As my month here comes to close, I'm finding it a bit hard to write extensively on some things without the risk of being repetitive. While "on the ground" each group is vastly different and interesting in its own ways, I''m not quite a good enough writer to explain those differences well without writing a whole novel. Therefore my idea for this post is to just write a few blurbs about things too short to warrant their own post.
- Songs in Kenya are a VERY important part of day to day life, and almost every group starts each meeting with song. I've also noticed almost everyone here sings well, probably due to musics prevalence even in kids who can barely speak.
-While private cars are still a rare luxury in this part of Kenya, motorcycles are not. Lioness tells me that 10 years ago motorcycles were as rare as cars are now. Its good to see that progress.
-10 years ago this area also didn't have: electricity, cell phones, and paved roads. All of these are now fairly prevalent (at least in the main part of town).
-It is VERY rude to not eat everything provided to you by your hosts. Being that I was a "visitor" in every group I went to, that involved a lot of eating.
-While I have discovered many dishes I like through the above process, I've also discovered Ugali (spelling may be off.) Ugali is a dish made of corn flour made into a dough like consistency. It's not necessarily compatible to every Americans palate, and I learned the hard way that force eating large amounts of it amounts to a very uncomfortable next couple of hours.
-Goats and cows are still very much considered tokens of wealth here, and are even still used in marriage exchanges. I like to think I'm worth at least 15 cows, but I may be underselling myself.
Anything else you'd like to know? Let me know in the comments!!! I'd love to hear what interests you most about Kenya and what we're doing here.
Thanks for reading,
Cannon King