Bargaining in Nakuru Town
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
After leaving the Baboon Cliffs, we left the animal reserve area and headed into Nakuru Town.
As we drove through a busy intersection of town, we stopped to let Jeff, Evelyn, and Vicky hop off the truck to help Pete shop for groceries and supplies at the Ghilani Butchery . They are "cook's helpers" today.
Everybody in our group takes turns helping with all the daily jobs that need doing. We have a list posted in the truck that tells us what days we'll be doing dishes, chopping vegetables, sweeping out the truck at night, etc. It's a very fair system and nobody seems to mind doing their share.
Once we are parked in the heart of town, I volunteer with some of the others for the first shift of Truck Duty. Basically, we'll stay on board for a little while to make sure everybody's belongings are safe. We truck guards spend some time chatting with the local merchants who have gathered outside to show off their wares.
The local market is located only a few yards away and so a big vehicle full of potential customers is quite a draw. The merchants hold up necklaces and cloth banners, bracelets and hand-painted cards. They pass the merchandise up into the truck so we can better admire it all. There are actually some things I quite like and so I promise to come shopping later at the tables of Vincent and Joseph and John.
They are a friendly, talkative lot.
One of them gives me his simple business card with his name and his motto on it : " Strive to Survive" .
When Jeff and the others return from the supply run and have finished stowing everything away in the lockers and overhead shelves, Jeff and I leave truck duty to the next shift and go for a walk around the market. Wayne tells us that Nakuru is one of the nicer markets we'll have a chance to visit so this might be a good time to pick up small souvenirs.
But there is not a lot of extra space on board the truck. Our storage lockers are tiny. Unlike other trips we've been on, the emphasis on shopping is rather small. I'm glad of this, but I still have my eye on some small items today.
And also I am looking forward to haggling with the vendors. My time as a merchant myself at the flea markets back home has made me fond of the process.
I didn't haggle very hard for my first purchase, a bracelet made of wood, white seeds, and black beads. At 100 Kenyan shillings, or about $1.50, I was happy with the price.
But I bargained harder for my three little olive-wood animals: a rhino, buffalo, and an elephant.
The merchant would scribble a number on the palm of his hand in ballpoint pen, then I would make a counter-offer, and then he would scribble again. The number on his hand got lower and lower until we shook on 350 shilling for the three animals. That's down from the initial price of 1400 shillings for two of them.
At another merchant's table at the other end of town, I added a zebra to my figurine collection and sealed the deal by offering a pen. I remember this trick from Morocco--if you throw in a pen or plastic comb, it's just as good as offering cash sometimes. One of the girls in our group bartered a trashy British tabloid in one of her deals today.
I also bought some home-made banana-leaf cards in Nakuru. It sounds like I purchased a lot but all of it fit in a very small space luckily.
Jeff and I also walked a few blocks away from the market to explore the town . The buildings are square and modern and unlovely here, but I liked photographing the hand-painted signs in front of businesses. They seem so different from the plastic and neon world of storefronts at home.
The streets were dusty and we saw a lot of litter, but hibiscus bushes and the colourful clothes women wore brought a splash of beauty to the town.
While we were having our pleasant walk, Jen and Jeff's mom were using their time in Nakuru to check and send emails from an internet cafe and to relax at a tea shop.
Jeff remembered to tell me that while shopping at the butchery ( seems to be another name for grocery stores where you can buy meat), he noticed that one of the other customers, an old man, had enormous stretched-out earlobes. He wondered at the size of earrings that one could put in a hole that size.
After leaving the Baboon Cliffs, we left the animal reserve area and headed into Nakuru Town.
As we drove through a busy intersection of town, we stopped to let Jeff, Evelyn, and Vicky hop off the truck to help Pete shop for groceries and supplies at the Ghilani Butchery . They are "cook's helpers" today.
Everybody in our group takes turns helping with all the daily jobs that need doing. We have a list posted in the truck that tells us what days we'll be doing dishes, chopping vegetables, sweeping out the truck at night, etc. It's a very fair system and nobody seems to mind doing their share.
Once we are parked in the heart of town, I volunteer with some of the others for the first shift of Truck Duty. Basically, we'll stay on board for a little while to make sure everybody's belongings are safe. We truck guards spend some time chatting with the local merchants who have gathered outside to show off their wares.
The local market is located only a few yards away and so a big vehicle full of potential customers is quite a draw. The merchants hold up necklaces and cloth banners, bracelets and hand-painted cards. They pass the merchandise up into the truck so we can better admire it all. There are actually some things I quite like and so I promise to come shopping later at the tables of Vincent and Joseph and John.
They are a friendly, talkative lot.One of them gives me his simple business card with his name and his motto on it : " Strive to Survive" .
When Jeff and the others return from the supply run and have finished stowing everything away in the lockers and overhead shelves, Jeff and I leave truck duty to the next shift and go for a walk around the market. Wayne tells us that Nakuru is one of the nicer markets we'll have a chance to visit so this might be a good time to pick up small souvenirs.
But there is not a lot of extra space on board the truck. Our storage lockers are tiny. Unlike other trips we've been on, the emphasis on shopping is rather small. I'm glad of this, but I still have my eye on some small items today.
And also I am looking forward to haggling with the vendors. My time as a merchant myself at the flea markets back home has made me fond of the process.
I didn't haggle very hard for my first purchase, a bracelet made of wood, white seeds, and black beads. At 100 Kenyan shillings, or about $1.50, I was happy with the price.
But I bargained harder for my three little olive-wood animals: a rhino, buffalo, and an elephant.
The merchant would scribble a number on the palm of his hand in ballpoint pen, then I would make a counter-offer, and then he would scribble again. The number on his hand got lower and lower until we shook on 350 shilling for the three animals. That's down from the initial price of 1400 shillings for two of them.
At another merchant's table at the other end of town, I added a zebra to my figurine collection and sealed the deal by offering a pen. I remember this trick from Morocco--if you throw in a pen or plastic comb, it's just as good as offering cash sometimes. One of the girls in our group bartered a trashy British tabloid in one of her deals today.
I also bought some home-made banana-leaf cards in Nakuru. It sounds like I purchased a lot but all of it fit in a very small space luckily.
Jeff and I also walked a few blocks away from the market to explore the town . The buildings are square and modern and unlovely here, but I liked photographing the hand-painted signs in front of businesses. They seem so different from the plastic and neon world of storefronts at home.
The streets were dusty and we saw a lot of litter, but hibiscus bushes and the colourful clothes women wore brought a splash of beauty to the town.
While we were having our pleasant walk, Jen and Jeff's mom were using their time in Nakuru to check and send emails from an internet cafe and to relax at a tea shop.
Jeff remembered to tell me that while shopping at the butchery ( seems to be another name for grocery stores where you can buy meat), he noticed that one of the other customers, an old man, had enormous stretched-out earlobes. He wondered at the size of earrings that one could put in a hole that size.
posted by Spider Girl | 1:17 PM
1 Comments:
I dread bargaining, but I do like traditional markets and it's nice being in a place where the dollar goes far. ;-) Great stories!
Post a Comment
<< Home