Culture Stuff

Africa, if you can imagine, is a little different than America. Here are some of the cultural differences I have noticed.

• The way the women are treated here is very different. "Women are for the kitchen." Thats the way one guy put it. When we are invited to someones home we sit down at the table and a woman comes with a pitcher of water and a bowl to wash our hands. They generally start with Roger or me since we are wazungu (white) I guess. The table is already generally set in several bowls. At this time they uncover the food and we fill up our plates. The food is generally the same no matter where you go. We usually had rice, either peas or beans, some kind of beef and sometimes chicken (both of which were not at all tender and had bits of bones, tendons and who knows what else), and fresh fruit (pineapples, bananas, mangos, oranges, avocado and cucumber) which is awesome! The meal is served with a soda or water and at night is served with chai! When we were on the road and entering into peoples houses we ate this meal twice a day. Breakfast is a chapati (a tortilla type thing), a boiled egg and a slice of bread served with none other than chai. Anyway, when the women meet you they do a little dip out respect and sometimes bow all the way on their knees. They clean up after the men (which tend to be pretty lazy by now). Everything here is about respect and the women and young people seem to get the blunt end of it.