An eight o’clock breakfast at the Sportsview was followed by catching up on emails and so forth, then by shopping at 11. Then lunch at 2. Sounds restful, doesn’t it?
Yako supermarket was first on the list. Our first encounter was with the guard who insisted that we check (leave) our small backpacks at the door. That’s not on the list of things that make me happy. A wee bit of negotiation (polite refusal) and we were admitted with them on our backs. All we managed to buy was some toothpaste, laundry detergent, and cookies for ourselves and toothpicks for the Watafutaji widows. The only other thing we got was sticker shock.
The next stop was to get a Yu scratch card for Maureen to use in her phone because they have much cheaper international calling rates (2.49 shillings or about 3 cents per minute to the US) than Safaricom. She would find out later that the Yu SIM card I had purchased in 2011 for the phone was no longer valid and she would have to replace it for a cost of 50 shillings (gasp). She’s now ready for virtually unlimited dialing to the US.
Across the street at one of the wholesalers we normally frequent (call him wholesaler “A”) we bought 48 big bars of laundry soap, 48 bottles of cooking oil, 50 kg of rice, 48 cans of jam, and 100 Obama Pops.
Crossing the street again and walking up the road got us to another wholesaler (“B”) we also normally use. There we got 48 packets of salt and 96 jars of Tip Top (Vaseline).
We carried this to wholesaler “A” to hold for us while we continued. Nobody has matches! A short walk down the same side of the street to a new wholesaler “C” got us to the sugar palace. There we bought 100 kg of Mumias sugar in 2 kg packets at 175 shillings per kg. That’s almost double the price of sugar since exactly one year ago. We had it carried to wholesaler “A” for short term storage with the rest of the stuff.
Woops, no biscuits yet. Those are across the street at wholesaler “D”. Four boxes containing 288 biscuits each completed our list (except matches).
It was time for a light lunch for Maureen and Sandy while I headed to the bank to get money to pay for all this. After getting 40,000 shillings (about $450) from the ATM, I met them at the lunch place and went off to pay for our goods while they went in search of matches. They found them at Yako, where we started, and then walked back to the hotel. I paid the bill for all the stuff at wholesaler “A” and they put it in their pickup truck and generously delivered it and me to the hotel - while Sandy and Maureen walked there!
Total cost, 46,666 shillings. It would have cost 2/3 of that at most in 2011. Not so restful after all walking around in the hot sun. Time for a nap.
Tomorrow we go to Kasavai to meet and celebrate with the widows and children and distribute the gifts of blankets, toys, food, etc. that we either brought from the US or purchased here.
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