a day in the life...

I was feeling a little down this morning…an email that I read before starting into my day?? The return to our “routine” after a few days away?? The fact that the nursing matron wasn’t there at our “appointed” meeting time…Who knows…
After doing a few errands at the school I headed toward the “dukas” (shops in Swahili and the common name for our shopping area, such as it is!
On my way I ran into Samuel, our Maasai friend who works as a guard for the school. He always greets us with friendly eagerness and openness to chat. We ended up in a conversation about family planning, educating his daughters, preventing early marriage for his children and the cultural challenges of his generation as they seek to help their children have more opportunities for their lives. An obvious privilege to get to be in this conversation!
Then I walked to the vegetable market where my friend Jean followed me out after I made my purchases. I sat on the ground with her where she was taking maize off the cob so it could dry on tarps on the ground…She told me about the different types of foods she cooks and I asked her a million questions. I have no idea what they do with many of the things that are for sale here! I hope we can arrange for her to come and teach me. We can.
After lunch our Swahili teacher, Edward, came. At the end of our lesson we ended up having a chat about differences between here and where we live… He is smart and well informed about many things. He had great questions.
Just before dinner Rachel came over. She was bringing me Samosas. I had fresh cookies so she sat down, ate a few and we had a little chat…about her children and mine, about her husband…who isn’t great, about her very elderly mom…and the funniest…about weight differences in our cultures. She could not believe that thin is considered so beautiful in America. I found a Vanity Fair that Alison gave me for the plane ride and announced…”we will not find one fat, or even chubby person in this magazine…even though America is full of larger people….” She could not believe it…and she did not think those thin people were attractive. She said, “you know, if a woman’s husband leaves her here, they will try to get fatter so he will feel bad and think he shouldn’t have left…” I burst out laughing telling her how we have the same syndrome…just the opposite. The world is crazy…
In the end...it was a perfect day....