A Squash Banana

Sorry for my delay in posting. The internet is very poor in Kijabe. I have a few things to tell you all, but I shall space it out a bit. The topic for today is language learning. The first thing I learned to say was 'asante sana' (thank you very much) and I was promptly told to leave the 'squash banana' off the end! Language learning is very tough, especially when trying to do so properly instead of just a pigeon version of it. But it is very important: Language learning IS ministry. I have to remind myself of that when I feel stupid or want to give up. They've given us a great method for learning it, which essentially involves finding a tutor, learning a phrase or two a day and going and applying it immediately. Everyone seems to laugh at us and all our stumbles over words but I've learned to just laugh right along with them. It seems laughter is never derogatory here. In that sense, its been more fun to learn the cultural cues than anything else at this point. I even asked if it would be ok to outright laugh when we get the inevitable marriage proposals. They told me it was and also to tell them "you don't have enough cows for me"

I've found that a good talking point for a lot of Kenyans is politics. When I tell them I'm from America (something I can say in Swahili) they all want to know about Obama and what I think about him. They all say they are related to Obama because he is Kenyan. One even told me that I was Kenyan because he was my president! Big laughs at that! In most of the world its a bad thing to be American, but not here!
They also are very into their own politics as they have just instated a new constitution. I am here at the dawn of the Second Republic of Kenya. I bought a paper today just to commemorate my being here. Everyone is very excited about it here. I hope it does the country even half as much good as they expect it to.

Pictures in the next post, I promise!