Just a few things that surprised me, that I found funny, or that are just really different from home:
*Vehicles drive on the left side of the road...I have problems crossing streets, because I’m always looking the wrong way.
*Children have no qualms about showing their curiousity with the muzungu. They are either extremely fascinated or terrified.
*The ants are viscious. They can really dig in and when you try to pull them off your skin, they bodies come away, but their jaws are still locked to your skin.
*A hotel is a place where you eat, not a place where you sleep.
*Eating my meals with my hands seemed a little uncomfortable at first, because I was used to my hands being clean while I eat and wiping them on a napkin if they get dirty, but it’s much easier than trying to eat ugali with a utensil and now it doesn’t bother me at all.
*Doctors at hospitals prescribe drugs for things that are far from the problem, even if they’ve already verified that you have nothing that it is intended to treat.
*Just about everyone has the following weapons in their homes for protection: machetes, bow with intense metal arrows, and axes.
*The Kalenjins have a problem distinguishing between the ‘p’ and ‘b’ because they are the same in their language, thus I had a student write a sentence, “The poy’s hoppy is jumbing” and saw a sign showing a raised part of the road saying “pump here”.
*It takes a fraction of a second to really burn yourself on a jiko if you aren’t paying attention.
*Restaurants have long lists of things on their menus that often sound good...but that doesn’t mean they really serve them. In fact after ordering about 5 different things in an attempt to get something that I don’t often eat and being told each time, “I’m sorry. We don’t have that,” I ordered ugali and the waiter excitedly rushed away to get me some, saying how glad he was that I wanted ugali. Looking around, that’s what everyone was eating.
*I expected to drink tea, but didn’t expect to take it 5 times a day.
*Obama is a well-known figure here, though his actual job isn’t always well understood. Shirts sometimes have typos...such as “OBMA” and “OPAMA”.
*How many people can be fit into a 4 passenger car? So far, the record for this size of vehicle while I’ve been in it is 15!
I have enjoyed reading your your blog. A smile comes across my face several times as I remember experiencing the same things. The faces all look the same as in Uganda and it makes me yearn to go back. I wish it wasn't such a long weary flight and I was years younger!
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