Sunday, June 8, 2008
Mnaada day
Yesterday was mnaada day in town. The mnaada (which may be spelled mnada) is a cross between a livestock auction, market, and county fair. It's held on the seventh of every month, and it's a huge social event. People come from towns all over the area, as much to see each other as to bargain for cheap prices on cloth, pots, used clothes, plastic containers . . . and goats, cows, chickens, and sheep.
The mnaada is held on a field on the outskirts of town. Looking at it from the road, one sees a huge crowd of people, with daladalas (minibuses) and herds of livestock on the outskirts. And there's a haze of smoke and dust, from the countless people trampling on the dusty ground and the many fires grilling meat.
The mnaada is both exhilarating and overwhelming. You plunge into the crowd and shouts from the sellers assault you from all sides. "Kitenge cloth! Kitenge cloth only 4000 shillings!" "Pots! Pots for sale!" "Sugar cane, sugar cane!" It's especially overwhelming if you're white and therefore, clearly rich and interested in buying souvenirs. "Mzungu! Here!" "My friend, bananas!" "Masai beads, Masai necklaces!"
All the mnaada needs is some cotton candy, fiddle music, and a ferris wheel, and it'd be a county fair. It has its own fair food: sugar cane (which is rarely available in town at other times), grilled meat, sodas. It has the livestock and the jostling crowds of people. And, above all, it has the same function of being a social occasion. Realistically, there's not much you can get at the mnaada that's not available on a daily basis. The prices may be better, but they're not necessarily so much better that they're worth the fare to town and back. And sometimes, people will only come back with one or two things: a pot, a cup or two. But you don't go to the mnaada just to buy things, you go there because it's the big event in town, the monthly festival, the change from day to day life. In my mind, that's the main function it serves, and that's why all the students want permission to leave school early and go to town on the seventh of every month.
The mnaada is held on a field on the outskirts of town. Looking at it from the road, one sees a huge crowd of people, with daladalas (minibuses) and herds of livestock on the outskirts. And there's a haze of smoke and dust, from the countless people trampling on the dusty ground and the many fires grilling meat.
The mnaada is both exhilarating and overwhelming. You plunge into the crowd and shouts from the sellers assault you from all sides. "Kitenge cloth! Kitenge cloth only 4000 shillings!" "Pots! Pots for sale!" "Sugar cane, sugar cane!" It's especially overwhelming if you're white and therefore, clearly rich and interested in buying souvenirs. "Mzungu! Here!" "My friend, bananas!" "Masai beads, Masai necklaces!"
All the mnaada needs is some cotton candy, fiddle music, and a ferris wheel, and it'd be a county fair. It has its own fair food: sugar cane (which is rarely available in town at other times), grilled meat, sodas. It has the livestock and the jostling crowds of people. And, above all, it has the same function of being a social occasion. Realistically, there's not much you can get at the mnaada that's not available on a daily basis. The prices may be better, but they're not necessarily so much better that they're worth the fare to town and back. And sometimes, people will only come back with one or two things: a pot, a cup or two. But you don't go to the mnaada just to buy things, you go there because it's the big event in town, the monthly festival, the change from day to day life. In my mind, that's the main function it serves, and that's why all the students want permission to leave school early and go to town on the seventh of every month.
# posted by Kristen @ 1:42 AM 
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