1) Power cuts and using a head torch for everything
2) Cold showers...because my house didn't have warm ones
2a) 2% water pressure showers...only did those on the dirtiest of occasions because the water
was cold but constant
3) Bucket showers....using a bucket filled half with cold water and then the other half with
a kettle of boiled water if there was electricity or gas boiled if not. Then
use a pail and pour over yourself.
***3a) bucket showers by candle light, happened once when power was out and it was the
most unromantically romantic shower that I ever had! :D
4) Squatting toilets!
4a) Squatting toilets without toilet paper! Had to carry toilet paper wherever I went
because the odds of a toilet stall with toilet paper was slim and it was always a delight
when there was some!
4b) Squatting toilets, or any toilet really that you put water down to flush! And to save
water use the old saying "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown then flush it down"
5) The word Mzungo...shouted at me wherever I go, as annoying as it was then I kind of miss it
already.
6) Greeting people! In the typical fashion: "Jambo!"--> "Sijambo" or and more commonly:
person 1= "Mambo" (how are you)
person 2= "Poa, vipi?" (I'm fine and you?)
person 1= "Safi! or Poa! or Nzuri!" (fine)
6a) and you are always fine even if your feeling the worst and your arm is dangling off your
body and your parents both just died, you are still fine.
6b) and everyone always greets everyone, even as you are walking past them you continue
the series of greetings until it is finished although the original person is already several
meters past you by then....never really understood that one.
7) Little children smiling and greeting you.
"Hello" me: Hello
"how are you?" (in their cute swahili accents) me: Good thanks! and how are you?
"Fine!" and that's sometimes as far as their english goes.
7a) and then you'll sometimes get cheeky ones that continue with:
"give me you money" "give me 100 shillings" with their open palms stretched out
8) Grass cutting: using machetes, but they do quite a good job.
9) Single cows and/or goats tied up on the side of the road eating their patch of grass.
10) Washing my clothes outside with hand soap and buckets of water, then hanging them on the
bushes to dry.
Among so many other things...and I'm not really kidding about this list, I do quite miss all of this even though they are so unusual but that is why I enjoyed it most!
2) Cold showers...because my house didn't have warm ones
2a) 2% water pressure showers...only did those on the dirtiest of occasions because the water
was cold but constant
3) Bucket showers....using a bucket filled half with cold water and then the other half with
a kettle of boiled water if there was electricity or gas boiled if not. Then
use a pail and pour over yourself.
***3a) bucket showers by candle light, happened once when power was out and it was the
most unromantically romantic shower that I ever had! :D
4) Squatting toilets!
because the odds of a toilet stall with toilet paper was slim and it was always a delight
when there was some!
4b) Squatting toilets, or any toilet really that you put water down to flush! And to save
water use the old saying "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown then flush it down"
5) The word Mzungo...shouted at me wherever I go, as annoying as it was then I kind of miss it
already.
6) Greeting people! In the typical fashion: "Jambo!"--> "Sijambo" or and more commonly:
person 1= "Mambo" (how are you)
person 2= "Poa, vipi?" (I'm fine and you?)
person 1= "Safi! or Poa! or Nzuri!" (fine)
6a) and you are always fine even if your feeling the worst and your arm is dangling off your
body and your parents both just died, you are still fine.
6b) and everyone always greets everyone, even as you are walking past them you continue
the series of greetings until it is finished although the original person is already several
meters past you by then....never really understood that one.
7) Little children smiling and greeting you.
"Hello" me: Hello
"how are you?" (in their cute swahili accents) me: Good thanks! and how are you?
"Fine!" and that's sometimes as far as their english goes.
7a) and then you'll sometimes get cheeky ones that continue with:
"give me you money" "give me 100 shillings" with their open palms stretched out
8) Grass cutting: using machetes, but they do quite a good job.
9) Single cows and/or goats tied up on the side of the road eating their patch of grass.
10) Washing my clothes outside with hand soap and buckets of water, then hanging them on the
bushes to dry.
Among so many other things...and I'm not really kidding about this list, I do quite miss all of this even though they are so unusual but that is why I enjoyed it most!
Wow what an experience... Everyone should live in a new culture like that for awhile. Great job with the internship! although i still have to read some of your previous posts...
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