My last week in Kitui
So my party this weekend was a lot of fun. Extended host family members from all over Kenya came to visit and see me off. One of them, Josephine, is a caterer in Nairobi and she brought plenty of good stuff to eat. We slaughtered a goat (not Red...yet) and pretty much stuffed ourselves with goat stew, katchambari (the Kenyan equivalent of Salsa) and plenty of other good food. After we ate we went to a night club called Riverside and I definitely had a cultural experience. With the exception of only a few women the bar (who I understood to be mostly prostitutes) was full of guys, and they were dancing with each other like girls do at clubs in the states. I was sitting in a chair watching this when a Kenyan guy pulled me up and started dancing with me! It was harmless but so different from the way guys would act in the U.S.
Another interesting cultural difference is that men hold hands with each other walking down the street and women do the same, but you will never see a man and a woman holding hands. It's just an act of friendship with no sexuality involved but it's a strange feeling from an American perspective when a guy tries to hold my hand. At the bar my aunt Josephine must have thought I had an unlimited amount of money in my wallet because she ordered several rounds of drinks for everyone and expected me to pay. I really couldn't object too much since she brought all the food from Nairobi but one of the biggest problems I have here is that almost everyone assumes that since I am white I am a clueless tourist with tons of money. When I go to a shop or a market, and often when I ride a matatu, I get a ridiculously high "mzungu price" and have to bargain (doing it in Swahili seems to help) to bring it down to something reasonable. Admittedly, compared to many of the Kenyans here, I'm doing pretty good but my Peace Corps stipend does not factor in much more than food and lodging for myself and definitely does not take into account inflated mzungu prices on necessities or handouts for everyone on the street.
Anyway, back to the bar. I spent every bit of money I had and my aunt expected me to carry the tab for the cab ride as well, but luckily they brought enough to get us back home. We got back around 1 in the morning, and my mama, who had stayed up waiting for me, gave me a giant slimy goat liver to eat for a midnight snack. I politely turned it down so she salted it and saved it for the morning. I woke up the next day feeling a little off from the night before, and I've always said that nothing starts your day off better than the goat liver you had forgotten about the night before sitting on the table in front of you for breakfast. Luckily my brother from Nairobi was eyeing it enviously so I graciously passed it off to him before Mama could object.
So now I need to study some more for my Swahili exam. It's a thirty minute ordeal and I will be speaking in Swahili (hopefully!) the entire time. Wish me luck, I need to be at least "Intermediate Low"at this point.
Just two more days till I leave for Nairobi and I swear in as an official PVC on Friday. After that it's off to Kisumu for a night and then on to my site at Kakamega. I'm sure I'll have more to write soon and will try to post some pics in Nairobi so stay tuned.
Another interesting cultural difference is that men hold hands with each other walking down the street and women do the same, but you will never see a man and a woman holding hands. It's just an act of friendship with no sexuality involved but it's a strange feeling from an American perspective when a guy tries to hold my hand. At the bar my aunt Josephine must have thought I had an unlimited amount of money in my wallet because she ordered several rounds of drinks for everyone and expected me to pay. I really couldn't object too much since she brought all the food from Nairobi but one of the biggest problems I have here is that almost everyone assumes that since I am white I am a clueless tourist with tons of money. When I go to a shop or a market, and often when I ride a matatu, I get a ridiculously high "mzungu price" and have to bargain (doing it in Swahili seems to help) to bring it down to something reasonable. Admittedly, compared to many of the Kenyans here, I'm doing pretty good but my Peace Corps stipend does not factor in much more than food and lodging for myself and definitely does not take into account inflated mzungu prices on necessities or handouts for everyone on the street.
Anyway, back to the bar. I spent every bit of money I had and my aunt expected me to carry the tab for the cab ride as well, but luckily they brought enough to get us back home. We got back around 1 in the morning, and my mama, who had stayed up waiting for me, gave me a giant slimy goat liver to eat for a midnight snack. I politely turned it down so she salted it and saved it for the morning. I woke up the next day feeling a little off from the night before, and I've always said that nothing starts your day off better than the goat liver you had forgotten about the night before sitting on the table in front of you for breakfast. Luckily my brother from Nairobi was eyeing it enviously so I graciously passed it off to him before Mama could object.
So now I need to study some more for my Swahili exam. It's a thirty minute ordeal and I will be speaking in Swahili (hopefully!) the entire time. Wish me luck, I need to be at least "Intermediate Low"at this point.
Just two more days till I leave for Nairobi and I swear in as an official PVC on Friday. After that it's off to Kisumu for a night and then on to my site at Kakamega. I'm sure I'll have more to write soon and will try to post some pics in Nairobi so stay tuned.
posted by KenyaJoe at 5:25 AM
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