Monday October 1, 2007
Kiswahili words and phrases are coming more and more naturally to me. I can say all the basic conversational things now. I’m not really capable of having that interesting of a conversation at this point in Kiswahili, but I can manage.
Each night before I go to bed I have to scrub my feet off with the washbasin and scrub brush in my room, particularly if I wore sandals that day because my feet get so dusty they’re completely brown by the end of the day. The sidewalk next to the park isn’t paved so it gets really dusty whenever it’s not raining and really muddy whenever it is.
I laughed when I saw my face on my University of Nairobi student ID. It’s so bleached out you can hardly see my face probably because the cameras are adjusted for Kenyan complexions. I remember in photography class when they taught us how to adjust our cameras for “ethnic faces.” I’m sure that was the case here. You’ve gotta take the skin color thing with a grain of salt. Mostly it just makes me laugh whenever all of us in the program are out walking somewhere in the city, like some giant walking white circus exhibit, everyone stares. It’s great fun.
I feel very complimented whenever someone tells me I did something like a true Kenyan. It’s the ultimate compliment. The other night my sister’s friend saw my ugali on my plate and said “Good girl! You’ve got a true portion of ugali there, no tourist portion!”
In Mombasa, Jamie and I finally figured out the trick to flushing Kenyan toilets as all of us had been having a great deal of trouble in this particular area. It’s all a matter of the FFF, that is, the Firm and Forceful Flush. I won’t even mention some of the other jokes that came out of this. Without the FFF, man, it’s never gonna work.
Mexican soaps broadcast in Kenya make for quite the comical evening. This top notch acting filmed at least 10 years ago is made even better by the fact that their mouths don’t follow what they’re saying since it’s dubbed into very expressive English.
Yes, you may perhaps think that I am wasting my time here watching this, but I insist, it’s quite a cultural experience!
I’m starting to get into really into hip-hop which is easily the most popular music here at least for the younger crowd. A couple of my sister’s friends are DJs at various clubs in town so I’ve gone to some slam poetry nights and I’m into it.
One girl in our K group constantly inserts the greatest puns into our conversations. I love it! No one bothers to make puns these days.
I spent this past weekend at the Nairobi International Film Festival which was amazing!!! And all free!! Lots of really good, powerful films, often with some kind of link to Africa in them but not always. It’s going on until Friday of this week! Yay!
Kiswahili words and phrases are coming more and more naturally to me. I can say all the basic conversational things now. I’m not really capable of having that interesting of a conversation at this point in Kiswahili, but I can manage.
Each night before I go to bed I have to scrub my feet off with the washbasin and scrub brush in my room, particularly if I wore sandals that day because my feet get so dusty they’re completely brown by the end of the day. The sidewalk next to the park isn’t paved so it gets really dusty whenever it’s not raining and really muddy whenever it is.
I laughed when I saw my face on my University of Nairobi student ID. It’s so bleached out you can hardly see my face probably because the cameras are adjusted for Kenyan complexions. I remember in photography class when they taught us how to adjust our cameras for “ethnic faces.” I’m sure that was the case here. You’ve gotta take the skin color thing with a grain of salt. Mostly it just makes me laugh whenever all of us in the program are out walking somewhere in the city, like some giant walking white circus exhibit, everyone stares. It’s great fun.
I feel very complimented whenever someone tells me I did something like a true Kenyan. It’s the ultimate compliment. The other night my sister’s friend saw my ugali on my plate and said “Good girl! You’ve got a true portion of ugali there, no tourist portion!”
In Mombasa, Jamie and I finally figured out the trick to flushing Kenyan toilets as all of us had been having a great deal of trouble in this particular area. It’s all a matter of the FFF, that is, the Firm and Forceful Flush. I won’t even mention some of the other jokes that came out of this. Without the FFF, man, it’s never gonna work.
Mexican soaps broadcast in Kenya make for quite the comical evening. This top notch acting filmed at least 10 years ago is made even better by the fact that their mouths don’t follow what they’re saying since it’s dubbed into very expressive English.
Yes, you may perhaps think that I am wasting my time here watching this, but I insist, it’s quite a cultural experience!
I’m starting to get into really into hip-hop which is easily the most popular music here at least for the younger crowd. A couple of my sister’s friends are DJs at various clubs in town so I’ve gone to some slam poetry nights and I’m into it.
One girl in our K group constantly inserts the greatest puns into our conversations. I love it! No one bothers to make puns these days.
I spent this past weekend at the Nairobi International Film Festival which was amazing!!! And all free!! Lots of really good, powerful films, often with some kind of link to Africa in them but not always. It’s going on until Friday of this week! Yay!
No comments:
Post a Comment