I'm white.

The fact that I am usually the only white person I see all day is something worth discussing on this blog. I'm surprised I haven't gotten to that yet, how it feels to be white in a land where there are over 90% black people and then a few people from India.

In Nairobi, it wasn't so bad. I occasionally heard the call "mzungu!" but it was mostly children. Otherwise people didn't look at me any differently because I think they were used to seeing white folks. In Nairobi I was also able to go to places where there were loads of white people: nice restaurants, malls, coffee shops, etc. I could partake in American culture a bit and also spend time with other Americans. I could use slang and talk about the interesting parts of Kenyan culture.

Out in the field, it's a whole other story. I hear mzungu, or odiera (white person in Luo) constantly. Little kids literally chant "HOW AH YOO! HOW AH YOO!" as I walk or ride by. I am culturally expected to respond and ask them also how they are doing. But it's not just kids, it's also adults. It can be sexually harassing as well when it comes from men. It amounts to me constantly having to be on my guard, greeting people and positively representing white people and America.

Being white out here is also a double-edged sword. On one hand, people regard me as a special guest. They always run and get me a chair if I'm sitting on the ground. They always buy me a cold soda when I visit their home, and they make sure I'm comfortable. On the other hand, people can really wear you down. I get made fun of a lot, for the way I eat ugali, to the amount of food I eat, to the way I speak, to the way I dress - you get the idea. Most of the time I can laugh along with them, but it can be very exhausting at times as well.

One particularly frustrating thing is that any white person is just a white person, rather than a Swede, American, or Russian. I know that I am very different from someone from Russia: to start with, they speak a completely different language! But to a Kenyan, we're all the same. This leads to many people thinking I'm someone I'm not. To top it off, many people don't even know where the US is. I have been asked by professionals if the US is in North or South America more times than I can count! I have to be very patient when it comes to explaining where I am from. Sometimes I just want to blend in for once.

These are all problems that I can imagine any minority, including those in the United States, deal with on a daily basis: the feeling of being an outsider, everything you do being watched, the generalization of your heritage.. It's tough. Here in Kenya though it comes with the territory. It will be interesting to see if these things change after being in the same small community for six months.