“That’s alright. He’s bringing a cot.”
“He can share the room with our driver.”
“What tribe is he?”
“Meru.”
“Will they get along?”
“Well they have to, it’s Christmas” she said, chuckling.
A conversation Chuka overheard:
“I hear the Portuguese are trying to come here.”
“Good luck. These people hardly speak English. How are they going to do with Portuguese?”
We were at the Christmas Craft Show in Nanyuki which was swarming with mzungus. The whole place had an underlying tone of snobbery and a slight twinge of self-righteous superiority. I felt out of place and didn’t want to be there. It was almost like we’d traveled back to the colonial period. Some of the same beliefs seemed to subtly exist.
We’d left our friend’s place early in the morning to meet three of the Makena women at the craft show and drop off some products I’d driven to town for them. After helping them set up, I gave them a photo album I’d put together of their products as a sort of Christmas present.
The workshop manager called me the next day to make sure I’d made it to Nairobi OK. I asked her how the show went and she said they sold over 60,000/= worth of merchandise. Also, a number of people said, after receiving one of Makena’s new brochures, that they’d visit Makena’s shop in January!