Friday

1. Curio Madness, 4 P.M.

Plunge in. Haggle hard. And console yourself that if you do get ripped off — which is almost inevitable — the people on the other side of that 500 shilling note probably need it more than you. Friday is Maasai Market day at the Village Market Mall in northern Nairobi, and this is the best place to load up on East African souvenirs, from toy airplanes made of bottle caps to Obama Africa T-shirts and kanga cloth. The vendors are pushy but friendly and not averse to talking about life as you bargain. Few things have a marked price. That’s the fun.

2. Into Africa, 6 P.M.

Indians arrived more than a century ago to help build the railway across East Africa known as the Lunatic Express. (Some of the original workmen were eaten by lions). Thankfully, the Indian community flourished, and there is no better way to get a taste of it than at the Diamond Plaza food court in Nairobi’s Indian quarter. Diamond Plaza is an old mall where everything is two-thirds scale: The streets are two-thirds as wide, the buildings two-thirds tall; it has the feel of a toy town. The food is served from a dozen booths arranged around outdoor tables. A favorite is Anil’s chicken tikka on the bone with gooey naan bread slathered in butter, costing together 600 Kenyan shillings (about $6). Wash this down with fresh ginger sugar cane juice for 150 shillings. Don’t miss Chowpaty’s vegetarian chana masala (675 shillings).

3. African Country Music, 8 P.M.

Kenyans adore country music. You hear it on the radio all the time. The leader is a man whose name joins these two seemingly incongruous cultures: Elvis Otieno (Sir Elvis, as he is known, whose parents named him after The King). You can catch Sir Elvis at the Gallileo Lounge in the Westlands neighborhood, among other venues. Close your eyes and let his purring baritone sink in, and you might think Don Williams had wandered into Kenya. Find out where Sir Elvis is playing in UP Nairobi Magazine, Kenya’s equivalent of Time Out.