A lesson in Kenyan culture

So in the past few days, I have been getting settled in a little more. The family and I are warming up to each other, and while it might not be the best home stay situation, it's not a bad one. The past few days have been pretty standard - get up at 6:30-7 (yes, I am out of bed by about 7 every day), leave for school at 7:45-ish, then have class all day. It can be Swahili, lectures on a variety of topics, or as we did today, Swahili love songs. Yes, we had a class where we sang Swahili songs. All of you who wondered why I decided on SIT, that's why. Cause singing is a legitimate form of education. Then I spend some time after school with friends, go home about 6:30, eat around 8:30, and am in bed by about 9:30 either writing or sleeping.

So, since there has been no big news to report in the last few days, I thought I'd take this opportunity to fill you in on some interesting details of Kenyan culture. So here they are:

-Kenyans love chai (tea) and drink it at least twice a day. But, they boil the milk in with the water which is a little weird. Good for killing bacteria in unpasteurized milk, bad for those of us who use milk to cool their tea down.

- Obama is HUGE here. There are always news reports and articles about him. They love calling him "Kenyan-American" as opposed to "African-American"

- Tribal heritage is also hugely important. People stereotype every one based on their tribe. I even heard someone say that since Obama is a Lou, he could never be a good leader.

- Times are more guidelines then anything else. Even if you have a set time for something, the person will show up late, if at all. Oh, and there's technically no Swahili word for "busy"

- People here never really get awkward. If they have nothing to say, they just kind of sit there. Anyone who has spent more then 10 minutes with me knows who bizarre of a concept this is.

- Nairobi is home to Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. People here are almost proud of that fact in a really weird way.

- The school kids here know one English phrase - "How are you?" and they all yell it to us in a chorus from the edge of their schoolyards as we pass on the way to school. Answering them in Swahili really throws them and is pretty fun.

- Almost half the population here is Muslim and I can even hear the call to prayer from my house. And no one here is gay. It's just not talked about. Being in a such a heavily Muslim and homophobic area is something that I find very foreign coming from the states and GW in particular.

- They all speak at least 3 languages - their tribal language, Swahili and English. Many of them even know more then that.

- There are no real sidewalks here - only a dirt path if you're lucky. My feet are going to be dirty for the next 3 months, and I'm actually pretty ok with it.

Alright, that's all I have for now, but I'm sure there'll be more to come in the near future. Hope you enjoyed it!