** Light Hearted Stories **

Living in another culture, you always have occaision to laugh at small things that come your way.
I thought a few brief stories would be good.
The first Sunday after I left Australia, I was in a small Kenyan church for their Sunday morning service. When I went in, I thought I would sit next to a local to mix in a bit, make the effort to get to know them etc. Well I thought a young man and his brother would be ideal and culturally safe. It wasn't til after I sat down that I realised I had sat down next to a young woman and her son, no husband in sight. She took him out of the service at one point, and looking around I realised I was sitting in a ladies gallery, so I moved discretely to the other side of the church. They later assured me there was no gender divide but I was certainly sitting in 4 rows of ladies/ girls on the day.
A guy was trying to con me into buying some socks in Nairobi. He said "they're completely free from my company. Just say thank you." Standard trick to play on white tourists, to oblige them to buy. I promptly said thank you in Swahili,and laughingly followed it up with "but I don't want the socks". He thought it was a great joke and laughed to his friends.
I've some basics in swahili now, so it disarms the sales people when you use it on them. They know you are an informed Mzungu harder to rip off. They have all sorts of tricks in the markets of trying to get you to buy at high prices. They are a bartering/bargaining culture so its fun to fight over a price. You know they won't sell below their cost price, so it's good to find how muh something is worth. They all try to attract your buisness and the moment you say something they all hear and go and tell their buddies.
The instant you start conversing in Swahili, a knowing look comes over their eyes, often a toothy grin, especially if you appear to not know much initially. I think it is great fun, and they have a cackle too.
One persistent guy was funny. He was hassling me as they do, then I said to him that I am the kind of shopper that only buys if people leave me in complete silence. He promptly zipped his lip after saying equivalent to "hey, ok whatever makes you spend money is fine by me." Or in other shops, they give you the first price... and you say "no way" and turn to walk off. Then they half it almost immediately and say "we can give you a special discount". It's great fun, at least for me. Some of the team found it harder/ more uncomfortable.