Weekend shopping, braiding, eating

Ishirini na sita, 26 Nov.

Fun weekend. Saturday morning Michelle, Gloria and I went out to the Toi (spelling?) Market in Kibera, which is a huge 2nd hand market where clothes are really cheap. Got really muddy and got quite a bit of stuff, like 6 new shirts for about $8 total, some used books to read-Roald Dahl, some Shakespeare, Mark Twain and a few Kenyan authors. All of our birthdays are coming right in a row-we’ve already had Rachel’s, Patrick’s, Annie’s, and this weekend was Piper’s, next week is Wills’, the following week is Erin’s.
So since it was Piper’s birthday a bunch of us came over to her house in the evening and made a fantastic dinner. We’d found actual corn chips at one of the grocery stores (the one in Karen, where all the white people live) and made nachos with guacamole, cheese, homemade salsa, I was in heaven. Then for the main course we made fettuccine alfredo, plus Piper’s househelp made chapati and dengu, which is most of our favorite Kenyan meal. Then her parents walked in, home from work with all kinds of soda and juice for us. It was a fantastic filling meal, Piper’s family is way cool, she has younger host siblings and her parents are really friendly and chatty. Then later we went out to Westlands.
Sunday morning I got my hair braided-it’s about 2 feet longer than it was before and perhaps the coolest my hair has ever looked (and it’s blonder-the hair extensions are blondish). And now I hardly ever have to wash my hair! Yay! It took about 3 hours to do, the woman who did it, Naomi really seemed to like me and she offered to teach me how to braid in Kenyatta Market, where she works. It’s heavy having hair this long, but I’m used to it by now. Sunday afternoon we went out for a family lunch, the first real family lunch we’ve all had together and I found out during it that it was all in my honor since we hadn’t really done this since I’ve been here.