TIA

For those of you who have traveled in foreign countries, you understand that there are cultural differences, some minor and some major. For example, Kenyans understanding of time is much different than ours. At lunch yesterday the waiter told us our lunch would be ready in twenty minutes. Twenty minutes is the standard answer to every question about time. Very rarely does it mean twenty minutes and at lunch yesterday, it actually meant ninety minutes!

If you are going someplace and you ask the driver how far, it’s always “Not far.” Soon you realize that every place in Kenya whether five miles away or five hundred miles away is not far. When I ask my friend Nawaz about Kenyans inability to understand time or distance he usual responds by saying, “TIA (This is Africa).”

Another one of those TIA things is hospitality. Hospitality is a very big deal in Kenya, much different than in the US, so when you visit someone in Kenya it is considered a blessing from God. It is customary for you to offer your guests something to drink and even something to eat. Usually you are either served a soda or chi tea. Chi tea is boiled with milk and has a much thicker consistency than American tea. Some people really like it and some don’t. Regardless, if someone offers you chi, it is a huge insult if you do not drink it. Fortunately over the years I have acquired a taste for chi so it is not as big a problem as it used to be but on my early trips to Kenya, I would dread it when the host brought out the thermos of chi. When we bring students to Kenya and they are served chi, we strategically seat students who like chi next to those who don’t and discreetly switch cups during our conversations so that when it is time to leave, all the cups are empty.

On Tuesday, we visited a school after we had just finished a big lunch and after our meeting, we were offered lunch! Not just a small plate, but a heaping plate of rice, vegetables, and meat. This was a poor school in the slums so for them to offer us lunch was a huge sacrifice. So what do you do when you are already full from lunch and someone offers you another lunch? You smile big and eat it and that’s exactly what we did.