Kushangaza Zaidi (more amazing stuff)

Someone commented on how much they like it when i write posts like this, so i have been wracking my brain trying to come up with some more. here is what i thought of:

1. Names. Names are very funny here. First of all everyone is given an english name, and a tribal name. They will also take their father's tribal name and put it as their last name, but that only identifies people in the immediate family. They don't have any kind of last names that are carried from generation to generation. This was sooo confusing at first. How do you identify people in your family? But as i have said earlier, families are very close, so hopefully you know all of your family and don't accidentally marry your cousin. Second when the missionaries came they couldn't pronounce their names, so they made everyone take english names. but this was back a few hundred years ago, so they names they took were these weird old european names, which they still use today. Such as Boniface, Linnet, Uticus, Dorcas, Wisper, lots of Mariams' and so on. Yes, i did say Dorcas. The first time someone told me i really thought they were teasing, and i laughed, but no, it was their name. 
2. White people. Some people that visit here, i just really don't understand what they were expecting. Do they know that they are coming to Africa, which is a developing country, and also a completely different culture? Maybe they just don't do any research before they come. One thing that bothers all groups that come here is the african time. Everything here runs late. that is just how it is, and will always be. When you do even just a little bit of research about africa, they will always warn visitors about this. Bugs also really bother visitors. I never have had that fear of bugs or spiders, but living here would cure you of that. Most of the really big bugs are harmless, they are types of beetles. But people also freak out about this. Again what were you expecting? This country isn't paved over like most of the cities that people come from in the states. 
3. In the tribal language that is spoken where i live, there is no word for "you're welcome." So instead you just say, "thank you" in response to "thank you."
4. Everyone dances and everyone sings. I love this so much. you don't have to be good at either one of these, and most people aren't, but you can get up there and boogie with the best of them. Many people lead singing in church who maybe aren't they best, but everyone joins in and has a good time. It makes life so much more fun.
5. Often times if you go to a bar, and someone is a bit drunk, that person will just stand up and start dancing right where they are. The first time i saw this i couldn't stop laughing! they looked so funny, but this happens all the time. People aren't as critical of each other here. 
6. They don't have birthday parties. Last night i went to a surprise 80th birthday party, and he said that was the first birthday party he had ever had. 

Well that is all i could think of for now. i hope you have enjoyed! love to you all!

suz

Kushangaza

This is a continuation of funny things. i tried to translate, "funny things" to either Kiswahili or Kimeru, but there is no word for funny. There are only words that describe funny. So the closest thing i could come up with was kushangaza, which means astonishing. 

1. Kenyans pronounce all parts of any English word. also say some words in a strangely British accent. For example, they will always pronounce the "q" in a word. like mosquito. they say, mos-qui-toe. 
2. Whenever anyone drinks alcohol they call it getting high. Very confusing, at first i was like, "where is all the pot coming form?" 
3. Everything here, except maybe work, runs a little late. Relationships are more important then time management. Where ever you go, if you see anyone you know, you stop and exchange greetings. If you are late to a meeting, you still go around and shake every one's hand. This is so frustrating at first. Even if you know, and prepare yourself, there is this inside clock that you cannot pause. But once you get used to this, it is so nice! It puts the emphasis on the important thing in life, people.
4. No matter where a person is, or what they are doing, they will answer their phone if it rings. I have even seen teachers in the middle of a lesson answer their phones.
5. Tea with milk and sugar is a staple. not just any milk, whole milk, and so much that you can usually still taste the cow. and not a little bit of sugar, but enough to send you into a diabetic coma. You can take the option of no sugar, but then you just taste the milk, which tastes like drinking cow. and if you try and refuse some tea, because of the reasons listed above, or because they insist on drinking it boiling hot, when it is 90 degrees outside, which then makes you sweat even worse, you will be looked at strangely.
6. Kenyans, who are generally very nice people, are horrible to wait staff. 
7. If it is a meal time, and you are not hungry, you are still expected to stuff your face.
8. Swimming pools are not very widespread, and though they are becoming more so, people are still not very sure of the correct attire. Everyone i know insists on wearing underwear underneath their bathing suites. I have told a few people that you really don't need to do that, but they think i am very strange for suggesting such a thing.
9. Most prayers that people pray out loud they say, "praise Jesus" every five words. cannot put into words how annoying this is.

Empty Hands

Dear God, 

I am so afraid to open my clenched fists! 

Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?

Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?

Please help me to gradually open my hands 

and to discover that I am not what I own,

but what you want to give me.

And what you want to give me is love, 

unconditional, everlasting love.

Amen.

-Henri Nouwen 

Learning Unselfishness

When moving from a rich country to a poor country there is a certain amount of hardening of the heat that must occur. There is so much visible poverty that it is overwhelming at first. I just wanted to give everything I owned to people with less. But now that i have lived here for a while i have learned that things don't solve the poverty issue. Giving people my clothes and shoes, doesn't make their life any better. What they need is opportunity. After realizing this my heart began to harden. When i realized that giving material objects really didn't help anyone in a long term way, it was to painful to continue to take in that level of poverty. I think that anyone that is transported from a cozy existence to some place where there is great need, and stays in that place for very long, will begin to experience this. Learning exactly how selfish an individual needs to be to get by day by day. I have now been here for 1 year and 7 months.  I am working with kids who walk 5 miles to school without shoes, and clothes that are sometimes no more then rags. But what they really need is the opportunity of education. the hope that it brings. their parents hope for them to go farther then they went, to have a better life then them, and they will hope the same for their children. 

I am coming to a time here when my heart is beginning to open again. I have been reading, Blue like Jazz, and the author, Donald Miller, talks about what a struggle it is to think of other people. It is such a part of us to think of ourselves first, that is it almost like "swimming upstream" to think of others. I hadn't realized how true this is until i took a look at my prayer life. I can spend an hour praying about myself and my needs/wants. About all the things that effect me and touch my life, i ask God to bless, to be working through. But how often do i pray these same prayers for others? not often. There is such a fine line between selfishness and unselfishness. I have to be selfish to survive. I cannot look at all the street children, sniffing glue, and take them home with me. i wish i could, but i can't. I have to harden my heart to them. I must have my eyes open to those that God puts in my path to help. 

In my English class this week i tore out a section of the newspaper for every kid and had them read it and summarize it to the class. when time came for them to stand up and summarize it, it wasn't going so well. So when i got to one of my students who refused to stand up, i kind of lost it. I lectured them all on how important it is to know what is going on in your nation and also how they needed to learn to speak in front of others. After I finished a few of the kids said, "madam Susan, he can't read english." oh my gosh, i have never felt so bad! This boy is in 7th grade, and cannot read, write or speak any english. His last exam he got 170/500. But yet the teachers keep passing him up to the next class. I was kind of heart broken when i learned all of this. How can they do that? Ruth and i have decided to tutor him after school everyday. I really don't know how much it will help, i am beginning to suspect he has some learning problems, but we do what we can do, and pray that it makes some kind of difference. 

“Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.”
- Henri Nouwen

Suzanne