Always ask first.
I went to visit my friend Florence on Saturday. She is one of the women who sells me vegetables and she came to the Bible study I led last term. She is a special woman who loves Jesus deeply. And she had been asking me for months to come and visit her. I really can’t make an off-campus visit while the boys are here because it takes almost all day. But it has been midterm and...
Continue ReadingIS GOOD!
How do you celebrate your bride’s birthday in Africa? Even in Africa, there is one tradition that we knew we didn’t want to deviate from: the annual birthday cheesecake. I only venture to cook once a year, and so the pressure is always on. Will this cheesecake slope to the right? Will it somehow be crunchy like the famous 1990 model?
This year had an additional element: Grace was in the kitchen watching. Kenyan men, at...
Continue ReadingThe greeting for hello how are you in Swahili is Habari zako. The response to that is Mzuri sana. I’ve gotten to the point where I like to sing it as I greet Kenyans to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus:
Habari zako
Habari zako
Habari zako, Habari zako
Habari zako!!!
At first, I would get rather piercing stares, but now it is common for me to have Kenyans respond by singing:
Mzuri sana
Mzuri sana
Mzuri sana,...
Continue ReadingSometimes you find cross-cultural moments when you least expect them. My first graders are doing a slide show on the computer, and I’ve asked them to do pictures of their parents, their pets, their teacher, etc. Last week I asked them do draw the seasons.
Them: Which one is the cold one?
Me: What do you mean?
Them: Which season is the one that gets cold?
Me: Winter!
Them: Which one is the dry one?
Then it hits...
Sometimes it’s the small things that can be the most surprising when you change cultures. Like haircuts. Back in the states haircuts are pretty routine-at least once you find a hairdresser you like and whose price you can get comfortable with. Haircuts in Kenya have been far from routine! I have now had 5 haircuts in Kenya and each was an adventure in itself. I have also self-barbered (don’t tell my hairdresser at home this!).
Haircut #1 was from...
Continue ReadingTeaching spreadsheets to young children is one of the most unexpectedly rewarding things I have done since I have been in Africa. It didn’t start well; I just didn’t know how to communicate with them, and they would give me that glazed look that indicated that I had hopelessly lost them.
The way I learned to teach them was to teach Fred, our friend who works for us on our yard. Fred has never lived in a home with...
Continue ReadingWe had the principal over the other night, and he grew up in Africa and told the boys a story about going deep into the bush when he was about ten and seeing some African children, who, when they caught sight of him, started screaming and crying and running away. Later, he found that in that tribe, the parents told their children:
`If you are bad, the white people will come and EAT you.’
What I have found...
Continue ReadingYou would expect that Culture Shock would hit you immediately. And we did have some degree of culture shock right away. There were all of the “differents” to get used to. But the biggest shocks are just now coming.
Friday afternoon I had a very long conversation with a Kenyan friend. It all started because I had stepped on cultural toes with army boots. To share the exact situation would cause me to step on cultural toes again. Suffice...
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