MY 1ST KENYAN LESSONS

TRADITIONAL KENYAN FOODS (that I have tried so far)

• Githeri: maize, beans, and potatoes, cooked in light tomato sauce
• Samosa: little triangle Chinese egg rolls filled with meat, typically beef
• Lots of types of Curry, as Kenya has been strongly influenced by India and now grows many spices that originated there
• Rice: just outside of Chogoria, there are hundreds of rice pattee farms. I had never seen rice fields in-person before. The only ones I’d seen were in an anthropology video on China in the Food & Culture course I took in college.

BEVERAGES

• Chai tea: morning, noon, and night; whenever someone offers you tea, they are most likely referring to a Chai tea bag in a glass of hot milk. They don’t make their tea with water; they save their clean water for drinking (rehydrating)
• Fanta: it doesn’t taste like the ones back home, but it can be found at every roadside stand. I tried an Orange Fanta today, but the aftertaste was unpleasant and I wished the drink had been sweeter, as I had anticipated it to be. I gave mine to the driver and he told me that I should try Pineapple Fanta or Black Current Fanta next time, because they are apparently sweeter. (I had no idea there were other flavors of Fanta! I will definitely have to try them.)

LANGUAGES:

Swahili: the national language, simple and fun sounding

–lots of “unga” sounds in words—

many Swahili terms used throughout the Disney movie: The Lion King.

For example:

“Simba” means lion

“Rafiki” means friend

“Asante Sana” means thank you very much

                                       (in the Disney movie, Rafiki runs around the grown-up Simba

       singing/chanting “Asante Sana squashed banana” 

Habari-yaco  = how are you

Missouu-ri = I’m good

Missouu-ri sana = I’m very good / I’m great!

Sah-wah = it’s ok / I'm ok

I keep hearing people saying “Kiswahili” and I finally had to ask if that is synonymous with “Swahili”. It turns out, that there is a subtle difference:  Kiswahili is the learning subject, whereas, Swahili is the language itself. So I am getting Kiswahili lessons from my coworkers and friends, because they speak Swahili fluently.

Kimeru: the local dialect

            “Muuga” = Hi! Or Hello!

            “Muugamono” = Oh Hi! (the response when someone says “Muuga” to you)

            “Natia” = How are you?

*Apparently each “muzungu”, aka “white person”, is given a Kimeru name in the Chogoria community. Mitsuaki, my predecessor and mentor, was given the Kimeru word for “traveler” and Liz (Mitsuaki’s predecessor and mentor) was given the Kimeru word for “beautiful woman”. What name will I be given? Probably something to do with how outgoing and talkative I am… stay tuned.