Ndizi au Machungwa?
The title means "Banana or Orange?" in Kiswahili. Which, believe it or not, is a question you get asked quite often in Kenya these days!
It refers to Kenya's new constitution, which is up for referendum in November. Kenyans were promised a new constitution something like 15 years ago, and when current president Kibaki took office a few years ago, it was one of his promises to get a new consitution put in place. It has taken a loooong time, and a lot of argument, but there is a draft to be voted on. The problem? Not everyone likes this new draft, as you might imagine. A lot of the disagreement goes along tribal lines... Kibaki of course supports the new constitution, and as he is Kikuyu, lots of Kikuyus support it too. The Luo tribe out in the west have typically been the opposition to the government, and they have been against the new draft. So the "Yes" side has taken up the banana as their symbol, and the "no" side has adopted the orange as theirs. So it isn't uncommon these days to be asked whether you are an orange or a banana. As a PCV, I'm not allowed to get involved in local politics, but it is really interesting to be in Kenya right now. I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of the draft, but they're really hard to come by (even here... more so out in places in Luoland like Kisumu where they've taken to burning them).
Not much going on for me, but I thought I'd take the time to tell you about the fun goings-on of other volunteers here in Kenya. One of my friends got to site, she lives in this little cute rural village at a health dispensary. She has an outside bathroom and latrine, called a choo. The first week at site, she apparently discovers that she has not just a choo spider (these are very large and quite common), oh no, she has a choo BAT. And it doesn't just hang out in the rafters of the choo, she actually saw it flying out of the hole in the ground! For the non-choo users out there, the choo is basically a structure with a concrete slab in the floor, that has a smallish hole that leads to a pit. Not to get too graphic, you position your feet on either side of the hole, squat, and do your business. Now having a bat fly out of the hole you are about to squat over is somewhat disconcerting. So many text messages to many people ensued, and my friend found out that she was in fact not alone in having strange pets in her bathroom. Another volunteer (in the same province, no less!) also has choo bats. According to him, it is like some horrible nightmare that you had during potty training.
At least the only 'pets' I've got in my bathroom are spiders! (never thought I'd be glad for that!)
It refers to Kenya's new constitution, which is up for referendum in November. Kenyans were promised a new constitution something like 15 years ago, and when current president Kibaki took office a few years ago, it was one of his promises to get a new consitution put in place. It has taken a loooong time, and a lot of argument, but there is a draft to be voted on. The problem? Not everyone likes this new draft, as you might imagine. A lot of the disagreement goes along tribal lines... Kibaki of course supports the new constitution, and as he is Kikuyu, lots of Kikuyus support it too. The Luo tribe out in the west have typically been the opposition to the government, and they have been against the new draft. So the "Yes" side has taken up the banana as their symbol, and the "no" side has adopted the orange as theirs. So it isn't uncommon these days to be asked whether you are an orange or a banana. As a PCV, I'm not allowed to get involved in local politics, but it is really interesting to be in Kenya right now. I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of the draft, but they're really hard to come by (even here... more so out in places in Luoland like Kisumu where they've taken to burning them).
Not much going on for me, but I thought I'd take the time to tell you about the fun goings-on of other volunteers here in Kenya. One of my friends got to site, she lives in this little cute rural village at a health dispensary. She has an outside bathroom and latrine, called a choo. The first week at site, she apparently discovers that she has not just a choo spider (these are very large and quite common), oh no, she has a choo BAT. And it doesn't just hang out in the rafters of the choo, she actually saw it flying out of the hole in the ground! For the non-choo users out there, the choo is basically a structure with a concrete slab in the floor, that has a smallish hole that leads to a pit. Not to get too graphic, you position your feet on either side of the hole, squat, and do your business. Now having a bat fly out of the hole you are about to squat over is somewhat disconcerting. So many text messages to many people ensued, and my friend found out that she was in fact not alone in having strange pets in her bathroom. Another volunteer (in the same province, no less!) also has choo bats. According to him, it is like some horrible nightmare that you had during potty training.
At least the only 'pets' I've got in my bathroom are spiders! (never thought I'd be glad for that!)
posted by Erin @ 10:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home