress. We both asked to have the tops made long so that we cold wear them with tights. When Sandra commented on how fit I was the dressmaker said not to worry. Since my top would flair slightly I would look more full. I laughed. It is always interesting what different societies find attractive. She told us it would be 35,000 shillings each. With the cost of that plus the fabric I am getting a custom shirt and skirt for $35.
I decided to walk home. On the way I home I stopped to get water from the cantine outside Salams Shield. The vendor said he had seen Eliza on a boda then night before, and told me to tell her she had not been safe, and should not do that again. I don’t think she will. On the walk there is a small river. People often get water there, and some people clean their bodas there. Today I saw one of the boda drivers I saw often. He had offered Eliza and I a ride last Sunday when we were on our walk when we had been talking to the boy with the bike. The boy introduced him as his brother, and when we said we were fine walking he drove on. I have seen him multiple times in passing since then and we have waved most of them. When I saw him washing his boda he waved and I stopped to say hi. We made introductions, and he asked where I was from. I told him I liked the tiger sticker on his boda. He smiled then I continued walking.
I had been home long enough for me to show Eliza my skirt and turn on my computer, before Mama Agnes put us in orange aprons and brought us to serve food at the secondary school up the road. Eliza and Agnes’ said Praid G-d Catering on the back, but for some stroke of divine ironic luck, the one I had grabbed off the pile had not. At lunch people took MASSIVE portions of food, and then came back for seconds. We came home for lunch, fed the cats, and on the way back the 19 yr. old stopped to talk to some friends that were girls. We heard mzungu and then a lot of laughing. Eliza and I walked away upset, and I commented on how it was rude to not wait until we were at least 15 meters away before she started laughing. We grabbed materials from the place then headed home. When we got back it was five, and I have been writing down stuff in my jornal since then. It is now 6:50. Once Eliza gets back from getting water we are going to watch a movie. Tomorrow we are going back to church. Hooray for the weekend.
