Kenyan Lunch
Let me start by thanking everyone for your prayers. We are persevering and know that this is part of the process of us adjusting to living in Africa. It would happen, no matter where we were living, while we were in Virginia we spent many sessions discussing ways to "get through" culture shock. Prayer and reliance on the Lord are most important!
So, today, Tim and I got to go to lunch with our language teachers. We invited them at the beginning of the week and asked them to take us somewhere that was authentically Kenyan. We continued to reinforce that we wanted to go to a place that they would eat. However, we did state that we did not want to go someplace where we would get sick. We have 3 teachers because the learning method we are using is new and a couple of them are training in this method.
Anyway, we told them we would drive so they piled into the backseat of our car and off we went. We get ready to pull out of the driveway and Tim asks, "which way?" So we hear, "left", "right", "straight". Tim and I started cracking up, they each had a different answer! The "straight" was out of the question because we could not go straight. So we waited until the other 2 decided which direction we should go.
A side note, most Kenyans do not drive/have cars, so they do not give the best directions. Often they are either on foot or riding a matatu so they do not need to know which way to turn, only the stage or stop to get off.
They decided to go right and off we went. The next turn, we had the same dilemma but they finally figured it out. Traffic was really bad all day, but that is for another post. We went to the area where our main teacher lives. I am kicking myself because I did not take any pictures!
The place we went was much nicer than I expected, there was a nice table and chairs, and honestly we ate a feast. We had nyama choma (roasted meats) including kuku (chicken) and mbuzi (goat brought to the table on a cutting board with a huge butcher knife) along with ugali (maize that is made into grits type texture that you use to scoop up your food). We also had several veggie dishes, one tasted similar to pico de gallo with avocado and cucumbers, it was delicious. We also had chapatis (a tortilla type bread).
At the end of the meal, we were paying and our teacher told us not to tip (I have a serious problem with this!) because we would ruin their culture. We complied, eventhough I did not want to, and later we discussed why he did not want us to leave a tip. According to our teacher, they think of it as giving a bribe. While I do not completely understand this and I will continue to tip servers when I go out, I did get to share with our teachers why we think it is so important to give a tip to our servers according to our culture.
During our meal, we discussed if they really would eat at this restaurant with their families. We found out that they do not go out to eat very much, maybe 1 time a month at most. According to our teacher, it is very expensive to eat out and you spend the same amount as 1 weeks groceries when you go out. Well, that really interested me because I think food is incredibly expensive here and often we can eat out at certain places fairly cheap.
So, we began discussing the cost of chicken for them and they told me that a whole chicken costs 360 Ksh ($4.50) at their butcher. Well, that is A LOT cheaper than what I pay at the butcher near our house. The cost for the same size chicken is over $9 at our local butcher. So I bought 2 chickens on the spot, they have a few feathers on them but they are sitting in my freezer right now so we will see how they turn out.
Overall it was a really fun experience, which I needed today. Sometimes it gets a bit boring sitting in a classroom. It was fun getting to practice our lessons today and learning some new cultural things.
So, today, Tim and I got to go to lunch with our language teachers. We invited them at the beginning of the week and asked them to take us somewhere that was authentically Kenyan. We continued to reinforce that we wanted to go to a place that they would eat. However, we did state that we did not want to go someplace where we would get sick. We have 3 teachers because the learning method we are using is new and a couple of them are training in this method.
Anyway, we told them we would drive so they piled into the backseat of our car and off we went. We get ready to pull out of the driveway and Tim asks, "which way?" So we hear, "left", "right", "straight". Tim and I started cracking up, they each had a different answer! The "straight" was out of the question because we could not go straight. So we waited until the other 2 decided which direction we should go.
A side note, most Kenyans do not drive/have cars, so they do not give the best directions. Often they are either on foot or riding a matatu so they do not need to know which way to turn, only the stage or stop to get off.
They decided to go right and off we went. The next turn, we had the same dilemma but they finally figured it out. Traffic was really bad all day, but that is for another post. We went to the area where our main teacher lives. I am kicking myself because I did not take any pictures!
The place we went was much nicer than I expected, there was a nice table and chairs, and honestly we ate a feast. We had nyama choma (roasted meats) including kuku (chicken) and mbuzi (goat brought to the table on a cutting board with a huge butcher knife) along with ugali (maize that is made into grits type texture that you use to scoop up your food). We also had several veggie dishes, one tasted similar to pico de gallo with avocado and cucumbers, it was delicious. We also had chapatis (a tortilla type bread).
At the end of the meal, we were paying and our teacher told us not to tip (I have a serious problem with this!) because we would ruin their culture. We complied, eventhough I did not want to, and later we discussed why he did not want us to leave a tip. According to our teacher, they think of it as giving a bribe. While I do not completely understand this and I will continue to tip servers when I go out, I did get to share with our teachers why we think it is so important to give a tip to our servers according to our culture.
During our meal, we discussed if they really would eat at this restaurant with their families. We found out that they do not go out to eat very much, maybe 1 time a month at most. According to our teacher, it is very expensive to eat out and you spend the same amount as 1 weeks groceries when you go out. Well, that really interested me because I think food is incredibly expensive here and often we can eat out at certain places fairly cheap.
So, we began discussing the cost of chicken for them and they told me that a whole chicken costs 360 Ksh ($4.50) at their butcher. Well, that is A LOT cheaper than what I pay at the butcher near our house. The cost for the same size chicken is over $9 at our local butcher. So I bought 2 chickens on the spot, they have a few feathers on them but they are sitting in my freezer right now so we will see how they turn out.
Overall it was a really fun experience, which I needed today. Sometimes it gets a bit boring sitting in a classroom. It was fun getting to practice our lessons today and learning some new cultural things.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment!