Fruits of Malaba

This weekend my co-worker took me to Malaba. I felt like a true Kenyan heading just across the border to Malaba, Uganda to pick up some cheap foodstuffs and fabrics. I even sat beside a woman on the matatu who was going to buy body sprays to sell at a profit, of course, in Bungoma.

Now then, I only felt this way after I realized we were going into Malaba, Uganda. There is also a Malaba, Kenya. Due to this confusion, I actually forgot my passport back in Bungoma. Apparently, they usually don't stop mzungus (white people) heading into Uganda, but it was my lucky day to be caught by the customs officer. After a lengthy lecture about how I was doing something terribly illegal, I had to take the matatu (basically 15 seater bus that usually holds 20-25 people) back to Bungoma for my passport. At this point, I realized I'm definitely not part of the East African community even if I'm living like a Kenyan.

After all that hassle, I went shopping. Malaba was basically a sleepy little town with one street full of shops. Centi fitted me out with some African garb. I'm now the proud owner of a long, green dress, black sandals and fabric to be made up into a proper african outfit. I just got into work and got lots of compliments on my new African digs. I think my favourite was that I look "yummy." I feel pretty good about looking "yummy."

She also helped me buy food for the next month of so. I bought some rice, ground nuts and green grams. Ground nuts are a type of local nut that everyone eats. They taste a bit like peanuts, but better. We also had ground nut stew at the restaurant. I really like the ground nut stew. Centi promised to show me how to make it. So hopefully I'll be posting a recipe for ground nut stew sometime soon. Green grams are a type of bean. I'm looking forward to green grams and rice sometime this week.