Saturdays at Site

I thoroughly enjoy Saturdays at site. I can sleep “late,” meaning I sleep until 7:30AM. I usually wake up to roosters crowing (although they crow all the time starting at 4AM) or people opening and closing our gate to the compound. I wake up and usually have to open my window because by 8AM it’s usually starts getting hot and stuffy in the house. I feed the cats and go back to bed where I finish watching the movie I fell asleep to the night before.

Most people around here are Seven Day Adventists so they go to church on Saturdays. This means I get the compound to myself and can do things like sunbathe (ok I only did it once and after 10 minutes I had to go inside because it’s way too hot and there’s no ocean or kiddie pool to jump into) or do my laundry. I like washing my clothes outside my front door on my little slab of cement. The only thing is, the gate to the compound is right in front so if someone leaves the gate door open anyone walking by can see me washing my clothes. I don’t care if people see me washing clothes, but most people when walking by and seeing a mzungu stop to stare, which makes me feel awkward. On Saturdays, however, there aren’t people walking in and out leaving the gate open (because they’re at church) and therefore I can wash my clothes in peace.

My most recent thing is doing yoga in the morning, I’m especially happy I splurged on a yoga mat. I downloaded some classes and yoga exercises when I had free internet in Nairobi so last Saturday I did it in my living room. Now, I never took one of those “hot” yoga classes, but I’m pretty sure it was like that. I was dripping sweat everywhere and the cats kept climbing on me while I was in the cobra pose or lying down on the mat.

I like walking to town just for the heck of it on weekends and there’s a pretty back way I can go, where there’s more shade. It’s also a large hill, so I can see Lake Victoria from the top. Most shops are closed on Saturdays and open on Sundays. This always confuses me when I go to Kisumu or Nairobi because there everything is open on Saturdays and closed on Sundays. The one place that is open every day in Oyugis is the supermarket. The supermarket has upgraded significantly since I got here last year. It now has Ramen, cold Diet Coke!!, ice cream, real coffee (as in non-instant), wine, knock-off Pringles, and even televisions and other electronics. If only they could sell cheese, then I’d never have to go anywhere else.

It’s always fun people-watching on Saturdays. Everyone is really dressed up, including little boys wearing suits and the little girls wearing frilly pink dresses. Most people carry their own chairs to church; even the children carry their kid-sized plastic chairs on their heads all the way to church. Mamas carry their babies in lesos (a piece of cloth) tied on their backs with an umbrella to block the sun.

The best part of the day is bathing midday/early afternoon. It’s so hot and dumping cold water on myself is very enjoyable. Since we’re now in the rainy season, it starts to rain early afternoon and it cools down significantly. I can collect 2 buckets of rainwater in a half an hour, it rains so hard. The other day it hailed the size of quarters! I hope no one was outside then because man, that could have caused some serious bodily harm. Later in the afternoons I have movie marathons or read. The cats usually sleep on top of me and function like a blanket. That’s what I call a good Saturday.