Can you pass the Culture Please…

Many missionaries often speak of cultural barriers and what it’s like to live or at least survive in a culture that’s not their own. Many struggle with this process and some embrace it to a fault, but nonetheless it is a process and I seem to find myself somewhere in the middle. I’ve been thinking for the last few days about how to convey this in a way that will make the culture “come alive” and this in and of itself is a daunting task, but this is Kenya, so I have plenty of time to figure it out… The following is my best attempt.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN A CULTURE NOT YOUR OWN WHEN…

• You wave hello, but you are really saying come here
• You chase the chicken in the morning and eat her for dinner that evening
• You begin every dish with Kasuku (Crisco), onions, and tomatoes
• Flushing the toilet requires drawing water from the well
• Taking a bath means collecting the rain water and warming it to your desired temperature
• Going to town requires a long walk plus a crazy 30 minute ride sitting on a strangers lap next to a lady with a live chicken in a bag.
• You wake up when the roster crows and go to bed at dusk
• You watch babies toddle around an open fire and small kids cut sugarcane with a knife as big as they are and the adults don’t seem to mind.
• The physical education classroom doubles as a pasture for a donkey, goats, and cattle (they actually serve as the lawn mower)
• You call for a driver to pick you up and it’s no problem if they are 3 hours late… this is SOOOOO common
• Nothing at the market has a price tag so if you are gullible you pay too much and if you are smart you pay very little (the high price is mazungu price and the low price is the African price)
• Doing laundry requires a machine with two arms, 10 fingers, a few basins, and a bar of soap… not to mention a few good hours of sunlight and a metal sheet fence for drying
• A jigger coming forth from the body is explained away as nothing other than witchcraft (google Jigger if your interested)
• A funeral consists of an all night vigil of drums and chanting
• You begin to dream in a language not your own and you can’t understand your own dreams
• Dishes and children and washed in buckets
• The night watchmen carry bows, arrows, and flashlights
• The internet costs a fortune and it takes 20 minutes to load your Facebook profile page
• You see people walking along the road suddenly stop to pee and then continue on their way
• The options for brushing your teeth are going outside or standing over the toilet. Aka the hole in the ground.
• You can’t tell which smells worse… you or the sheets on your bed
• You are speaking the same language but you can’t understand one another


This is my life… this is where I live…. This is where I serve… this is Kenya!

Now some of you may be saying better you than me, or wow that sounds tough, but allow me to share with you my favorite things about this culture:

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN A CULTURE NOT YOUR OWN WHEN:

• Children prepare food and wash their own clothes even as early as 6 years old
• Children sit quietly at their desks even when the teachers are not around
• Children recite numbers, letters, sounds and words as they play on the swing set… they do this for hours!
• People are more important than the day’s agenda
• People take time to breath and say no worries a lot!
• Cleanliness is important even if you are sweeping dirt floors.
• Every meal begins with a prayer thanking God for providing today’s food
• Every resource is used to it’s fullest…. Nothing goes to waste.
• You fix what is broken instead of just going out and buying a new one
• As people pass by they throw up their hand and wave with a smile
• The entire house comes together in the evening to help with all the chores
• Children walk hours to school each morning and arrive at 7 am and leave that evening at 6pm… they also go to school on Saturday
• Tea is served every morning for breakfast and members of the house can sit and encourage one another in conversation
• Children sing about God in the classroom and write about Him when asked to write a story about Rain.

Now it is clearer to me than ever before, one culture is not better than the other… they are just different. I think we can each learn some lessons from one another.

That being said, can you pass the culture please, because I am ready to learn about it, embrace it, and love through it or maybe even in some cases in spite of it. My prayer is that culture is not a barrier that keeps the gospel from going forward, it’s that culture will be the catalyst by which we learn to respect and love each other for who we are as individuals and as a society. Most importantly, I pray that by taking the time to embrace someone’s culture and learn their language I may have the ear of those who have not heard! Blessings my friends!