new grooves & new moves

Miss A loves to dance, this is no surprise to those that have read this blog for over 2 days but since moving here she has been deprived of her ditties, jipped of her jingles, robbed of her rock-n-roll, and generally stripped of her songs. Her ability to bust a move whenever the spirit so inspired has been absent because we did not have a CD player or radio. We had good intentions of getting one but just had not found a good deal or made the time to scour tons of dukas in search of one that works. When we first arrived here there seemed to be portable ones everywhere so we thought we did not need to be in any rush to purchase one. We were wrong and we have learned; since this is an island things come in shipments on boats and once they are gone they are gone, everything....CD players, toasters, Snickers bars, you name it. They may reappear one day but no guarantees so if you see something you want it is better to get it right away (not very helpful to those trying to stay on a budget). We finally decided we needed to get one so we can hear Kiswahili more on the radio and so that Annikah can listen to her precious CD's (and stop begging us to play them on the computer) so we set out on a search. Jason and I went around in town and finally found a used one that although seemed a little beat up was in our price range. The Muuza Duka (shop keeper) tested for us and it seemed to work fine. After some negotiations that included that he had to throw in a power cable since we had no idea where to find one and no desire to begin another epic search for said needed item we agreed on a price. He was very kind and ran around to trade for a cable for us so we could seal the deal and even gave us a one week warranty. We took it home and Annikah was thrilled. She.....must....dance. Really she has no choice in the matter. Reminds me of back in the day when I would spend hours in my room listening to my tapes and coordinating routines with my little sister (add to my somewhat delusional self thinking one day they may be featured on Soul Train). Another dream never realized. Sigh. Back to Annikah, she cannot help herself and upon coming home from school or the market, waking up, or walking to her room she jumps up and down requesting "more songs Mama." Here is to hoping her little CD player-o-happiness outlasts the 1 week guarantee.