Contrasts

Okay, some of you know that I took a two week vacation to the US recently. A common question that people ask is, "how is the transition?" - "is it difficult?" My standard answer is "not really," but I don't think that this answer is very descriptive. Here are a few of the situations that I found myself adjusting.

I was in transit from Nairobi to San Francisco for 20+ hours and the extent of my communication with people in a non-service position was "hello" to a couple of people sitting next to me on the plane. After that we put on our headphones and didn't say another word the entire flight. In Kenya I cannot sit next to someone for more than five or ten minutes without us casually chit-chating. I cannot walk through a town for more than 3 minutes without someone saying hello to me.

The first night in America, I was driving up from SFO with Julia and we stopped at a hotel for the night. It was around 10 or 11pm, I was half asleep, and she said she was going out to the car to get something. My response was, "what, this late? is it safe? do you want me to get up and go with you?" Okay, so we were in a hotel compound, and the car was only like 50 yards away. After acclimatizing to America I realized that going out to the car was a perfectly normal thing for people to do at night. In Kenya I only walk around the village after 8pm if I someone is walking with me, and usually they are carrying some sort of stick.

Americans are rich. It took me going home to realize just how much this is true. Okay, I will admit it, I am rich. I have a computer, a digital camera, money in the bank, and I get enough money each month to buy food. Oh, and I have an ipod nano. At the back of my mind all of this is outweighed by my student loans that I will have to repay someday, but then again I was able to get loans to go to school. Credit is so much more available in America. Even if a Kenyan has a computer and a digital camera, the American doesn't usually have the same deep attachment to that item that the Kenyan does.

In Kenya if seeds are sown they will grow (provided they have sufficient water). Here I don't have to wait until March or April to think about my garden. Most people plant just before the two rainy seasons, but for a small garden that can be watered by hand, I can plant anytime.

In America if I tried to bargain for a textbook the shop keeper would look at me funny. Here it seems nearly impossible to get away from bargaining. I even have to bargain if I want to buy something from a good friend.

America has so many more choices for beer, wine, food, and spices. Kenya has 6-7 choices for beer, Guiness and 6 that come from the same company. All of them from East African Breweries are lagers and are slightly better than Budweiser. I don't really mind the limited choices. I don't need any of those things to be happy. As long as I have a balanced diet in terms of the nutrients, the flavor doesn't matter too much. I did adapt back to all the American flavors very readily though.

All in all, adapting was not too difficult. The only other contrast is that in America I have family and very close friends, while in Kenya I have a few Kenyan friends that I really trust but we don't go back as far and our cultures are very different. This one is the hardest for me to adapt to. I feel so fortunate though that I got to visit my family and friends in America. I feel energized because I have seen that they are all doing well and so i am no longer anxious about being away from them for another year and 4 months.