Malindi Local Customs

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Kenyans love to trade, selling everything whats possible and impossible to sell. Some of them will bring their shops right in front of your doorstep, if you give them the adress. Most of them sell goods for very small comission, serving some big boss who stands in behind. They will never get rich, all they want is to feed the family and survive.
Everywhere around you could see rubber stamp makers, even at the very busy street of Nairobi. They will make any stamp one is ordering, even if it is for one inexcisting company or accosiation. Be very carefull if some street sellers offering certified goods of any kind because in most cases the stamp which could be seen is most probably fake.

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Market place is artery of every small place in Kenya and so it is in Malindi too. I like to stroll around of the markets, wherever I am going, but it is in particularly interesting place to visit when in Africa. Kenyan markets are very pitoresque, very vivid and always busy. People buy or sell here but it is not the only motiff to visit it, market place is meeting point aswell.
Here one can buy everything he/she needs, food, cloths, shoes, furniture, weeds, drugs, guns, maybe even atomic bomb, you never know all you nee is to ask.

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This was my first encounter with the Kenyan school kids and it happened right at Gedi. I can't say who was more inquisitive regarding each other but it was mutual. All kids wearing school uniforms which is usually made of a very vivid colours. They were disciplined listening to their teacher but it seemed to have pay more attention watching us. Later on their teacher told me some of kids never had chance to be so close to the whites and having chances to talk with.
After sight tour kids were much more relaxed while eating their sandwiches and playing game which we call "dama". It was improvised on an wooden tablet and using bottle taps instead of figures.

Mnazi is the wine created naturally when the shoot that is about to form a new coconut is chopped off and over the end of the shoot a container is placed to collect the sap that is produced. For many months when I was staying in the are near Watamu I was living next door to a young chap who's profession was a mnazi tapper. Twice a day he would shin up a coconut tree and pour the collected sap into a container. These trees would be scattered around the area. If a tree was used for tapping no proper fruit would form on the rest of thre palm.

Nothing else is done to the sap it is just sold as it comes from the tree usually by the litre bottle. I used to buy 3 bottles and that was enough to get me off my face. The traditional way of drinking it is by pouring some into a gourd and then drunk through a straw (mboko) with coconut fibres on the bottom to stop all the small dudus (insects) getting sucked up the straw. I found it a lot easier to pour it into a glass through a tea strainer easy peasy.

In December 2008 the going rate for a bottle of mnazi was 30 bob.

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I was in particularly fascinated with this village boyz, their instruments look almost primitive and very simple and yet, they performed a very good music. The rhytm section was just perfect and am sure one cannot learn it, they were born with it having that rhytm in their blood.
Couldn't find out why those women with kids stand behind the band, must be some kind of support or perhaps they are just family.

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I am not quite sure wheter this tribe belongs to Giriamas or Teitas, both of them are pretty small communities situated in the southern part of Kenya nearby the ocean. Teitas are known for their women who even nowadays practice topless.
Anyway, the welcoming dances were almost spectacular and we enjoyed alot.
This people have rhytm in their blood, no doubt about that. I had chance to watch two of their performances and each one was different, with lots of improvisations, although the basic moves were always the same.

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It was bright sunny day and pretty much hot but still, something was wrong and I couldn't get what it was. Than I realized, not many people were on the beach and almost nobody in the water. OK, the sea-water wasn't very calm but the waves were pretty low and enjoyable for swimming and diving. In such a day and under those conditions the beach resorts in my country would be crowded by the swimmers.
I've asked Italian lady, bar-holder on the beach, why locals do not enjoy in swimming and she told me coz not much of them are able to.

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The village is very small, no more than 15 or so huts and looks poor, however, the people there is relaxed, friendly and full of joy. There are so many kids in the village and all of them are very beautiful. It's amazing how big and beautiful their dark eyes are.