Owino and the 80's

Saturday night was Danny’s long-awaited 80’s party. Saturday day was the long-awaited trip to Owino Market to get something rad to wear to the 80’s party. I’m actually not sure I can tell you which of the two events I found more entertaining.

Owino Market is, well, the Salvation Army on crack. The mother everything second hand, in an outdoor’esque, stall-after-stall, unsorted garment pile after unsorted garment pile, eager vendor after eager vendor, narrow pathway after narrow pathway, very densely people- and paraphernalia-populated true labyrinth of a place.

On a more macro scale, it’s semi-organized, with hat sections and belt sections and shoe sections and shirt sections and skirt sections, etc. The hat section is where I laughed the most. And seriously considered buying several of them to bring back to loved ones as Christmas presents, stopping only when I realized I would be bringing back to the States something someone purchased in the States, wore, wore out, donated, and shipped to Africa. The miscellany of hats was simply incredible. Miller High Life, Starbucks, Ho! Ho! Ho!, every sports team imaginable from every decade they’ve existed. Everyone on Team Owino found a treasure or six. And nearly passed out from dehydration/starvation/heat stroke after being there for 3+ hours.

The party itself provided the perfect excuse to wear the treasures (and a side pony) with pride. We danced badly, sang loudly, and reminisced fondly.

And then we did it some more.