There is so much to write and not
enough time to write it all down. Good thing it gets dark at 7pm and
we have no internet, so Kyla and I can reflect, write, and prep for
the next day.
Things are going really well...better
than I expected in fact. We are meeting really interesting people,
I'm feeling more comfortable about my cultural understanding in
Kenya, and Kyla and I are getting along great. Sometimes it is hard
to tell how you will travel with someone...we spend 99.9% of our time
together and I'm pleasantly surprised at how easily we work together.
On Sunday, we met up with Odoch and
Donna, two of my SIT directors/teachers from 2007. They are doing
really wonderfully and are as sharp and hilarious as ever. At first,
they put off wanting to meet with me because apparently they had a
Mollie in a different group that was awful and they thought I was
her. Thankfully they looked at a picture and realized I was a
different person and I think Odoch hugged me for a good 50 seconds :)
I donated the new 900-page Kenya: A History Since Independence
book by Charles Hornsby to the SIT library and Donna was soooooo
excited because it is not in print in Kenya due to its balanced (aka
not pro-Kikuyu) analysis of the historical events. Seeing both of
them put into perspective how much I've changed in the past five
years. I suppose this experience is a good reflection point for me
because it elicits comparison in a way I've never done before. I'm
able to think more on my own and formulate opinions. Though I am
still spending a lot of time observing and taking in new experiences,
I analyze situations very differently than I did as an undergrad.
Perhaps it is because I now have another set of lenses to see the
world through (ahhh! economics! political incentives!) and I can
combine it with the understanding I gained last time I was here. It
sort of makes me never want to stop being a student because I can
always see the world through new perspectives. Whoa is the path of
the intellectually curious!
After grabbing tea with Odoch and
Donna, we walked back toward our hostel and saw several Chinese
people entering the China Center (which gives no reference to
anything about China on the exterior, for the record). We asked the
guard if it was open and were allowed in only with an armed security
guard escort. Though this was strange, now we really wanted to see
what was inside, so we went with it. Basically, the inside of this
non-descript building is a mini Chinese market. Every store and sign
was in Chinese. There was a Chinese barber shop, several extremely
large and well stocked grocery stores, gift stores, book shops, etc.
As we were taking pictures of all the signs, another Kenyan security
guard came up to us requesting the see the pictures. He told us
pictures were not allowed in the building. After Kyla explained that
she just wanted to practice her Chinese and he viewed our pictures,
he told us we could proceed because he confirmed we were not
terrorists. Apparently my secret-agent career path might have some
lose ends still.
Exciting notes:
-We switched rooms in our hostel (from
a two to a three person room because Jacob arrives on Sunday) and now
we have double the space. It is wonderful!
-A man walked up to us today and said
“Excuse me, in the name of Jesus, marry me,” and then walked
away. That was a new pickup line for both of us :)
- We are finding that the Chinese and
the Kenyan cultures are similar in a lot of subtle ways. It is
extremely interesting to see the ways they interact and recognize (or
don't) this about each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment