A few random reflections on life in Kenya from Heather

Food

We have eaten very well since I arrived. Peanut butter and jelly or honey sandwiches is very common in the morning, often with fresh mango and banana and black Kenyan tea made with lots of milk and sugar. We have also had cereal, porridge, toast and eggs. Lunch and dinner often involve multiple dishes, usually one or more starch – rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, meat- goat, beef or chicken, and several veggie dishes including sautéed kale, kidney beans, green lentils, and peas. Ginger is often used as a spice. Afternoon tea, sometimes prepared with spices like chai, is also common – this is after all a country who gained its independence from English colonizers only around 40 years ago. We have also tried two common dishes here – Ugali, made of corn flour and water, which you eat with your hands, making a small ball and then pinching it into the shape of a spoon to scoop up food, and chapattis, due to the influence of the large Indian population here in Kenya (also part of the English colonial legacy) – these are really yummy and in Kitale Travis and I got to help make them. Our favorite meal was goat and chapattis with a tomato sauce, so yummy…..Sweets are not common, nor is alcohol. We had alcohol once when we ate in a restaurant, and shared some warm beers with Caleb. Before every meal someone pours warm water over your hands into a bowl (where there is no running water - the majority of places we have visited).

Bicycles

In addition to matatus, buses and motorbikes, a common form of transportation here is the bicycle. The vast majority are heavy looking one speeders probably made in the 70’s or 80’s, although we did see three guys riding on the highway the other day with lots of fancy gear, but I don’t imagine that is a common sight. The thing about bicycles here is that people will use them to transport incredible loads. This often looks like a tremendous balancing act, and work-out. Huge bunches of sugar-cane, about 8 feet long, balanced evenly on each side of the rider, is a common sight. Other amazing loads we have seen more than once include big sacks of rice or potatoes, bed frames – really – bundles of sticks, big bunches of bananas, goats, bags of pineapples, and the most incredibly insane of all was a pile of firewood, 2 pieces across and literally 20 pieces high. I have nooooooo idea how it was attached – it looked like magic, but I think there was a pole all of the wood was somehow attached to. I also did not see the person riding this circus act, but I wish I had.

Bumpy Bumpy Bus Ride (i know, transportation again...)

On Valentine’s Day Travis and I endured a bone-rattling, long, hot journey from Nairobi to Kitale by bus (more or less like a Greyhound-type bus). It is about a 200 mile trip. We left at about 9:30 am (an hour late and after a revolt took place on the bus, all in Swahili, but we could tell that the passengers were voicing their annoyance with the driver for leaving so late), and arrived at around 6:30pm. Yes, that is right, 9 hours for a distance that would take about a third of that time in the US. We were warned that it would be a bumpy ride, but neither of us had ever experienced anything quite like it (and that is saying something). A major reason for the length and bumpiness was that we were off-roading a lot of the time, actually taking dirt road detours from the main highway which has a lovely new looking coat of asphalt on it, but is apparently not ready for traffic yet. Sometimes we were off of the road due to oncoming traffic. There are no lanes here, but generally small highways have room for either 2 or 3 lanes of traffic, one going each way, and a middle lane for passing (both ways). Sometimes passers just don’t quite make it in time, and then you just pull of the road. But there are not any shoulders, so that is a quite bumpy experience as well. I don’t know how our bus held together, or how many of those trips it can make, it is truly amazing.

Gender Roles

Changing gender roles are a hot topic here. I have seen multiple articles in the newspaper about the emergence of the modern, independent woman in Kenya – how do men deal with this? It is usually treated as a problem. These women want to balance career and family, demand men with good jobs and economic security (which really is a challenge in this country where unemployment is over 50%), don’t want to do all the cooking and cleaning, don’t accept polygamy… crazy talk. I heard two things on the radio that really made me angry the other day – the same popular DJ first stated that Rhiannon (U.S. singer who has been in the spotlight a lot recently bc she left her famous musician boyfriend after he hit her) was a better person and musician as a result of a couple of good slaps…the woman announcer he shares the program with tried to challenge him, but didn’t get very far. Later in the program he did a call-in/text-in to see what people think about all the women who gather in cafes to watch soccer matches – are they really sports fans or are they just faking it? I was excited to see an alternative to what seems like a dominant narrative here – that women should stay in their traditional roles – which was an article written by a man about his view that there should be equality between the sexes. Women can do the same jobs men can, and vice-versa, and boys and girls should share the burden of house chores when they are growing up.