Today was filled with some fun times to cap off the end of our trip. This morning we woke up and ate breakfast like normal. Then, we headed to the Village Market. This is a complete cultural experience for our team. The Village Market is where vendors who handcraft different novelties come and set up shops. It's basically like a Kenyan version of a flea market or a yard sale. There are about 50-75 different vendors set up selling everything from carved wooden giraffes to hand painted tapestries to ostrich eggs. Everything has to do with Africa and Kenya though.
The Market is all operated on a bargaining system so you barter with each individual seller for the price that you want to pay. For instance, you might be looking at a small soapstone hippo and ask how they are. At that point, they will write down a price on a piece of paper. Most will start VERY high like 1500 Kenyan shillings. Then, you offer your price. We told our team ahead of time to decide what they wanted to pay for it and then work up to it. In this instance, I would start at 100 shillings in hopes to pay around 300. The sellers mark everything up extremely because they know most people who don't know how to barter will pay what they ask. It's a fun and stressful day for most.
We spent the morning just walking around and observing what we wanted to buy. We would come back after lunch and then purchase whatever we were looking for. About 10:30 we headed to the bus and loaded up to go to the tea farm. The tea farm is an awesome oasis up in the Limuru area of Nairobi. It is where a lot of tea is harvested throughout the year. A lady by the name of Fiona manages and runs this now small tea farm. Her family used to own about 350 acres and now they only own about 35 and only grow tea on about 2.
This is a picturesque place if I have ever seen one! It's crazy beautiful! We went on a tour and then sat down for lunch on the lawn. After an awesome lunch, we bought tea straight from the farm and then loaded the bus. We then headed back to the Village Market. Most of us went shopping for people who supported our trip and our loved ones back home. After about two hours of bartering our way through the market, we loaded back up and headed to Heart House.
Once there, we ate our last dinner and then it was time for arguably the most anticipated mission trip awards show in East Africa...The Scottys! They happen ever two years as our team comes to Nairobi. It was a glamorous event and the best one yet. This years event was unprecedented with a total of 31 awards being handed out to each team member. It was an incredible evening of fashion and celebs.
After the Scottys, we packed up our stuff and loaded the bus to head to the airport. We arrived about 1 hour later and began the journey home! I will try to update you as we travel depending on the availability of internet!
Love you all!! Especially you Mallory!!!
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