Mbita.

Last summer I was lucky enough to travel to Kenya. While I was there I helped out at a school for orphans and taught bible and art classes. I also was involved in ministries for widows of the town that I was in, which is called Mbita.

The experience was life changing (cliche as that statement is). I was swept off my feet by the unique culture as I spent time with the beautiful women and children of Kenya. One of the most exciting things was the way that I was able to be companionable with people from a culture so contrasting to my own.

Handily for me, English is one of the national languages of Kenya. Therefore all of the children speak English (because their school classes are conducted in English), and many of the women speak English as well. However, it was interesting to see how one word can have different connotations, meanings, or uses in different cultures. My favorite example of this phenomenon is the use of the phrase "How are you?". We Americans ask "How are you?" and expect at least a polite answer of "fine", but Kenyans tend to use "How are you?" as a greeting that does not require a response. In Mbita, "How are you?" is interchangable with "Hi!" or "Hello". When we happened to drive past a group of children we would be met with a cheerful chorus of "How are you! How are you!!!".

The key to relating to the idiosyncrasies of the language of another culture is to listen, identify the differences, and then act accordingly. Kenyans say: "Hello-how-are-you!" so I say "Hello-how-are-you!" right back to them. Kenyans love to shake your hand for an awkwardly long amount of time, so I shake back for an equally awkwardly long amount of time.