Kenya 2023: Chapter 2 – City Errands

After a day of travel which included being stuck in a metal tube with 230 other people for half a day, we found the showers rejuvenating. We were staying at the Four Points hotel at Jomo Kenyata International Airport. It’s an incredibly American hotel, so there is some comfort in that. Lunch on the patio consisted of Coastal fish curry, minute steak, rice, fruit, and passion custard (amazing).

Our goal for the day was to head into downtown Nairobi to pick up SD cards for one of Greg’s cameras and try our hand at beating the hawkers in the Maasai Market. The hotel has a host of vehicles and drivers for tourists. You can pay for a ride to where you need and choose to have them pick you up, or pay extra to have them wait for you. Our driver drove the absolute balls off this car as we made our way downtown. We had a near collision with a dump truck and then she traded paint with another car in a roundabout. She continued on her way without stopping. Cameras Africa is located on Kenyata Ave and I provided directions (in Swahili) to her along the way. After securing the SD cards and confirming that they were not a knock-off brand, we walked the four blocks to the market.

Last time, we had our driver come into the market with us, but this time we were solo, so there was a much deeper sense of awareness of our surroundings. We stuck out like, well, two white Americans in an east African city. We were accosted by no fewer than five people in our short walk, the last of which was a short, well-built man named Jospat. He directed us into the market and became our hawker. He immediately wanted to trade for the carabiners on Ed’s backpack. We followed him through the gate into the shopping mecca that is the market.