 A boat in Lake Victoria Kiswahili word of the week: baridi. Baridi means cold, and comes from the Arabic word barid, or براد. - Arabic for cold. Kiswahili is an adaption of African coastal tribal languages mixed with Arabic, learned from Arabic sea-merchants who would come to the coast to trade with Africans. In the Kisumu, it is always a good idea to ask for a baridi Fanta, Coke or water. If not, your drink will arrive warm from the heat. This short week was filled with cultural experiences, celebrations, and a lot of bargaining. Saturday I had the pleasure of spending the day at Taste of Kisumu with mzungu friends from my compound. Although the event didn't have many guests, Gloria, Katja, Joshua, Wilson and his friends and I had a fantastic time. The event was held at a resort on Lake Victoria, and hosted local food, crafts, local music, and a fantastic view of the lake. We danced under the stars together to traditional African music. Kenyans can move! Unfortunately, the loud music shied the hippopotamuses away from grazing on the shoreline. I am happy to say that I am getting much more comfortable and much better at bargaining. I was able to score a pair of beautiful leather hand beaded sandal, a couple of bracelets and a cute stuft-African-animal-mobile. On Easter Sunday, my friends Amy, Julianne, and I headed to Kibuye Market to score some fabric with my favorite fabric salesman in Kisumu. We came away with some beautiful pieces, and will be heading to the tailor later this week to have dresses, skirts and tops made. I bought some beautiful high quality fabric I'm hoping to have made into a dress. Unfortunately, I'm changing tailors. The beautiful blue and red fabric I shared with you a few weeks ago turned into a disaster of a dress-set. It's difficult to tell in the pictures, but the patterns do not line up, the top shows a bit too much of my "assets" and the finish work is simply bad. There are incomplete seams, and large holes where they missed stitching the fabric together. After visiting the shop three times for the same dress, with no progress made to fix seams and holes, I decided it was time to try someone new. I keep forgetting: I'm in Africa. This week I will be going to my work-colleagues tailor, whose work I've already seen, and comes highly recommended. I'm going to first give them some inexpensive fabric and a simple pattern, to see how everything comes out. It should be fun! |  A live chicken, in a plastic bag, at coat-check/luggage check.  Serena and her Amarillo Birthday Milkshake  Julianne and Angela  Serena and Amy  Wilson and Serena  Kisumu Beach Resort, where they held Taste of Kisumu  Traditional Luo musicians   View, from Taste of Kisumu   The beautiful green plant is a weed, and is a sign that the water is polluted. It makes fishing impossible.  This this band and their lead singer's voice was awesome.  Congo line at Taste of Kisumu  Julianne, checking out the goods at Kibuye Market  Amy, scoring on some beautiful cotton and gold print fabric  Wax-print cotton-blend fabrics  A traditional Masai blanket, I scored in Masai Mara.  It's even more beautiful in person.  Front side of the dress-set that didn't turn out so well  Back side of the dress-set |
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