Some things about living in here….

1.Kenyans drive on the other side of the road. Maybe everyone else in the world knows this but I didn’t. When I first arrived after 20+ hours of travel and they opened their ‘passenger’s side’ door for me to get in all I could think was “You want me to drive?”

2.Mosquitoes -- much bigger and faster here. I’ve only killed one since I’ve been here.

3.No one here drinks water like Americans do. They make fun of us for carrying our water bottles around everywhere. They’ll have two scolding hot cups of tea with lots of sugar and be satisfied for the day.

4.PDA is super discouraged. Irene told us she’s never even seen her parents hug, let alone kiss.

5.The landscape Besides the banana and mango trees, this place reminds me of Lampasas, TX.

6.Electricity Before turning anything on that’s plugged in (like a microwave, oven, toaster) you have to flip a switch to turn on the electricity for that socket. We've only gotten shocked a few times.

7.If there’s no Swahili word for an English word- its usually made up by adding “y” to the end. For example, cake- “cakey”, blouse- “blousy”, candy- “sweety”.

8.They refer to “Made In The Streets” as “Made-y”.

9.If you look nice they will say you look “smart”.

10.The “white diet” Meals here usually consist of one or two large portions of a starch—potato, rice, ugali (cornmeal), or chipati (tortilla), and if you’re lucky you’ll have a little piece of gummy meat or chopped cabbage. I really like the ugali and cabbage now.

11.Kenyans are very servant-like, almost in a literal sense and especially towards white people (because we are the visitors though- not because we are white).

12.Most Africans are very much here and now people. They don’t seem to plan far ahead or save up. If a Kenyan were to come upon a lot of money they wouldn’t think of putting it in savings or making a budget because if you don’t spend it then you share it with all your friends and family.

13.Not everyone in Africa has AIDS. The students are tested before coming to MITS to make sure they are not HIV positive which may seem harsh but it’s too dangerous for this type of organization.

14.Kenya is a peaceful nation. Besides the 2007 post election violence, Kenya is generally a peaceful country surrounded by war torn ones. A lot of refugees from other countries come to live here.