Nimebaki (i'm left behind)

So this was Alex is Kisumu with some of the Onyango family. Now Alex has officially crossed over to "the other side", back in SC and not in Kenya. Before he left we went to the Masaii market in Nairobi, which is the biggest street bazaar in East Africa. He spent all his cash before even getting 10 vendors in. The trick is not to look too long at anything or people will do anything to get you to buy it. I got sold a soapstone dish I didn't want, but the lady offered 150 Kenyan shillings which is about $2. And it was hand carved and painted. The same thing would sell for no less then $20 at World Market, because it is very attractive. I just didnt want it because it's heavy and I have only a big backpack to carry all my stuff in. But there is so many vendors and not enough clients so she justed wanted to sell something. "Please mama, i haven't sold anything today yet and I'm hungry". It could have been a lie but it worked.

You get sucked into the bargaining atmosphere here. I always feel really good after bargaining someone down to nearly nothing for something worth a ton back home. I mean I think I should pay what its worth but then I couldn't afford any of it. And the money wouldn't actually necessarily even get to the artist. Even the women who got $2 for the bowl was probably at least the 3rd person to get money for it. The actual artist got maybe 40 shillings for it (50 cents), the owner of the soapstone mine got maybe 50 cents from the trader, and then the trader gave it to that women to sell at the Masaii market, so that overall she might have gotten 100 shillings or just over a dollar for this bowl. Crazy.

Kisii, Kenya is the only place in the world with soapstone and I don't think it will have it for long because it is rapidly mined, carved, and sold at rock-bottom prices.