Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 April 2004 14:12:39
The right kind of bananas is very important, and I found them in the market the other day. They are small and sweet and the flesh is much firmer than regular bananas. Also they are yellower and curvier than the regular bananas you get here - I expect the bananas in Europe are trained by a sergeant major to grow curvy, and injected with dye.
So I went back to get some more yesterday and, shock, Patrick (the market stall holder) didn't have any! But he showed me the green ones under the bench and assured me they'd be yellow today - seemed unlikely, but they were. So I had nice bananas with my chapati for lunch today.
Here are some things I've noticed driving around in the last couple of days:
Matatus (minibuses) tend to have interesting and trendy slogans on them - well, I knew that - I'm always looking out for new ones. Today I spotted "Beckam". Yes, spelled like that. Generally the slogans are pop-related (e.g. Who Let the Dogs Out) or religious (In God We Trust), but sometimes they are an identification with a powerful figure (Osama bin Laden) or concept (Viagra, Scud)...
There are quite a few Muslims on the coast and the school girls tend to wear a headscarf in addition to regular school uniform, while some of their mothers will wear the full black gown and veil. The girls tend to wear a fairly loose or longer uniform, and a scarf that covers their hair only. However we saw a girl the other day in a fairly normal form of secondary school uniform i.e. short, tight skirt and short-sleeved, tight blouse - with a full veil, including a gauze part over her face. As my colleague said, well, as long as you've got your hijab on, you're modest, aren't you???
This morning I very kindly stopped for a mother hen who was giving her brood a lesson in crossing the road. Normally I just sail on by but the chicks were quite slow, and I was afraid it would be messy if I ran over one. The dogs at the house where I'm staying are the worst offenders in traffic sense - they seem to think that cars are like people or bicycles and they can run in front of them with no ill effects, and indeed that cars must like playing with them. The new dogs (I think they are inherited from someone else) are worse than the older dog - but they are a good influence on her in some ways - previously she would never have gone out of the house when told, but now she happily follows the other two.