relish in the absurdity

There are times in Kenya when I just have to laugh.  Most often, this is at myself.  There are some situations that are just so foreign, so culturally different, so confusing and there are some situations in which I am just so clumsy, so stupid, so ridiculous that I just laugh to myself and take a moment to be happy to be alive in Kenya.

There was the time I told our host brother, Paul, that we milk chickens in the United States and tried to blame it on the language barrier… we were speaking in English.

There was the time we were walking home after a heavy rain and got so stuck in the mud that I was bent double laughing, and then fell into a puddle.

There was a time we were leading a Girls Empowerment Team workshop and we had to ask 10 boys to help us construct our hand-washing structure…”but sometimes, girls, we really aren’t that strong.”

There was the time our mama got very concerned about “those spots on our faces” and we tried to pass off our acne as a reaction to the equatorial sun and she told us to stay inside so they would heal.

There was the time I introduced myself to a woman and she said, “it would help me if you changed your name to Cynthia.”

There was the time I went to visit my former host mama and she told me I had added a lot of weight since I joined university…whoops.

There was the time Mariah wasn’t feeling well and I went to sit down to breakfast and our mama told me I also had to take Mariah’s portion of 4 hard-boiled eggs in addition to my own.

There was the time at a Girls Empowerment Team workshop that the class 4 and 5 students asked me “do you know how to shake your hips?”

There was the time we were stuck inside a school for four hours because it was hailing on the equator… what?

There was the time I was trying to describe someone’s outfit and forgot that here, ‘pants’ means underwear… trousers, Callie, trousers.

There was the time the 2-litre of water was frozen and, as I attempted to pour it into a glass, it exploded all over the ugali and I screamed.

There was the time I was laughing so hard about the water explosion and the chicken-milking that I started crying and Paul said “please don’t cry, Callie, or I will also start.”

There were the hundred times when, visiting a school, I was told “Callie, we move” and 15 minutes into our walk I am told where we are moving.

There was the time we thought we were having a conversation with our mama about the farm and the next thing we knew we were being fitted for Kenyan dresses… there goes 2000 shillings.

The list goes on and on… and I love that it does.  There is so much in our days here, so much which could bring me down, cause me to lose my hope, exhaust me that it’s too much to also think about and analyze these other, often embarrassing moments.  Instead, it’s nice to just laugh and relish in the absurdity.