Retail therapy

We’d been in Matoso for 3 weeks when we realized that we hadn’t spent a shilling since we left Nairobi. That’s not natural! Add to that the fact that our food supplies were depleted and we were sick of rice and beans and you have a great reason to go to town. So, on Saturday Paul and I joined 4 co workers for a trip into the closest “big” city- Migori. We met at 8 AM so we could get our errands done in town and head back before the usual big afternoon rains started. The trip takes an hour, over rutted dirt roads but the scenery was beautiful. The fields are intensely green and people were out planting or grazing their animals and enjoying the sunny day.

The city of Migori isn’t a city in the truest sense of the word. We heard there are 600,000 people in the district but other than basic amenities like gas stations, post office, hospital, and government offices it’s entirely lacking in places to shop (as you can see from the photos). The 2 grocery stores were sparsely stocked with canned goods and only the most basic food items. Tea was available, coffee was not. Canned baked beans could be found but no dry beans. Milk- yes; eggs-no. No to cheese and fresh produce. No to veggies, yes to peanut butter.

Paul and I found very little that was on our shopping list so our colleagues took us to the market area where individuals were selling the limited items that they grow themselves. One seller had only beans, another only tomatoes. Several were selling the sakumawiki that is similar to collard greens and eaten most days by Kenyans. We’ve learned to like it too so we bought 2 bags full, already cut into thin strips and ready for sautéing. We bought 8 green oranges for 40 Ksh (about 70 Ksh/$1) ), one butternut squash for 30 Ksh, large bags of both lentils and red beans for 300 Ksh, a pineapple for 100Ksh etc. We didn’t find anyone with carrots, mushrooms, or zucchini. Must be out of season but after several hours of shopping we had a small selection of fresh produce- enough to get us through at least a week.

The Kenyans who live near Lake Victoria have a limited but healthy diet. They eat a polenta-like corn meal mush with sakumawiki and fish nearly every meal except breakfast. If you remember, that consists of sweet chai and fried bread dough. The diet is supplemented by rice and beans and whatever fruits or vegetables are in season. It’s healthy enough and varied enough that we rarely see malnourished kids. That’s not the case just a dozen km from here at our sister clinic in Ochuna. The patients are mostly from Tanzania and lack the protein that fish provides. The staff there sees children who have kwashiorkor- malnutrition from protein deficiency or marasmus- malnutrition from insufficient calories.

I thought we’d have no trouble finding fresh fruits and veggies in the area but since nothing is shipped in, we can buy only what is in season. In our little town of Matoso we can buy tomatoes, scallions, sakumawiki and bananas. Not much else. The storeroom in our cook house is well stocked with soups, pasta, condiments, canned veggies, boxed milk, juice and Tusker beer. For everything else there’s a big grocery store 6 hours away in Kisumu. Someone usually goes there every 3 months or so. I think I said this before but it’s interesting to live lives that are so intertwined with nature that our diet reflects the season. I know there’s a big movement in the US to eat locally and let me say this- it isn’t as easy as it sounds but if you’re willing to compromise on variety, you’ll never eat another hot house tomato.

Starry, starry night

We’ve had 3 days without rain and the fields around our area are just starting to dry out a bit. On Tuesday night the sky was clear of clouds for the first time since we arrived. There’s very little ambient light so the sky was filled with millions of stars. We stood outside and looked at the heavens, trying to identify the constellations. The night guard joined us and was amazed to see the stars through binoculars for the first time. In the middle of the night I woke up and went outside. There was a string of twinkling lights out on the lake from the fishermen in dhows and millions of stars in an otherwise pitch black sky. It was magical.

There's a troubling new night noise. Since the rains, frogs are appearing everywhere. Tadpoles are in puddles, tiny frogs are clinging to the walls in our house and huge toads are clogging the ditches. At night they all make different sounds but there's one that gives me the willies. It sounds exactly like the violins in "Psycho" at the moment Norman was stabbing Janet Leigh in the shower. You know what I'm talking about? Some breed of frog makes that exact sound and it scares me every time I hear it.