Buying an avocado in Nairobi can be a daunting task. An
avocado in Nairobi is not only expensive but can also be very disappointing.
You can spend a whole day walking through the busiest Nairobi markets hoping to
find one that not only appeals to the epicenter of your eyeballs but will also
raise all your center points of sweetness.
After a long walk in Gikomba market through Muthurwa, you
finally settle on this one avocado being sold at Marikiti. Marikiti is a market
sandwiched between two bus stations all delivering goods and passengers from
upcountry. Furthermore, Marikiti is known for fresh organic fruits brought from
various parts of the country as well as neighboring countries like Uganda and
Tanzania. With this knowledge in your pocket, you genuinely trust that this
avocado will be the sweetest ever.
The vendor proceeds to give you the reassurance that this
avocado is not like those avocados that grow by the banks of River Nairobi. In
Nairobi, it is very difficult to separate genuine products from counterfeits.
The vendor allows you to touch this gem but cautions that you shouldn’t press
it hard so that should you change your mind, the other buyers will still find
it in good shape. Both the skin tone and the size match the description in
your mind. It is smooth and has no signs of any scar that is known to make
these types of fruits ugly.
You pack this avocado in your bag ready to go home for a
sumptuous meal. Your inner thoughts tell you that you need security to
accompany you home. In this Nairobi, people have the tendency to steal nothing,
everything, and anything. At home, you unpack your avocado, the one that had
screamed to your eyes earlier at Marikiti. As your hand clasps around it, you
realize the texture is now reminiscent of old donkey skin- wrinkled. But that
is not an issue. In any case, who would blame an avocado for changing skin
texture within the distance from Marikiti to Kinoo amidst this scorching sun of
Nairobi? The size is intact. This doesn’t dash your hopes of having a sumptuous
meal of avocado.
Most of these foods have to be peeled before being eaten. You
peel the avocado from Marikiti. It is not easy removing this avocado’s shell
but you struggle anyway. The undressed fruit before you does not look as
promising as before. Some parts have dark spots. You take the first bite in
faith and it tastes like sugarless pawpaw. You do not take another bite. You
feel duped. Fakeness everywhere! The skin tone that had promised you a blissful
meal now has the same texture as that of a crocodile. Nairobi avocados! There
is a massive avocado problem in Nairobi. Little by little, you stop loving
Nairobi avocados as you think they are all the same. You decide that going
forward, you only will eat avocados that your mother-in-law brings from the
village. Organic avocados with uncontaminated skin tones and sizes. The avocados
that grow in your father-in-law's compound are juicy and original. These are
the real avocados.
SEE How to Choose Perfect Avocados (Nearly) Every Time