Grocery Shopping

Thursday, June 2, 2016

We shop at a mall that is very close to where we live.  Though we are not "shoppers" we have found it very interesting.

1. As you drive into the parking lot, security looks inside your vehicle, checks your glove box, and opens the back.  One security guard, who has seen us often, asked, as he looked in our vehicle, "Are you safe?" and then he laughed and waved us on.
2. As you walk into the mall, you are scanned with a hand-held scanner -- men on the left with a male security guard; women on the right with a female security guard who also looks inside your purse.  Even little girls are scanned.  They hold out their arms just like in airports.
3. The shopping carts have the coolest wheels.  You can push them forward and backward and sideways too!  Makes for very easy maneuverability.  LeRon says that the way it works is that they have four casters instead of just two.  Who knew?
4. When I see mzungus (foreign white people), I think they must be sick because they are so pale and I'm used to seeing lovely dark skin.
5. Everyone looks at our name tags and often asks questions.  So fun!
6. I'm still trying to find Miracle Whip-type salad dressing and sticky rice.
7. The fresh vegetables are very good.  Potatoes and carrots especially.  Green beans and onions are good too.  The hard part is the bleach-washing that I have to do when I get them home.  Today I bleach-washed oranges, potatoes, carrots, green peppers and eggs and it took about 1 1/2 hours.
8. People pay for their groceries with M-pesa.  "Pesa" means money.  They put money on their phones and then pay for their groceries with their phones.  LeRon does a lot of mission business by paying with M-pesa on his phone.  (You'll be surprised that he's technologically advanced enough to do that, eh?)  Women often don't carry purses with them, just their phones. I think we're behind in Canada.  Or do some people pay with their phones there?  Not many people here use credit cards.  Just mzungus like us.  Usually it's cash or M-pesa.

As we drove to the mall, we passed goats in the street just outside our gate and then on the way home, there were two cows grazing on the tall green grass by the road side.  Further into the city, the grass beside the roads and between lanes of traffic is hand cut by workers using a grass whip made of flat-iron.  So interesting!!