Souvenir shopping

     We spent Friday afternoon doing a little souvenir shopping in Nairobi - on Fridays they have a Masai Market set up in one of the shopping plazas in the capital, and we heard it was definitely a place to check out.  It was a bit overwhelming actually! Lots of vendors with lots of wares (many selling the same thing). 
     The name of the game in this shopping experience was haggling. The thing is since you are a Western tourist, they tend to mark the price quite a bit. So, you just have to barter a bit (and pretty much still get a bit overcharged, but not quite so bad) and come to an agreement. The tough part is as soon as you express any interest in an item at a stand, the seller comes straight over to begin selling to you. This made it a bit tough to browse, so we just had to work hard to do a big loop of the place and then sit down and figure out what we wanted to buy from where.
     Fortunately, the market is attached to an upscale "mall" of sorts and there was a playground for the kids to play on so we could take turns walking the market and purchasing items. I am not a haggler by any means, but it was not as bad as I had thought it would be. Bill (true to form) managed to have an eye for the most expensive items and kept returning with things I didn't know he was going to buy!  They were worth it though...
      Sadly, I won't be posting any of the pics of the stuff we bought (yet) - don't want to spoil the surprise for those we bought for!
     The rest of the week has been less eventful. I have not been posting much because there really hasn't been anything major to write about. Bill continues to press on at the hospital and the kids and I have been poking around at home and trying to get outside when the weather has been decent. So my apologies for the lack of posts!