10MAR2007 "Afternoon escape at the Nyali Cineplex"

On Sunday we got up pretty early and headed to Mombasa for some shopping at Nakumat. Big day! We had our list written out and organized by department—food, booze, household goods, hardware etc… We got some sorely needed items including more dog food, 4 pounds of cashews, a case of drinkable wine (think about it – hot and humid climate with questionable power supply trying to distribute decent wine…), and $10 duct tape (we can’t believe we gave our roll away ot the Dulles Airport baggage guy!). After shopping, during which we ran into several KEMRI folk, we went to the Nyali Cineplex. It runs a few American movies, but mostly Bollywood flicks. The restaurant upstairs is called Bollywood Bites and serves EXCELLENT vegetarian south Indian cuisine. We saw ‘Pursuit of Happyness,’ starring Will Smith and his real-life son. Acting was excellent, movie was good, blah, blah, blah… but what was really impressive was the theater. It had buttered popcorn, stadium seating, surround sound and air-conditioning! I felt like I had been abruptly beamed back to suburban New Jersey (minus the giant tub of diet coke). After 2 hours in this alter-reality, I was actually shocked and surprised to find myself in Kenya when we filed out of the theater.

When we got home, we unpacked our loot. We discovered during unpacking that we had made it all the way back to Kilifi with olive oil that was made from olives grown in Greece, processed and packaged in New Jersey, and then shipped to Africa. Only $12 per liter!