My Life in Kenya

Ok, so I have to explain the title.  There is a British comedy, As Time Goes By, with Judi Dench that I have watched on PBS for 2 decades.  Dench's husband on the show, Lionel Hardcastle, wrote a book called My Life in Kenya about some time he spent there.  Much of the show is based around the writing, publishing and promotion of this not so successful book. The show is hilarious, especially when people ask Lionel, "What's your book about?" Duh.

Today at my eye doctor appointment, I met a man from Kenya.  He is the assistant to my doctor (who is also Kenyan) and has lived here for several years.  We struck up a conversation about travelling and I told him about my project of studying other cultures.  I didn't even have to ask him about his life in Kenya.  He offered it completely unsolicited. 

One of the most interesting things he told me was when he first came to the US he was very surprised that when meeting people they would ask "What do you do?"  He didn't understand why they wanted to know this.  In Kenya no one asks you what you do.  Instead, they ask how you and your family are doing.  So he would keep asking his friends, "Why do people keep asking me what I do?"

Does this mean that Americans are more interested in what you do as opposed to who you are?  I don't believe so. There are so many different ways to make a living here, I think most of us are just interested in learning about them.  Like when you hear that someone manufactures and sells ring binders to large corporate accounts.  You think, huh, ring binders?  Well, why not?

Another story he told me was when you want to visit a friend in Keyna, you just show up to their house.  It's not uncommon for the visit to last 2-4 hours.  If you show up to a friend's house in the US they ask, "What do you want?"  An unexpected visit implies an emergency of some kind.

I would like to think that the idea of unexpected friendly visits sounds great to me.  But you know that feeling you get that makes your skin itch...when someone comes to the door and you have no makeup on and your hair is a disaster and your kitchen looks like it exploded?  Not exactly a set up for a relaxing visit.  The Kenyans must know something we do not.

He's lived in the United States long enough now that when he goes back to Kenya for a visit he suffers from reverse culture shock.  He thinks everything runs too slow paced and he gets frustrated. I think it just proves we can adapt to any living condition. 

And we are all the same...just the details are different.

I never considered Kenya on my list of possibilities.  But I think I might like to write  my own version of "My Life in Kenya".