These past two days have been filled with traditional Kenyan culture. More and more I feel like I am understanding the way of life in Kenya, although I know I still have a lot to learn. It really will take time to understand the people and what is socially acceptable. It feels like the town of Kakamega is its own world, small enough where everyone has the same understanding of what life is and a similar connection with everyone, yet big enough that there are distinguishable parts of town and ways of life. What I found most interesting today were the people on the streets. There is such diversity on the streets in terms of class and wealth. Some people are poor, maybe homeless or maybe disabled. They sit on the sides of the streets and many sell fruit or old clothing. Then right beside them, there are men in suits and jackets, clearly on their way to work and clearly more wealthy. The interesting part is that these men and women walk the same streets and pass each other on the same routes, however their lives appear very different.
There were a lot of firsts these past two days. Yesterday we spent the majority of the day at the hotel in training sessions. In the morning, we "learned" Swahili...or as much as you can learn in about 3 hours. The language is much less complicated than languages I've studied before, but I have a long way to go before I understand what people on the streets are saying. We had some more training during the day, about our work and asset mapping and needs assessment. At dinner, we had our first taste of the infamous ugali. I would describe ugali as sandpie. It looks like a giant pie of sand, and it really does not taste much better either. It holds together sort of like playdo, and you are expected to mold it into a spoon-like shape to scoop up the food. We ate it with chicken and some green things (maybe cooked spinach?). This morning we had another essential Kenyan food: chai. Chai is essentially a chai tea latte, but it is something that Kenyans love. Breakfast is usually chai with some bread, and chai is always had throughout the day. After our first cup, we have all become addicted. After perhaps a few too many cups of chai, we headed to town to run some errands as a group and then we headed to the FSD office to learn about safety as well as Kenyan culture. Our two Kenyan program directors told us about the food, the clothing style, and the political history of Kenya. We learned that if you wear skirts above the knee, you may be attacked by groups of women accusing you of stealing their husbands. Our director finished this off by telling us that Kenya is, "a rock-throwing country"...reassuring. After this orientation, we went to a restaurant and had vegetable curry with chiapati (essentially Indian naan). It was delicious, as is most food aside from the sandpie ugali. I am enjoying the food now while we are still at the hotel, because I'm sure once I move into my homestay I won't be enjoying the same type of food!
The most exciting part of the day was meeting my host organization. Although we were all exhausted from walking through town all day, we were anxious to meet with our organizations. I'll be working with Project Africa, a women's empowerment group that works with young mothers and school children. As I met Suzie and Violet, I had many questions. I think they had trouble understanding me, as I don't have a Kenyan accent on my English, but we got along fine. They told me about the projects they are working on-- teaching young women to sew and to use computers, mentoring secondary school children and primary school children, creating a penpal system with Kenyan children to America, and having reflection sessions with young mothers about the challenges they face as mothers, women, and as educated individuals. I told them about the research I was interested in as well as the surveys and focus groups I would like to do, and they were more than happy to work with me on that. After we talked about business matters, they asked some personal questions which I thought were very interesting. Suzie is definitely a strong women who is passionate about her work and about women's empowerment, and her questions were interesting. She asked about Florida, what we eat, about my family, and she also asked if there are a lot of black people in Florida, if there are a lot of "gays" and lesbians, and how do we know if they are gay. She also explained to me that a lot of men don't like their work, because the men want to be empowered, yet Project Africa turns them away. She spoke about issues of gender inequality in education, and why men's education is valued more than women's. I am so excited to start working with them and really getting to the root of these issues. Tonight is our last night in the hotel as we are dropped off with our host family tomorrow morning. I am anxious to meet the entire family and see what the home is like. They have had other FSD interns before, so I'm sure they know what to expect, however, I don't! The home probably won't be as nice as our hotel now is, but I am looking forward to an authentic Kenyan home and experience. I have noticeSaving...d that there really is a very different mentality about the people here, a sort of energy that is contagious and a humor that is pervasive. There is also a touch of sarcasm and hardness to everybody, but maybe that hardness is just an inaccurate perception from myself as a mzungu. Although I know I will always be an obvious mzungu that the children naturally point, stare, and laugh at, I look forward to the day where I understand the minds of Kenyans and become less of a mzungu at heart.
