Part VI: What to eat & drink?

Eating Out

Restaurants, cafes, motels and hotels offer all things appetizing.

Local Cuisine!

Another fantastic experience was tasting the local cuisine. The best (in our opinion) are the SAMOSAS! A samosa is a triangle shaped pastry filled with seasoned ground beef or vegetables. They are considered a snack, but you can eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We ate them whenever we could. Whoever wants to know we have the recipe. We even made some for family during Thanksgiving and they loved them!

Other popular dishes are: rice and beef stew, mũkimũ (irio) (potatoes mashed with a variation of peas,corn, beans, collard greens), fish and ugali (like gritz or white cornbread), chapati (similar to tortilla) and ndengũ (lentils), nyama choma (grilled meat) with kachumbari (like pico de gallo), Matoke ( stewed potatoe and green banana/plantain), Sweet potatoes and arrow roots. Mandazi ( donut like but square,oblong or triangular), meat pies. Oh we could go on forever!

Fruits and Vegetables

In the garden

There are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Mangoes, Oranges, Pawpaw, Passion Fruit, Pineapple, Avacado, Apples and more. Ask anyone, fruit from the tropics, simply Delicious!

An assortment of vegetables: Cabbage, Carrots, Sukuma Wiki (Colored greens),Spinach, Parsley, (Dania (Coriander), Celery, Cucumber, Tomotoes and more.

In the Supermarket

You can buy any fruit or vegetable in your regular grocery store or visit a local traditional market in your area. More like the local Farmer’s Market. Items will be less costly and you can enjoy the art of bartering with the traders. Fun fun fun!

Supermarkets offer whatever your heart desires: See what we found;

Cookies (Biscuits)

Cereal

Local Drinks

Tea or Coffee

You will find an assortment of drinks everywhere you go. Coffee & Tea are very popular!

Tea is drunk with milk and sugar, usually hot, very hot! Should you visit a home or someone in an office, expect them to offer you Tea, Coffee or hot Chocolate(Cocoa).


Tea drinking is a local tradition and is served about 10.00 a.m and 4.00 p.m. We always had our tea as soon as we got back from town. This was usually before dinner. Coffee is fast becoming popular and you will find coffee shops in all corners of major cities.

Soda or Juice

If you prefer soda or juice, and like it cold, always make sure to ask for a cold drink. Ice is typically not offered as most of the people take their drinks at room temperature. Your regular soft drinks are everywhere!

Water

You can find bottled water at most hotels, restaurants and supermarkets.

Coming next: Planning your safari- 5 EASY STEPS

For more, email us: mysafari@wrightsafaris.com

Part V: Where to Visit?

Where to visit? Local Farms
A tour to the local farms is an interesting way to meet local people who continue to live on subsistence farming. They have wonderful things growing such as bananas, mangoes, corn, beans, sweet potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes. The people keep cows and goats, chickens and sheep. We visited farms in the Kirinyaga District and in particular Kerogoya, Kamugunda and Kiamwathi where Njeri’s maternal and paternal grandparents still live, and where her family still own a farm on the foot of the Mt. Kenya.

Tea and Coffee Farms

The most interesting thing that we saw were Tea and Coffee.

Coffee is considered a cash crop. Farmers grow this to sell. At the same time they grow their regular food like Maize (corn), Beans, Pumpkin and Sweet potatoes. Mango trees and Avacado trees can be seen in the background of this picture.

Who can imagine that tea looks so beautiful?

Tea grows in bushes, that stand to about the knee.

The bushes grow meshed together. They create luscious green carpet spread out over the land. In each bush there are several branches that develop into a “two leaves and bud” . This is what is picked to make the best tea in the world. We had fun picking tea and throwing it over our heads into a large basket.

Coffee on the other hand grows in trees that grow taller than 6 ft. These trees were towering over our heads, but we could still see and reach for the coffee that grows as little green beans. When they turn red they are read to pick and take to the factory.

We had a chance to walk in the coffee and tea gardens while enjoying the wonderful fresh Mt. Kenya breeze and listening to the sound of river water dashing down below. Fresh springs in this area are abundant and can be a source of clean fresh mountain drinking water! Yuhoo!

Coming next! What to eat?

To take the Wright Safari for you! email: mysafari@wrightsafaris.com

Part IV: Cultural Diversity

For the remainder of our trip, we explored various cultures in Kenya. Our first exposure to a different culture was that we were able to witness a wedding in the Kikuyu tradition. In this tradition, the groom's family visits the bride's family. Women come out and sing and dance to welcome the groom's family. The songs are passed down from generation to generation and are usually story telling type songs. They may sing about the bride or the groom's and how they met and how the love each other etc. This is considered a very important occassion as it is when families of the bride and groom negotiate a dowry or “bride price” (this is called Ngurario). The groom’s family then brings goats, sheep, sometimes even cows or bulls. A goat is slaughtered and grilled and eaten as part of the celebration. Aiiililililileeeeee! ( ululation)

There were almost 100 people in attendance to represent the bride and groom’s families. As part of the ceremony, the bride’s family brings out several girls that are wrapped in traditional cloth (shuka or kanga) from head to toe. The groom must choose the girl that is his fiancé, or else he will have to pay a huge fine. Fortunately, in this case, the groom chose the girl that was his bride. How lucky! Most guys go two or three times. The wedding could now continue. The actual marriage of the two takes place when the groom cuts the right shoulder of the goat, and feeds the bride (always with the right hand). He also feeds the bride’s parents. The bride then gives the groom traditional sour porridge (also with the right hand). After he accepts, they are married and the celebration goes on until the last guest has gone. Keep in mind that the bride or groom has the choice to refuse feeding the other. This is their only chance to speak out on whether or not they are interested in the upcoming marriage. Lucky guy, the girl said yes!

The bride and groom also proceeded to have a modern wedding at their local church. This was a festive day. Starting with vows at the church and then a huge reception at a hotel with over 300 people in attendance. Red and Ivory were the wedding colors. Wow it was beautiful!

The reception was about wishing the couple the best in their marriage. The groom was given a spear, shield and sword, so that he may protect his family. The groom's dad was given a traditional stool, walking stick and fly whisk, as he is now older and should retire from the duties of providing for the family. His son will now take over! The groom's mum was given traditional basket and asked never to use plastic or paper bag's when shopping. The bride was given the leso, kanga - traditional body wrap to protect her clothes while she works for her new family.

At the Maasai Village that we mentioned in part 2, our guide explained to us that in their culture a man can have as many wives as he wants. What’s this, Polygamy? In the Maasai culture a man’s wealth is judged by the number of cows he has as well as the number of wives. The guide has two wives and his father, the chief, has 21 wives. Our guide was 26 years old at the time, and said that by the time he is 40, he wants to have 15 wives. The Maasai are one of the 42 ethnic groups in Kenya, and one of the last to continue to live in the traditional ways.

Apart from Maasai, who mainly live in Narok district and areas bordering Kenya and Tanzania, we also met people from other ethnic groups such as: Kikuyu, Embu and Meru, who originate mainly from Central Province. Kalenjin, Luo, Luhya and Teso, from Western Province. Kamba, from Eastern Province. Giriama and Swahili, from Coast Province. Although each ethnic group has its own unique language, the two primary languages of Kenya are English and Swahili. Communication is a breeze!

To check out a cultural safari send us an email: mysafari@wrightsafaris.com