My Garowe

Garowe is the capital city of Puntland which in-turn means it is some sort of assistant capital city because we all know the true capital city of Somalia is Mogadishu aka Xamar aka the world's most dangerous city that is now so so beautiful and from what I hear not in any way the world's most dangerous.

Garowe is huge(I think) honestly though I do not know about this because I haven't really explored and I still get lost if I take a different route from the usual because my sense of direction is zero and I am a creature of habit therefore I stay within what I know which can be a bad thing that might not change(or will change things happen).It’s urban  as seen in this post The Review and I have never seen girls so into make-up like the ones that live here what!!!!!!!  9 at night and lipstick on huku kuna maneno na warembo (I guess)

I had this discussion with a colleague on if someone new came to Garowe what would he consider historical or some sort of landmark to show, he said there is nothing to show of that sort (how now??).  A year is a lot of time so if someone came to Garowe and asked me to show them the town and talked to me really nicely.I would show them………………………………….

The main vegetable market

Some parts of the market

It is relatively big and has a lot of variety in terms of what kind of vegetables you can buy and it doubles up as the meat market. There are these rahwein speaking dudes who sell juice and they have a lady who sits outside their place who sells samosas and mandazis,Together they monopolise the cold drinks segment in this market and I am sure a lot of the people coming to the market always add 4000 SoShs for juice and 1000 SoShs for mandazis in their money to carry to the market because their ka-joint is always full.

Why the main vegetable market: Because its unexpected right? Such a nice market and the juice place because I think as much as it's the true kibanda women who come to the market really like it so its something.

The Barhad

This is the main roundabout in the town and also the only traffic lights in the town that do not work but they are there to show this is the capital hello!!(maybe they do but I haven't seen them work yet).Its also I think the middle of the town assuming this is true then its the town's point zero. something worth seeing if the traffic lights aren't too appealing :-)

Why the Barhad: Because its near some government offices and therefore there is the chance to see the animal that is used as the national symbol………………………….they use a sheep and all the people I have asked do not know why sheep and not camel or any other animal,Also opposite the said office there are these tea joints that I am told serve the best street tea in the town.

Sunset chasing

Sometimes I get lucky and I am not at home when the sun sets,Ironic I know because a lot of people want to be home before the sun-sets and here I am always home early and the days I am late I maximize the opportunity and sunset chase and Garowe has on the days I have seen the coolest of sunsets.

Why sunset chase: Because it’s the Sunset!!! and it’s just nice.

Garowe Nights

Night time shoppers.

Garowe town is open until 10 PM atleast this is latest I have been in the town and a lot if not all of the places are open even tailors work at night.People here take afternoon siestas seriously :-) so a lot of the business are closed in the afternoon,the real reason though has to be the heat in the afternoons and not people wanting to take naps. They therefore stay open into the night to make up for lost time,

Friday night in Garowe is date night and no I am not joking people take their significant others out on Friday nights.I draw this conclusion from one Friday night that I took myself out, as in Rehema took Rahma out so the two of us just sat unaware of what day it was :-D :-D and everywhere I am seeing pink and blue and here I am pink and pink………………………. and I am thinking whats happening ??? but I decided to be like everyone else and just order for two(I joke I was out with a friend)  and point of this Garowe has  lot of nice places to eat out.

Why Garowe Nights: To see first hand that Fridays are truly date nights and that people shop at night without fearing that something might happen to them.

Shops that have really nice stuff

Look who got a make-up brush :-) Influence from reading This is Ess a lot. 

There are so many shops that sell a lot of the things that you would need if not everything and some serious variety too from food,clothes,cute note books and everything else.

Why shops that have cute stuff: Because why not?

Tuk-Tuk Rides.

The tuk-tuk stage near the vegetable market.

There are tuk-tuks and there are matatus but matatus go on certain routes only and tuk-tuks go anywhere for a flat rate of 4000 SoShs irrespective of distance and sometimes and in my case almost always my stop is the last one and mostly the tuk-tuk driver will talk to me and tell me stories after everyone else alights, usually nothing major but there was this one time the driver, this small boy who looked like he is  16-18 years old was driving like he had a death wish so I request him to slow down and he does, then he tells me this crazy story about how he is about to be taken to jail because of somethings he has done.

Why tuk-tuk rides: How else will someone learn what this town is about and you might just hear crazy stories.

There is more to Garowe than this as the town is way fancier that it seems here. :-)