Day 50: October 24: Market Day in the Village

Today we awoke to our first morning in the village. As it was rather late (8am) a plate of pork and plantains were thrust in front of us by Hellen, who had transformed herself from city women to village mother in Khan ga garb overnight. Immediately after, we were put to work (sort of), wrapped in a Khanga and given a bucket of water and slop for Alicia to put on her head for the pigs. The short walk in the forest to the pig pens was hilarious.

As we waited for Hellen to bathe, we took a stroll around the plot. If Eric hadn't been with us we would have been utterly lost as everything looked the same. Which was beautiful.

Walking back towards the house Hellen looked worried. We had been gone all of twenty minutes and she thought we were lost in the forest. We (secretly) got in a good laugh.

We got in the car, crossing our fingers that it would make it. We made what would be one of the car's last rides (you'll see) to the market. It was conveniently market day. It was like nothing wed ever seen. So full of life and colors. Hopefully our pictures (if you see them) will help describe the beautiful chaos. First order of business was to buy a goat. We had a choice of an indoor goat and an outdoor goat. Indoor ones are tastier (we couldn't tell) but more expensive because they are fed soda ash and grass. Then we grabbed some carrots, potatoes, water, and a red Khanga for Karla. When we approached the car and looked in the back, we didn't see the goat. Just as Alicia asked where he had gone, there was a blood curdling scream and banging from over our heads. Over the edge of the roof popped out the head of the goat as it struggled against the ropes. So what did we do? We took a picture and carried on our merry way.

When we arrived back at the house, we had some spare time as Hellen busied herself with something useful and the boys (Apo and Eric) wandered off. So, we gathered the many children who had been staring at us from around the village, fascinated with the white Muzungus. We decided to teach them duck duck goose (or moose as some said). It was quite fun and they caught on rather quickly. Before long it was time to peel plantains. While peeling, Hellen yelled at me for throwing a peel at Alicia. It went like this, "Karla! Hellen! Karla! Hellen, what!?" Apparently they stain. I would soon find out first hand as my shirt acquired some mysterious brown spots later. Karma. After we were through, our hands were so filthy and caked with dirt, that they had to be scrubbed and scrubbed (with a corn cob no less). Eric insisted on helping, and so Alicia ended up having her hands thoroughly and meticulously scrubbed. I watched and laughed.

While we were peeling, Apo had slaughtered the goat (right after I'd fed it some grass to make it happy for as long as possible). We walked over and saw the head laying there. He happily pointed out the different parts to us. We had been prepped by the slaughter houses in the markets in Zanzibar, so we were only disappointed we hadn't seen him kill it (we would get more than we bargained for the following day).

Dinner started with goat's blood soup cooked with carrots and intestines. Alicia was brave enough to actually eat the intestines. It was all Karla could do just drink it. We badly needed a Safari beer. But we did it. Yet by the time the second course came along, I, Karla tried to eat the meat, but mostly ugali/polenta was all I could force down. I was happy to give my portion to the boys/men (there were five of them). A grandmother, Patricia and a 102 year old grand father (Baba) lived there as well. Its hard to know who else lived there.

We were tuckered out and we soon settled into our surprisingly cozy bed. As we were on the mountain side, it got rather cold at night and it was nice to have the two of us to keep each other warm.
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