A really hilarious misunderstanding between Armstrong and Jenny was brought to light tonight. So, I’ve mentioned before in my blog about how we ran out of peanut butter a couple weeks ago and we have really been craving some lately. Well, it’s really hard to come by because its not a popular African food so we cant get it anywhere around here. You can only find it in the bigger cities so anytime Armstrong has to go to Machakos or Nairobi we ask him to check and see if he can find some in the in supermarket if he has time. Well, he was over here tonight and he has to go to Machakos tomorrow so Jenny mentioned about the peanut butter again for him to check for it. Well, we weren’t sure if he really knew what we were talking about because he seemed kind of confused so I brought the empty jar of peanut butter from the kitchen (that we save for Elizabeth to use) to show him what it looks like. Well then, he tells us that he has a container of that same stuff that he bought for us on his last trip to Nairobi in his office! What?? We were so confused. We asked him why it was in his office and he didn’t bring it to the house. He proceeds to tell us that when he got home from that trip and came to our house the next day to give us the food he had picked up, he had accidentally left the peanut butter in his office. He asked Jenn is we still needed it (not telling her he had already bought it) and she didn’t want to make a big deal out of it and have him stress out about trying to still find some so she told him “its ok, we’ll make it,” meaning that we’ll survive without it. Well, Armstrong thought that she literally meant that we were going to make it…like we had peanuts we were going to crush and make it from scratch, haha! Wow! He just figured, “Ok, I’ll leave the peanut butter in the office if they are going to make their own.” So the peanut butter has been sitting in the office for like a week or more while we have been up here craving it! Oh my goodness, did we have a good laugh! It was the funniest thing that has happened since I have been here, for sure. It was a classic cultural misunderstanding. She meant one thing and he understood something completely different. It’s amazing how the use of one word can create such a misunderstanding. I guess it’s at least a good that the only repercussion was that we went without peanut butter for a little while because cultural misunderstandings can definitely have much bigger, negative effects. So we had a really good laugh and then Armstrong went down to the office and brought up the peanut butter. So, Yay! We finally have our peanut butter!!
Another funny thing happened at school earlier today. Jenny had a marriage proposal by one of the teachers, Mr. Lucas. Its not uncommon here actually. It’s definitely not the first time it has happened. They don’t come right out and ask you directly though. Nothing here is direct actually. We constantly have to try to figure out what people are really trying to say or ask when they talk to us. So I totally had no idea what he was getting at in the conversation and that made it all the funnier. Jenny and I were just having a casual conversation with Mr. Lucas and Mr. Kingo’o, the head teacher, and Mr. Lucas says, “you know, I am getting married.” And I, totally oblivious as to where this was going, ask “really, what month?” Haha! Jenny laughed! She totally knew what he was saying. She says “really? Have you found a wife yet?” Not the typical response to news that someone is “getting married.” So he laughs and says “not yet” and Jenny, laughing also, asks “is this a marriage proposal?” And, yes, it definitely was. Oh, Africa. Some things there is just no explanation for. The same kind of thing happened at church. When it was near the end of the service the pastor was wishing us safe travels back home, in front of the whole congregation, and he told us to return again with many “sisters” because they are in need of them here. What! Apparently, all the Africans want to marry a white girl so they can be rich; another huge, but real, misconception. Um yeah, we’ll be sure to go home, gather all of our friends and bring them to Africa as soon as possible to marry all your men so they can come back to America with us. No problem. Sometimes, I just wonder about these people.
