So i’ve realized that what i’ve come to think of as normal are not so normal.
For example:
On an average day we wake up around 630, eat sweet potatoes, maybe chipote (fried bread), some sort of fruit, and tea. Then we pack the 6 of us (plus our contact, and sometimes his wife and daughter) into a little white car and head out. That’s if we’re lucky. If not we have to take a matatu, which is a whole other experience. Its the Kenyan mode of transportation. It looks like they stole a bunch of murder vans, pimped them out, and put as many seats as humanly possible in them. Its super hard to get in and out, theres usually a man hanging out the sliding door, and mazungus(white people) get stared at- a lot. These Matatu’s are really scary to ride in. The drivers are NUTZ! They make their own roads usually, don’t stop for oncoming traffic, and generally only slow down for people to get off.
Breakfast
Lunch/sometimes dinner
then after ministry we run home for the fried bread and bean stew for lunch. (we eat this meal a lot) One cool thing about the culture here is that after lunch is “rest time.” Because they think it’s so hot (usually around 80) they say we should rest and stay out of the heat lol.
To go to the bathroom or take a shower you have to get buckets of water. We ran out of stored water today, and had to rive to fill up jugs. Oh ya and the house we’re staying at has a maid. And a cook. So they prepare all our meals and wash dishes and clean (i don’t ask questions apparently its the way things work overseas) We also have someone we pay to wash our clothes.
Pretty much everywhere we go little kids yell “Mazungu” at us and chant “How are you???” with very defined letters. Most of the kids here have never seen a white person in real life. Lots of times they will come up to us and tough our arms and hair to see if we feel different. We had someone ask us the other day why our eyes and hair was different colored.
Going to the market is an experience in itself. All the shop owners come out and try to pull you into their shop. They yell “Sister, sister, welcome come look” over and over. Then if you’re just looking they stand right up against you and say “which one you like? this one? try try? how much you pay?” and then they quote you some ridiculous price, because they see you’re white and think you’re rich. It takes about 15 minutes to negotiate a price, which is probably still more than we should be paying. Its really quite overwhelming.
Then we go home to bean soup dinner, do evening prayer with the family and kitchen staff, and go to bed under our mosquito nets. This is normal, right?
This is the family we’re living with. 🙂 they’re probably the coolest thing about Kenya
<3
