White Girl!

It is a strange feeling to be an obvious minority when going about town. Since we are so rural, there are very few "muzungos" (white people) in our area. Emma and I go for a walk each morning before "tea" (breakfast) and the children all shout MUZUNGO! We cannot leave the compound without being noticed.

Anytime we try to take a matatu, the drivers argue over who gets to drive us to our destination, and our row of seats always fill up first (which is rather frustrating because the ride is squishy as is, so it would be nice to fill the empty seats first).

Mary at the clinic asked us, if she were to come to visit us in Canada would the children run up to her and shout "BLACK WOMAN!" which made us laugh quite heartily. Because of course not! Canada is so multicultural, but here everyone is Kenyan and black. So it's a strange feeling to not be able to just go for a walk anonymously. Everyone wants to greet us and we shake hands with hundreds of people every day as that is the way of greeting each other here. Sometimes people bow to us as though we are of higher class than them which makes me a little sad.

I'm not sure if it will be any different the longer we are here, but it is a really strange feeling that I am not used to. I now have a new perspective on what it must be like to arrive in Canada, knowing nobody and feeling like a complete outsider by not knowing the customs or the language.

Just some food for thought.

Hope all is well at home. Today at home, next time you enter a public place - TTC, supermarket, etc...imagine that the people all turn and stare at you! It's quite the experience.

xoxoxo

Jess