I think I've mentioned that the intersection between modern and the, well, not so modern. For example, it's not uncommon, even in Nairobi, to see someone in traditional dress talking on a fancy cell phone.
During the rainy season it is really hard to predict when there the electricity will be turned off. Apparantly the substations aren't "waterproof" or something, so the power gets turned off, or something just goes wrong. Anyway, it's dark by around 7, so as I write this I have a candle lit to see but am using my laptop battery so that's how the computer is working. It just seems really funny to me to be using candlelight to type!
Just a couple other things that struck me as an interesting mix of contemporary and conventional: in the airport bathrooms, three of the stalls are "normal" toilets, while the fourth is a "squat one." (It "flushes," but you don't sit on anything). Last time I was there, there was a line for the bathroom, but I was able to go right to the front because the tourists making up the line didn't want to use the "squatter." I figured I've been in Kenya long enough to be used to interesting bathrooms...
In the staffroom at the school during lunch (so all the teachers were there, eating and doing normal teacher things, schools are somehow similar to the ones in the US), when a man walks in selling bedsheets! The other teachers did not seem phased by this at all, and some even examined the sheets. They thought it was funny I was so shocked by this.
The mission compound has watchmen for safety, and a Sister told me the ones at night keep bows and arrows rather than guns.
I'm sure there are so many other connections I'm missing, but hopefully this gives a bit of an idea of the mix of current and customary.
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I thought of another thing: In Nairobi, they have now established "smoking areas" (basically rooms in the middle of roundabouts where you can smoke)while everywhere else you are not allowed to smoke. However, other air environment issues are not a concern -- you can burn garbage wherever you want on the street etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd one more interesting one: Polygamy. Polygamy is legal in Kenya, although if the new constitution passes, both parties will have to agree to the taking of an additional wife. In the news lately has been the president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma. He has recently married his third wife -- at the age of 60 (the wife is probably half his age). The general opinion on polygamy seems to be "better to have wives openly than mistresses secretly." However, Zuma has just been discovered to have fathered several illegitimate children. Most marriages are between just two people, but in cultures where polygamy is traditional, despite "modern views" on so many issues, it is definitely still practiced.
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