--Katie McLain says...

my observations are as follows: -We are quite a novelty to the kids here. The children at Kaaga School for the Deaf, as well as other children we encountered at the church and other places, were fascinated by our skin and hair. They all grabbed our arms to observe the white skin (“So white!” one little girl whispered to her sister about my arm). African children have their hair braided so that it doesn’t come undone. When I took out my ponytail in front of the kids at the School for the Deaf some screamed and some laughed and they all wanted to feel my hair.

-Every living room we’ve been to in Kenya is stuffed with as many couches and chairs as it will hold. Really, who needs blank wall space? It’s better to have your house ready for at least 20 guests at any time. Just in case.

-There is no carpeting in any house, school, store, public building, etc, that we’ve seen so far in Kenya. Only tile and wood floors. (dirt roads + shoes – vacuums = mopable floors)

-Children here walk to school alone (that is, without an adult). In the mornings we see kids from ages 3 to 13, boys & girls alike, walking beside the road on their way to school in their blue & green school uniforms.

-Hospitality is a big value here in Kenya. We’ve never been treated better in our lives!

-“School Zones” are created by large speed bumps in the roads in front of schools, forcing cars to slow down when they pass.

- There are “police checks” along the roads where police randomly stop vehicles for illegal substances and whatever else. Luckily they don’t stop tourists.

-There is much bureaucracy to deal with here (even when all one wants to do is collect a package they sent themselves). Much much more bureaucracy than any that one encounters in the States. I’m learning to be more appreciative of our government.

-The plumbing here is not as good as we’re accustomed to. This is probably the hardest thing for the group to get used to. Flush toilets don’t work well, and outhouses are common. Also, shower heads and sinks have very little water pressure compared to their U.S. counterparts.

-Nearly everything here is cheaper than it is in the United States. With one exception: gas costs the equivalent of 4.00 to 5.00 US dollars per gallon, making all forms of transportation a large expense.

-Time is not taken as seriously in Kenya as it is in the US. Teachers at the Kaaga School for the Deaf offered to cook us dinner one evening, so the group split up & went to their various houses. My group was 30 minutes late to dinner, but dinner wasn’t served until 30 minutes after that. It could have been a coincidence, but our other Kenyan guest arrived just as dinner was ready. Fellow team member (and world traveler) Kellye Johnson says that it’s “only the U.S. and Japan… and parts of Europe” that are so concerned with punctuality. She once lived in Malaysia, and says that “it was considered rude to show up at a 7 o’clock dinner before 7:30” and guests should preferably arrive around 8:00. One Kenyan woman I spoke to put it like this: “In Kenya, time is not a commodity. When you meet someone in the street you always have time to ask, ‘how are you? How is your family?’ etc, and you have time to listen.”

-Kenyan workers are not paid by the hour. Many Kenyans I spoke to were shocked to learn that I was.

It is apparent that Kenya used to be a British colony:

• Kenyans say “queue up” instead of “line up”
• English is an official language of the country
• Christian Kenyans have 1 Kenyan name and 1 Anglo “Christian” name. I was surprised when Kaaga school teachers introduced themselves with names like James, Lucy and Joel.
• Kenyans have “tea time” twice a day: once at 10 or 11 am (lunch is eaten around 1pm), and again at 4 or 5 pm (Kenyans eat dinner around 7pm). At tea time we have Kenyan tea, instant coffee, and “drinking chocolate” to choose from. There are 3 thermoses: hot water, white water (water with milk), and milk available for whatever beverage you choose. There are also either cookies or sandwiches (sometimes with tomatoes, sometimes with jam) to eat. If you aren’t hungry at tea time (because you just ate a large Kenyan breakfast of eggs, Kenyan pancakes, tea, mango juice, sausage, bacon, beans and cereal) don’t think you can get away with only a cup of tea. Be prepared for a Kenyan to comment with one of the following: “Are you watching your weight?” “You’re a growing girl. Go eat something.” and “You forgot your cookies. I’ll get you some.” I’ve forgotten what it feels like to be hungry.

-Kenyans speak several languages. Kiswahili and English are the official languages of Kenya. Here in Meru, there is another called Kimeru, but those aren’t the only 3 languages one will hear on the streets here. All signs are written in English (convenient for us). The amount of difficulty we have understanding Kenyan English is equivalent to the amount of difficulty we would have understanding British English. Some have thicker accents than others, but it’s just a dialect that the ear has to adjust to.

-“Building a library” has much more significance than I realized before I came. In America, books are plenty and cheap, and I take it for granted that I can read any book on any subject at any time. I also take for granted my easy access to the internet: a limitless source of information available whenever I need it. But in Kenya books and internet aren’t as easily available to all. While the deaf students at Kaaga are taught to read in their classes, they don’t have any reading material to exercise this ability. Imagine how much books will expand their worlds, as well as the worlds of the students from other nearby schools.