Sasa! Culture Shock.

Sasa means "hey", an informal greeting you can use for peers.
Day 11 - part 2

        As I sat talking with Madame about my country and hers, the students all starred at me periodically, whispered about the mzungu with red hair, flashed me smiles, and crowded around me to grade their work when called upon to do so. Big, beautiful eyes, they were. Precious. All of them were very well behaved, really. And when they were asked a question that they got right, they would chant, “Well done, well done! [Name of student] is a very, very good [boy/girl]. Tippy ta, tippy ta, up, up, up! And a little kiss, mwah!” They would also start the day with a call-and-response:
              Caller – God is good!
              Students – All the time!
              Caller – All the time!
              Students – God is good!
             All – Because that is His nature!
Those made me smile and I will always remember their chants.
       Their uniforms were baggy on their skinny bodies and their wrists and ankles were boney. I learned that many of them don’t go home to dinner every night, and there is one student that walks many miles a day starting at 4am to get to school around 7am. The school provides porridge for the students that contain a lot of nutrients and fat in the mornings, and rice and beans for their lunch. That was part of the appeal to their families – the students are being fed. This school, even though I was verging on culture shock, was a light to the students and the community in their darkness. Think about it: children from Muslim homes being immersed in a Christian culture every day as they are being fed physically and spiritually. Wow. It still blows my mind. This ministry started as a medical mission and after years of growing opposition from the Muslims in Kwale district, it is now a school that is reaching the children and eventually the parents for Christ. I definitely saw the Lord’s hand in this school. After watching Madame Purity's class for a half hour, all the kindergarteners went outside for their exercise with the teachers. Bea and I had a blast jumping and running with them. They also played a game that had something to do with sending a letter and it was similar to our duck-duck-goose. I wish I wrote it down...
          The next part of our day was one of the hardest for me. We walked to the staff room around 10am for a chai break with the rest of the teachers while the students collected their porridge. I entered the room and smiled at the inhabitants but I wondered what they thought of having two American girls among them as they reluctantly smiled back. Mama Nora sat us down (she went out of her way to get us a bench inside to sit on), put two bowls of mandazi (like a flat, triangular donut but not as sweet) in front of us, and prepared two cups of chai while we waited and I surpassed the urge to help her. I knew in my head that we were supposed to eat all of the food put in front of us, but it was the most difficult thing I had experienced in Kenya so far. I really appreciated their hospitality and they treated us so well. However, I kept looking outside at the children who didn’t always have three meals a day and the delicious food almost choked me as I tried to chew and swallow. I did the best I could, but felt terrible when Mama looked at us in disappointment and heard the other teachers talking around us rapidly in Kiswahili.  Hello, culture shock. I don’t think we have been formally introduced before. I don't like you very much. Lord, make it go away!
         Bea felt the same way and we shared knowing glances as we waited for chai break to be over. Teachers came in and out, students stopped by the open door to satisfy their curious eyes, and I was silently praying that whole morning - 7:30 to 10:30. The emotions I went through that morning were overwhelming. There was a desire to escape somewhere to recollect my thoughts and make them clear so I could understand the part of that culture I couldn’t grasp. What I knew I should have done and what I did was a reflection of the conflict inside me. And it was strong, that feeling. My words seem to leave out most of the emotion, but culture shock isn’t something you can describe - it is something that has to be experienced.
          By God’s mercy, our friend Evans came to the school to take us and Pastor to a mission in Banga (west of Kwale). With him was Mama Nora’s sister, Sally; a youth pastor; and Grace, a new administrator for Mwangaza who was closer to my age. As soon as Bea and I greeted the others and got into the van, I could feel her relax and I took a deep breath. This was the "escape" I needed to break from the confusion. We went down Kwale road for a while and I listened to the conversation around me, occasionally contributing while my eyes gazed at the landscape passing by the window. The road went from asphalt to dirt as we went through the actual town of Kwale and into a national park (Shimba Hills Elephant Sanctuary). Our senses heightened as Bea and I watched baboons stare back at the van while we hoped to see the magnificent African elephants. My giggles came out during this 2 hour ride as we experienced the bumpiest dirt road I have ever been on in my life and Sally’s reaction to it was were most of my giggles were directed. Sally reminded me of my grandmother when she plays video games. 
         The ride was eye opening as we saw the scenery change from humid, luscious green to dry brown. Pastor explained that many people west of Kwale don’t have enough clean water and have to resort to the dirty stream water for survival. This was an area affect by the East African drought. Our eyes witnessed skinny children gathering brown water in a small river and skinny cows grazing on short grasses. Finally, we arrived at the mission in Banga - a house, a church, and a water well. We met the pastor and his family who immediately showed us their property and the new well that had been dug where many people gather to receive clean water for their families. Grace and Evans asked us questions as we walked; I was so thankful for their immediate friendship. They were approachable and I related to them better than the others. It is a blessing that may seem small to you, but it meant so much to me to have those friends among us.
           After being welcomed to Banga with a meal of Kuku (chicken) and chapatti (flat bread, like a tortilla) that implied that we were honored guests, we started the long, bumpy ride back to Matuga village. After having missed the elephants earlier, Pastor and the elders in the van were so intent on finding one for us to see. My heart jumped as the big, grey ears of an African elephant emerged through the foliage. "YES! So much more amazing than at the zoo, and even the ones at the zoo don't have the big ears!!" Mama Nora had dinner ready when we arrived back home and little Blessings greeted us with a smile. She finally started to break away from her shyness and I started to realize how much of a literal blessing she would be to me during my time there. Children her age are practically the same around the world as they are just beginning to learn their own cultural norms, and that was a relief to have that stability in a culture that had differences from my own.
         After the van left for Mombasa, taking our new friends and acquaintances with it, Mama and Pastor sat with us as we had chai while Josephine cleaned up. I knew Bea was as tired as I was and we were in need of our own private conversation to debrief our day. Then Pastor asked us how our day was, how we were feeling. My whole being was instantly full of gratitude as I answered honestly about getting used to the culture and briefly spoke of the culture shock. That instant confirmed that my host family was special and they truly cared for us no matter how many cultural mistakes we had made and would make. We prayed as a “family” and were dismissed for bed. As we prepared, Bea and I whispered about our feelings and then feel asleep under our mosquito net after I wrote in my journal and prayed. The Muslim call to prayer from a near by mosque rang in my ears and my eyelids fluttered to close.