Things That Bother Me

In today's episode we will explore those things in the culture and in general that bother me, but that is just where I'm starting. I tend to get sidetracked in my copious ramblings.

The first thing is the sexism. This isn't something that manifests itself in the government or really obvious things like that. It took me a while to notice. Really it didn't hit me until this last Sunday in Kopwin. After church (in every church I've been to) everyone comes and shakes my hand. The women will always kneel when they shake my hand. The first few weeks this didn't bother me as much, but in Kopwin elderly women were getting on their knees to greet me. This I did not like. Then when we were getting ready a man's daughter came to talk to him. The entire time they were talking (he was sitting in a chair), and she was on her knees to talk to him. This too was not really okay with me. The thing that really started me on this tirade happened last. When we stopped at the aforementioned person's house on the way back to Mbale the man's grand daughter came to say hi to her grandpa, and he forced her to greet him from her knees. This is when I took offense. The girls here are taught that they are inferior from the age that they can walk.

Second is racism/tribalism. Here the different tribes are considered different races. It is easy to know one's tribe because each tribe has their own language. The tribe that is most despised is the Karamajong(sp). They have some interesting habits and beliefs to be sure, but when they come to cities they are ridiculed and outcast. Their tribe believes that all cows that are ever born belong to them. If you have a cow you stole it from them. So it is "okay" for them to steal cows because they owned them to begin with. They also tend to wear... nothing... and well yeah its rather an awkward situation I'll agree but still, let's be nice to these lost folks.
Racism is also against us mzungus. Since prices are very rarely posted the seller sets the price which is then up to bartering. (I'll get to bartering in a moment.) Mzungus are often quoted a price that is 3-10 times higher than the actual going price of the good, and often cannot get the price to come to a reasonable level. Some time we just don't know the price, but often we do. Anthony and Sarah, who have been here for about a year are pretty good at getting the price to a manageable range, but things like bodas (motorcycles for hire) are very bad about this. A ride that should cost about 500 shillings will be charged 1000 or 1500. I'm not mean enough to make them pay what I know to be the right price too often (I should work on that).
Also, no matter how long a mzungu is around he/she is a guest. This is very frustrating to Sarah and Anthony. The staff at the school still call them visitors, when they have lived here for a year, I digress.

Bartering: so perhaps the reason we are no good at bartering is because we do it honestly. The staff were talking at break about one of the pastors/professors at the college bought a pair of shoes. He spotted the ones he wanted and made a big show of how they were terrible and not nice. The shop keeper/street vendor then defended them. They went back and forth. The pastor kept up the charade. Acting that it was painful to wear etc. and then proceeded to buy the shoe for a low price. We (mostly Anthony but I was trying my best to help them see as well) were trying to show them that this is being dishonest, and to be honest about what dishonesty is: lying. They kept trying to play it off as "culture" but some saw what we were trying to get across. Just because its "culturally acceptable" does not make it right to do. That goes for every culture.

Girl next door: My neighbor has a daughter of about 2. She is very cute. This is not the problem. The neighbor also has a hired maid. The maid is 13ish. She takes care of Esta, cooks, cleans, etc. She does not go to school. When my neighbor takes Esta and goes home to the village for the weekend she leaves the maid here by herself. This is also not okay with me. So I do my best to give this girl plenty of my stock of chocolate. I don't know what good this does her, but we laugh much together. I'm not ever really sure what we are laughing at since we have about 15 words in common.

Crazy dreams: I have never really had many dreams that I can remember, but every night I have very vivid often strange dreams. I have heard that of malaria medication before. I think it would be a bad idea to just stop taking my malaria pills because of the dreams... haha

Tomorrow I'm off to Kapchurwa with Julius. This will be my first Anglican experience. We may go hiking at Sippi (sp) falls there after the service depending on time etc. The school is very empty right now. The diploma students are on midterm break. There are only 4 students here. That is really all that I know. Oh I'm struggling to write my sermons for spiritual emphasis. I'm trying to determine what I am comfortable teaching about, and what things need to be taught about from what I have perceived as their spiritual deficiencies. That is a story for another time... You can ask me about that if you'd like, but I shan't ramble about that to the world.

Love and blessings. Thank you for your continued prayers and support!