Zoning Out

Contrary to what I've been told all my life, zoning out (occasionally) has its benefits. While riding the bus, thieves were pulling a pretty intricate scheme. They told everyone that cops were about to stop us, that everybody should put their seat-belts on. According to my Kenyan friend Laurence, the purpose of this was to make everybody unsuspecting of any hand movement. Zoning out, of course, is usually more bad than good. While crossing the street , I might have been run over had Laurence not told me to speed it up, which brings up another thing I miss about the US, functioning stoplights!

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Many Kenyans dislike Indians. Why? Unlike US or European companies in Kenya, Indian companies rarely, according to their critics, give Kenyans a chance to have good jobs, regardless of their talent. Kenyans also complain that Indians, in particular, have a superiority complex. This is very interesting because I haven't encountered any of this back home...

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Looking for an attractive African wife? Ethiopia is your best bet. They supposedly have the continent's most attractive women.

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The West tells travelers like me to avoid street food in the bad parts of Nairobi. I have ignored that advice so far without any consequences. So did a fellow American while she lived in Uganda and Ethiopia. She now lives in a nice, gated part of Nairobi, an area that feels like an American suburb. And for her first time in Africa, she got food sickness; she got e coli eating tomatoes and chicken from a reputable grocery store. Go figure...

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A few interesting words/phrases I've come across. "Befriending" often has a sexual connotation in Kenya. For example, "Instead of paying the 500 schilling fine, she befriended the policeman."Instead of using the word email, many will say inboxing.

These next two don't have anything to do with Kenya, but I found them interesting.
Paralegals are referred to as "barefoot lawyers" in Europe. And I like this phrase, "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."