Biggest Changes

Recently one of our nephews asked, “What are the biggest changes you have experienced in moving from here to there?”

So here are my answers:
* Food: no fast food, no already cooked food at grocery stores, no mixes or easy/fast to prepare food. Even if you go to a restaurant, you usually have to wait 30 - 60 minutes for your food because they have to prepare it once they get the order. The food is much healthier here because it doesn't have all the chemicals and preservatives to keep it from spoiling. The fresh fruit is wonderful:) It is allowed to ripen on the tree it tastes so much better. The meat (beef and chicken) is tougher here and not as tasty. The fish that we've had has been very good.

The Kenyan typical diet is tea and white bread for breakfast, that’s it. Many don’t even eat a noon meal. (Our teachers in language school didn’t.) In the evening they eat ughali and sukuma wiki. Sukuma is like spinach and ughali is kind of like cornbread, but not really. It has the consistency of really, really stiff mashed potatoes. Unless they are educated, they don’t use silverware. They pinch off a little sukuma and then a little ughali using their thumb and forefinger. Kenyans eat many starches: ughali, rice, pasta, potatoes, much more than we do. They love sugar in their chai (tea) often putting in several spoonfuls.

*Few fixed prices. Except for stores and shopping centers that cater to the Western market, there are no set prices on items for sale. You barter and bargain for everything. We aren't very good at it yet. You go shopping and see something that you might want to buy. In America you look at the price and decide whether or not you really want it. Here, you ask the price. They always say, "For you, I will give you a good price." Then they give us one that is highly inflated because we have white skin. People with white skin are rich. That sounds silly, but it really is true. We have SO-O-O-O much more than most Kenyans. At that point we usually walk away because there is no way we are going to pay that kind of money. Then the vendors will say, "Come back, we have to talk about the price. The price is not fixed." So, if you are interested, you give them a price. Then you talk about it, back and forth, back and forth. It's a good idea to talk to people ahead of time so you know how much things are worth and you don’t pay too much if you do get it.

Last week John went to buy some bananas and avocados. He went to a fruit market that probably has about 15 fruit vendors. We have bought from this one lady several times and always before her price on bananas was pretty good. She wanted 80 Ksh for an avocado. He went to another lady and got the avocado for 50 Ksh. Altogether 10 bananas, 2 avocados, and 1 mango cost 180 Ksh which would equal $2.50.

* Almost every building is in a compound (behind a wall) including houses. You can't go into a parking lot at stores, hospitals, businesses, etc. without having to go through a gate and an askari (guard) letting you in. Security is tight. When you go into the parking lot of large stores or the malls in Nairobi, the guard gives you a piece of plastic kind of like a key ring. I'm guessing that they have as many of those pieces as parking places in the lot. When you leave, you give them the plastic back. Again, a security guard is there to take the plastic and open the gate.

* In the stores that cater to the rich there are workers in every aisle. I'm assuming they are watching for shoplifting. The good part of it is that there is always someone to ask for help if you can't find anything. You soon get used to people watching you as you shop.

* Police carrying semiautomatic weapons.

* Even when speaking English having to really concentrate and listen carefully so that you can understand what they are saying. Accents make it hard to understand. Then there is the fact that people here speak British English and not American English. Believe it or not, they are different.

We are now in Kitale and staying with fellow missioner Kathy, who lives in a house on a dairy farm. It is so lush and green here. Click here to see some pictures of the trip to Kitale and some photos taken on a walk while visiting Kathy.