Steppin Out

My second full day in Kenya. Some reflections (eternal).

There are these buses called "Mutatus" that take people around the city, and while I haven't ridden one yet, I've been entertained by the designs their drivers paint on em. One I saw today had "Kanye West" written in pretty slick font all over it I almost thought it was the actual tour bus. When I pointed it out to a co-worker, she responded, "oh that's nothing. I once saw a Mutatu with 'Klu Klux Klan' written on it in beautiful calligraphy." Ok, so apparently people don't always know what they're writing on the side of their Mutatus. But when I asked a Kenyan colleague if he knew who Kanye was, he said, "oh yes. He is an international music personality." Well said.

I also noticed that every single barbershop in Kenya has this same picture of Ludacris outside the shop. No idea. Bottom-line though: I can't wait to get my haircut by the Kenyan Cedric the Entertainer.

I'm also gettin into the food here. I went to the grocery store the other day and was kinda overwhelmed. I picked up a can that said "beans in tomato sauce." I looked at the ingredients. It said: "beans, tomato sauce." I was left with many questions. "What kind of beans? What's in the tomato sauce?" These imponderables eluded me. I bought it anyway.

One unfortunate incident coming home from the grocery store. It was gettin kinda dark, and somebody came up behind me and grabbed my grocery bag. "let me hold that for you" he said. He didn't get aggressive or anything, and dropped the bag when I gave him this look like, "what is going on here." but he was like "why are you scared?" and I was like, "Because I didn't expect someone to come up behind me and grab my groceries." But he just left after asking for money and me sayin I gotta go.

Unrelatedly, someone told me that every Kenyan has a different English accent. This seems true, but they all speak excellent English. Hopefully this means they will be tolerant of my plan to "learn Swahili by repeating anything anyone says to me in Swahili back to them." I'll let you know how that pans out.