Cross cultural living is a lot of fun..... and a lot of work. one of the things that we get to do is to find out some of the things that we didn't know. Even this thought goes against our cultural mindset. in America we are basically what we know. if you know how to change a tire, then if called upon you could be a "tire changer", if you are really good at math then often you will be seen as smart. The basic mentality of our home culture is that if you know then you have power, so even admitting that we don't know something is bad. which leads us to...
Who assigns "good/bad", "right/wrong", "OK/not OK"? there is a range of normal in every culture...with most people falling within this range (and occasionally some choosing to intentionally be out of the norm). It is very likely that the range of normal is so naturally ingrained that you don't notice when people are acting within that range, but you know when someone is operating outside of normal (even if you can't put into words "what normal is").
So I am admitting to 1) not knowing something and 2) that something is how to operate within our host culture's range of normal. If you are still reading this blog then you are family, close friends, or bored. so instead of continuing this boring set of revelations I'll just give some examples.
(some of the) Things that I don't know:
about food-
-playing with your food is ok ( when using it to eat other foods)
-you can and should eat every part of the chicken (including bones and organs)
-you can and should eat the kidneys of the goat raw and while it is still warm
-the soup made from the head of the goat is most flavorful
-whoever invented long-rice (spaghetti noodles) isn't from around here
-tables are for white people
-every day you should have enormous amounts of ugali (corn meal and water in cake form)
-you can not buy food more than 1-2 days in advance
-all good food tastes "sweet" even if there is nothing sweet about it.
-if you eat pork you are gross
-if you eat fish, then you must also eat snake and lizards (gross)
-any time is tea time
about cooking:
-recipes are for the white people
-measuring anything is for the white people
-cooking anything beyond the 6 dishes that everyone knows how to cook is a waste
about babies:
- it doesn't matter how much the baby is sweating it is cold and you need to put on more clothes
- feed the baby all of the time...
about kids:
-they go to school (age 3 and up), unless the is a greater family need
-they stay in school until 8th grade
-they continue school if they are smart, or you can afford for them to keep going
that is enough for now...maybe more later
No comments:
Post a Comment