A few notes

I want to tackle a tricky subject – Religion. Kenya is VERY Christian. Yes, there are some groups of Muslims and Hindus, but the Christians are very Christian. Christian Religious Education is part of the standard curriculum. The students at school pray each morning and before they eat. Almost everyone goes to church and there are Christian programs all over the TV.

This puts me in an odd situation. Joyce has the excuse that she is Buddhist, but when I tell people that I am not religious, many look at me as if that is not possible. They could accept that I follow another religion, but NO religion?? Just today at lunch I began eating and one of the teachers said to me “Jessica, you have started eating. Did you pray?” I have considered what I should do in such a situation and I have decided that I will be honest, even if they don’t like it. However, I avoid the subject if at all possible, especially with the kids.

That being said, the presence of such strong faith has made me do a lot of thinking. Here in the slums people have nothing. Barely a house, barely electricity, barely enough food. Yet what brings them together is their faith. They rely on it. They trust that something bigger is looking out for them and allowing them hope. They come together every Sunday and they work together on church sponsored projects. Even as a non-believer, I can see its value here, as a source of hope and strength and a form of infrastructure where little exists.

At first I didn’t like how religious Kenya seems to be, because it made me uncomfortable. Now maybe I need to use it to help me rather than hinder me.

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A few other small notes while I am here and still have battery power on my laptop…

I started watching another anime series yesterday, since I usually have some down time in the evenings and I can only take so many bad Spanish soaps on TV. Anyways, one of the characters said, “If you have money, life is the same no matter where you go. But without money, you adapt to wherever you are. That has its own merits.” It’s an interesting thought, and true. Here, I could be living in a big house with many things and it wouldn’t be so different from Canada. But I am living with the not-so-rich and therefore experiencing this place and their lives in a way very different to Canada.

Another note I can’t remember if I mentioned before is how people greet each other. They always shake hands, every day, in the morning and ask how you are. It would be rude not to shake someone’s hand.

The people at the school call me Teacher Jess-Ka, and I think it’s cute. In Kenya, my name has only two syllables.

I found out today that one of the girls in my Standard 3 class doen’t speak English or Swahili. She just moved here from the country and only speaks her Mother Tongue (Kenyans are usually tri-lingual, with their tribal language as their mother tongue). So even the regular teacher cannot speak to her. Luckily, on of the girls in the class also speaks her language and can help with translation. But that must be very difficult, to be taught in two different languages and understand neither of them.

That’s enough from me today!