... which of course, I forgot to take pictures of again!
Because all week, I'm living and working on this little compound, sort of in the middle of nowhere, on the weekends, it's really important to get OUT! There's a great guy, J, who is happy to drive us places (though, of course, we pay for the mileage!), and he's a hoot, to boot. So we have a good time driving around town with J. Today, though, he got a bit lost... so the mileage we have to pay is going to be a bit on the steep side... but alas, that's the price you have to pay to get off the compound once in a while and get a decent cup of coffee.
Today, our expedition was to Village Market. It's not the "village market", which is what my buddy A was imagining when she first heard about it. She was thinking dirt ground, little market stalls with piles of used clothes, piles of tomatoes, buckets of onions and bunches of bananas sort of village market.
Imagine her surprise when she walked into Nairobi's Village Market!
Of course, I forgot to take any pictures, but here are a few from the Internet, to give you the idea:
Yeah, so basically, it's a big fancy mall, in the area of town where all the embassy and UN folks live. It really is just like being at home. There's a movie theatre, a bowling alley, a huge grocery store (called Nakumatt), which is just like any Safeway at home, not to mention lovely restaurants, cafes, boutiques and a foodcourt, complete with fountains and waterfalls. Not like any village market I've ever seen, that's for sure!
It was quite nice to have a little "holiday" for the afternoon. After munching on an almond filled croissant and a latte, I window shopped with my friend A, and then stocked up on snacks and other necessities (like real coffee!) for the week. Once all that shopping was done, it was off to the food court for some real pizza. YUM! I can still feel where the cheese burned the roof of my mouth... but it was worth it, so delicious!
I must admit that it is nice to have these places that feel like "home" once in a while. As much as I love Africa, and I do, there's just something about feeling at home that a girl needs once in a while.
Once back to our place, I had some interesting conversation with some of the students here. The contrast between their life experiences and the mall that I just came from... they really are completely different worlds. Coming back from eating pizza and lattes, then hearing someone's story of how he had to flee his home during a war over a cup of tea, is just a very, well, odd way to live. But it really is a privilege to get to live in this place, and to somehow share with these folks in all that they've been through (and man, some of them have stories that you would not believe), is really amazing. And yet it's a precarious balance - how to share these burdens with African friends, with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and yet still enjoy and find refreshment from things from my own cultural background. I can only pray that I get it right some of the time!
No comments:
Post a Comment