Episode 16: Karibu Kenya! (Welcome to Kenya!)

We have no weapons, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. Beat the pots, bang the pans, this is a revolution. War makes us peaceful, the leaders kill their people, the earth is burned and soiled, the future's never bought, the lesson's in the present, the journey's the exception, but we have no weapons, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. We have no power, we only have pots and pans. How are you learning Korean and Japanese, or how have you learned Korean and Japanese? I use Duolingo. You're a total multilingualist, aren't you? Yep. What has encouraged you to learn all of these languages? Well, mostly because I feel more like Africans and Asians are more related to each other, both culture-wise and the way we do things. Really? Yeah, it's like the same. We're like the same. Can you give an example? Well, Asians value family and Africans value family. We love our culture and they love their culture, too. Yeah, so both are kind of what we would call collective societies. Latin America is really similar to that, too, where family is like the number one thing in culture. Yes. Beautiful. Okay, I've got a little quiz for you. We're going to compare British English with American English, and I've got a little vocabulary list. And we've already heard you mention this. You kept saying we call it supper, you call it dinner. Well, I'll have you know that older people do use the word supper, and I would say it's really kind of a country term in the United States, a rural term. I don't use it because I'm not old yet. Actually, I am old, but I do not use the word supper. Okay, are you ready? Yep. If I were in Kenya and asked for a biscuit, what would I receive? For you guys, you call that cookies? That's what I'm looking for. There you go. You're one for one. If I were in Kenya or in Great Britain and wanted to rent a flat, what would I be renting? An apartment. Oh, you're English. You're American. English is strong. Two for two. I guess maybe there might be a tire, or in my case, in my Honda Fit, I would put a lot of just a bunch of junk in it. And I actually just made a joke with that, but you might not get it. But I would look in the boot of my car. Nothing. Isn't it called a boot? Maybe it's called in America a trunk. Oh, yeah, a trunk. I forgot about that. Okay, good. I got you on that one. And, of course, we're looking out the window here. There's a beautiful forest, but there's also a very large car park. Parking lot. You got it. And I don't know if this is a real one you would use, but if I were sick, I might go to the chemist shop. Yep. Chemist. Well, yes. In your country, I would. Pharmacy. Yes, you got it. You got it. Do you really call it a chemist shop? Yep. Here, that would sound like there would be a mad scientist with smoking beakers and mixology. What if I ordered chips in Kenya? Fry. Yeah. What if I asked for crisps? Chips. Potato chips, yes. And then, of course, what if I'm driving my car? Which side of the road do you drive on in Kenya? The left. On the left side. I will never drive in your country. What if I came across a diversion? An U-turn? No. A junction? You're giving me all this high-level vocabulary, but no. In America, we would call it a detour. Oh. A detour, which there are a lot of around our school. Oh. If I needed to throw something away, I might say, where is the rubbish? Or I have rubbish. You mean trash? Trash or garbage. Trash can. This is a good one, and it's a very important one. Where is the loo? The bathroom. I hope you knew that one. And now that I'm a grandfather, this word's very important if I ever take him to Kenya. Do you have an extra nappy? Papers. You got it. Good job. I think you went A for 10, and that's a B, and that's passing. I know you have higher expectations than Bs, huh? Yeah. All right. Hey, so I went in, and I was into the Internet, and I was researching English in Kenya, and I came across the dialect that's called Kenyan English. Can you explain that a little bit to me? So Kenyan English is mostly just British English, but most people have a different accent. Okay. And I was reading maybe it's kind of like Spanglish. It's kind of like a mixture of a little bit of Swahili. Oh, yeah. Yes. Okay. So it's a mixture of Swahili, the local language, with English? Yes. Okay. Most of the people from the coast, those speak like pure English. No, pure Swahili. You won't even find them mixing English and Swahili. Really? Yeah. So if I'm on the coast of Kenya on the Indian Ocean, correct? Mm-hmm. I better know some Swahili? Yeah. Jumba? Jumbo. Jumbo. Oh, my gosh. The easiest way you could say hi is sasa, and then someone would reply with poa. Beautiful. Where would they speak maybe this Kenyan English, this blend? All the rest of Kenya. All the rest of Kenya? Yeah. And then I guess if you're basically reading, it might be more British English? Yep. British English. Let's talk a little bit about adapting to a new home, adapting to a new culture here in Salem, Virginia. What have been some of the challenges for you? Mostly about school. Uh-huh. Everything is different. How so? Well, for example, when you need to change from another subject to another subject, most of us, we like stay in one class, and the teachers are the ones who are supposed to come in. Most of the time, not even most of the time, all the time, phones aren't allowed at school. You'd be given computers, but phones aren't allowed. And you'd have a uniform, but here people wear what they want. The math is also different, but kind of similar. The math? The geometry, yeah. Uh-huh. The math is different. And how you spell the words in math is also different. Describe the uniform you wore in Kenya. Well, in my school, I wore a brown sweater with, okay, everything was brown except the socks and shoes. The shoes were black, the socks were white, and for the boys, the socks were gray and had stripes of brown. And my dress, it was checked, checked brown, white, and red. It was kind of pretty, and it had a brown tie. For prefects, prefects are like the head of the class, they would wear a striped tie. Did you prefer, or now that you are able to wear whatever you want, which one would you prefer, the uniform or no uniform? I'm kind of fine with either. Okay, okay. Usually people have a strong opinion on that, and surprisingly, the majority of my students actually prefer having a uniform. And I think that's way better. Yeah? Does it make life easier? Yes. You don't have to choose what you're wearing every day? Yeah, especially when you wake up in a bad morning. You can pick whatever you want and get out. Exactly. Okay. What about food? Has it been easy to find ingredients to cook traditional Kenyan food here? No. No? No. Most of the time, if you want to cook traditional Kenyan food, we go to Mexican shops. Really? Yeah, or order them from Walmart. And Americans, they don't have spices. And if they do, it's not spicy enough. I always have trouble finding cumin seeds at Kroger. Kroger, if you're listening, stock some cumin seeds. All right. Do you know what that is? No. See, I knew a spice that you didn't. That's one for me. Let's talk about friends. Oh, yeah. You have met a really amazing young lady who has also been on our podcast, and she's given some similar answers to you. You have this really great, beautiful friendship with Sahar. And Sahar is an amazing human being. And I know you just said there are a lot of similarities between Asian culture and African culture, but this is why I love teaching EL, because what other place in the world other than a big city can you find a young lady from Nairobi, Kenya, sitting with a young lady from Afghanistan? And your cultures are very different. But what led you to become friends? Mostly because we relate to each other the most. We're from another country, just dropped in America, don't know anything about it. And the thing that brought us together the most is that we value family. We prefer spending time with the whole family. And I mean everyone, cousins, aunties, uncles. That's the best time we have. And then food. We love our cultural food, not junk food as much. Not to mention, how many languages can Sahar speak? I don't know, like five or six. I think she's on her fifth language as well. And you're both taking Spanish this year. Anything else with Sahar? I like the way she dresses. She looks matching. Both of you are total fashionistas. You are just like head to toe, both of you are so fashionable. Thank you. And of course she's lucky to have the hijab as well, to add to her fashion sense. Sarah is in. Who puts her children on the line. Sarah is in. Who walks just to stay blind. Sarah is in. Sarah is in. Who color codes are green. Sarah is in. Seems there's no relief. There's been talk of peace through power. There's been talk of peace through strength. But when the underdog gets over. You said something really sweet happens when a new student comes to your school in Kenya. Well, when a new student comes in Kenya, they'll have their own welcoming committee. Like a group of girls or boys just welcome the student. They introduce them to other people, the teachers, the subjects and stuff. If they have a problem, they'll teach them. And then they'll stay together until another student comes and then the cycle goes on. And I find that different from here because when you come to this school, you have to find everything by yourself. Yeah, we do pair you up with somebody to take you around the school. But we certainly don't have a banner that says welcome. But you just gave me an idea. I think we need to do that. Most of the time the welcoming committee is done by the girls themselves. The teachers don't even know. I love it. They just come in class and everyone is happy that there's a new student. It was like the best thing of the year. If you get a new student, that's the best. We're going to borrow that idea because as an EL teacher, I get new students frequently. Sure. All right, we're going to talk about that after the podcast and start planning a welcoming committee. Anything else that is different between school here and in Kenya? What about lunches or maybe your school year, length of the school year? Any rules that you find strange here? Well, one, the lunch. If you compare the lunch from our former school and here. Well, we just read from your cookbook, so we already know your cuisine is pretty darn good. Sometimes it depends with the school. If it's a private school, you'll eat better lunches. If it's a public, I think mostly you can carry your own lunch. Sometimes you can buy the food from the school. What I find most different here is that you can eat in class. Yeah, I think it's becoming more frowned upon. Was that an absolute no-no at home? Yeah. Mostly if you were in kindergarten, you'd eat in class. You'd be taking the front of the class to a corner and you'd eat there standing. Oh, gosh. Most of the time you wouldn't want to. After class, you can eat your snacks if you want. But it came to a point where the school just banned snacks. Only fruits were allowed in school. No Takis. No Takis. Have you become addicted to Takis yet? I haven't tried them yet. Oh, my gosh. Don't because just do yourself a favor. Don't eat them. I think Sahar is addicted to them. She doesn't even look like it. Okay. I'm sure she'll appreciate that comment when she listens to the podcast. Okay, I read something really, really amazing about your city. As you know, I hike and I kayak and I mountain bike and I spend my weekends in the mountains here. But I was so jealous when I looked at a photograph of the Nairobi National Park, and there's giraffes and black rhinos and lions and literally leopards and every animal you can think of with the city landscape behind them. Have you been? That's a silly question. I know you've been. Can you describe it for me? Well, maybe when I was a kid. I probably don't remember. Yeah, we went there. And most of the time, if you want to go through the city or to reach the center of the city, you'd go through it. Really? Do you actually have to enter the national park to get to your city in some cases? Yeah, sometimes. Maybe you'd go beside the national park, like the road is right next to the park, and you'd see giraffes, black rhinos, buffaloes, and so many animals. That's amazing. It was rare to see lions, though. Carnivores, it was very rare to see them. They'd mostly be inside the park. Yeah, cats do not want to be seen by the public, right? No. Do you miss that? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I can't even imagine. Fun fact, by the way. What's that? Nairobi National Park is the only park in the whole world to be in the middle of its capital city. Please come to Kenya. You'd have the time of your life. And if you want to have a better experience when you come to Kenya, it's best that you know some Swahili or maybe half of it. Everyone would welcome you with open arms. Beautiful. Literally. It doesn't matter the accent. If you already know Swahili, you'd be welcomed nicely. And, you know, maybe you don't know. I've been a distance runner since I was 13 years old. So whenever I would watch the New York City Marathon or the Chicago Marathon, the Kenyan runners were always the top ten. Do you have any distance running in your family? No, not that I know of. No? No. And so that's one of the reasons I've always thought of Kenya. And whenever I Google image it and just read about it, it just seems like this spectacular, beautiful place. And, of course, as a lover of mountains, someday I must hike Kilimanjaro. You should go to Mount Kenya. Mount Kenya, yes, absolutely. Any other places I need to visit when we visit Kenya? Maybe if you need a place to stay, you can go to the Panari Hotel. Panari Hotel. Why Panari Hotel? It's like the best hotel in the city. I haven't been there, though, but I've heard a lot about it. Beautiful. It's very nice. Is there anything you want people to know about your culture that maybe they get wrong, anything you would like them to know about you that you think they might get wrong? We don't keep plants in the house. You don't keep plants in the house? We don't. Lions. We don't have lions. Oh, you don't have lions in the house. Well, that makes a lot more sense. I hope nobody thought that you kept lions in the house. Kenya has always been a future destination for me. But after this experience, it may just have taken its place at the top. Incredible cuisine with spices obtained from the ancient Indian Ocean trade routes, mountains so grand that they're commonly found within literature, and, of course, a welcoming people with a rich culture. Thank you, Prisca and the Abade family, for sharing details about your Kenyan way of life. I truly enjoyed our time together. Thank you, Taj Weeks, for your beautiful sound, but also for your heart that overflows with love for children at risk. And thank you, listeners, for joining us on another episode of Pots, Pans, and Ritos. But most importantly, thank you for being an ally to English learners everywhere. Thank you. We won't bend about. We keep on trotting. We have got the power. We keep on trotting.