Sub-Letter #1 (July 5, 2006)

Hi friends!

I'm sorry that updates are so manic; I write these days in advance and then sit on them until I can get to the internet cafe (pending of course, that the power is working) and sit on my hands waiting for them to mail out. :) I'm still working on how I'll be able to post pictures, etc, but hopefully I'll be able to do it in pieces and get something going by the end of the month.

So the first lengthy email has gone out, but I thought you all would appreciate the following anecdotes:

1. Nairobi to Kisumu
Remember how I said (very sarcastically) that men would only hit on me here for my green card? Well, I'm sorry to say I was proven right in under 48 hours. While on the ridiculously long bus ride to Kisumu I definitely ended up next to a guy (Henry) who talked to me THE ENTIRE TIME (despite near complete silence on my part). And what, pray tell, was the topic of his conversation?

He started by saying that he liked to make friends and was actually fairly normal. However, around 30 minutes in the conversation took a quick detour, and he ended up telling me how beautiful the Kenyan coast is (which is true, from what I hear). So he kept talking about taking me to Mombasa or Lamu (two really beautiful and big coast cities) and about taking me away for fishing and camping and vacations and all sorts of things. At this point I'm pretty mortified but have no idea what to do since we have at least 6 more hours on the bus. THEN he starts asking if I'll take him to the U.S. next time I go back. This wasn't the part that topped it off though, the best part was when he asked if I was married and if I was open to marrying (!!!). I told him I'm not heading back for about a year, but he was insistent that "friends" would take one another to the U.S. I tried to be polite, but around hour 5 I firmly declined and said I could promise nothing. This seemed to actually take care of everything, ha.


2. Field visits
So on my first day at work I got to go to the field (which basically means following a team of staff out as they conduct interviews/surveys) to Butula, a nearby district. One of the team members, Bukeke, is fairly awesome and is 2nd in command for the logistics side of the Rural Water Project (the project I co-lead with for the field research side).

Bukeke asked me about my ethnic background and whatnot and finally said, "You don't look like an American, you look Asian." [note: Asian in Kenya means South Asian, i.e. Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi, not East Asian].

I responded by telling him I was "Asian-American." So he asked if I liked Indian films or if I was assimilated. I said it was probably a bit of both. His response? "So are you a mzungu, or....?" At this point I ended up laughing. "Mzungu" is a term that is pretty much restricted to white people (especially Europeans and Americans), but also apparently refers to people who are "Westernized." What makes this funnier is that my housemates (the wazungu - plural of mzungu), have been referring to me as Mhindi (Indian), a title I certainly don't identify with. To take it a step further, Anne and a few of the field staff have told me that Asian-Africans (i.e. native Kenyans of South Asian descent) are not "brown" but are instead "light black" people. Being between all these different categories has been interesting and seems to fundamentally disturb other people more than me, mostly b/c they're trying to figure out where to put me. It's interesting to see how it will fall, especially as I pick up more Swahili.


That's all for now, but I'll try to keep the weirdness coming. Be good and be well!

With love,
me

P.S. Antoine! I never thought France would beat Brasil - congratulations!