Too much Culture for one evening…..

Saturday, July 9^th was my 24^th birthday. Since we are here in Kenya, and we have no car of our own we are always at the mercy of our friends. One of our good friends, Maina, was throwing a surprise graduation party for his father who was graduating with a BA in Theology. Our initial feelings were of hesitation, we didn’t know what graduation parties were like here, and we didn’t know what kind of food would be served, and so on. Maina told us he would pick us up 4 and we would go to the party that started at 6.

Well true to Kenyan form, Maina arrived to pick us up at 5:15 pm for the 6 pm party where he was scheduled to be the MC for the evening. We were not the only guests he was carrying either. We rushed to his aunt’s house to pick up his aunt and two cousins and by this time it was nearly six. Then came Maina’s famous last words, “Lord willing if there are no accidents and no traffic we will make it on time.”

As we were driving through an open market type area Maina was driving slow and was carrying a conversation with Jen, who was sitting in the back seat. He continued to drive while he turned around and visited with Jen. I was riding in the passenger seat; I have become accustomed to close calls in the car by this point and didn’t think to warn Maina about the middle age woman directly in his path until she was jumping up on the hood of the car! By that point I yelled, “Maina!” and pointed at the woman, he stopped immediately then rolled down the window to apologize. No one was hurt, but that was the first time I had ever seen that happen.

Following hitting a woman, Maina was determined to get there on time. We came to one of the infamous Nairobi roundabouts and he was passing a large city bus on the left. In Nairobi the driver sits on the right, we were in a little Toyota car, and long story short, the bus tried to push us out of the intersection, wrecking the rear right quarter panel and pushing us into the curb. The accident happened at 5:55 pm.

The main sources of Nairobi traffic jams are car accidents, and last night we found out why. At the time of the accident both vehicles were moving about 10 miles per hour, they hit, then stopped immediately directly in the entrance into the roundabout. No one was injured, the accident was obviously the busses fault, but they didn’t move. In Nairobi, you are not allowed to move the vehicles after an accident until the police come to write their report. On the weekends the police aren’t in any hurry, so it could take them almost 3 hours before they report to the scene. We continued to sit blocking the intersection and causing a major jam behind us for nearly 45 minutes. Finally someone else from the party came to pick us up while Maina waited for the police.

Arriving at the party only added to our cultural immersion. All of Maina’s family was attending, there were to be food and speeches and fellowship. Our only connection to the party was Maina, we had not been introduced to any of the rest of his family, and Maina was still tied up with the accident. So now we are three foreigners walking into a graduation party for someone we haven’t even met. Luckily, we had met Maina’s girlfriend who was already present at the party, but this was her opportunity to become acquainted with the family as well. We were directed to sit down, then to go and get our food as the party started without Maina.

Traditional Kenyan staples were served. They had rice, vegetables, boiled greens, chipati, ugali, roasted chicken, beef stew, roasted goat, mashed potatoes mixed with maize, and fruits. By now we know not to expect anything to taste like home. The meat all tastes different as the animals don’t have the similar diet to those in the states, similarly, ugali, chipati, and maize can’t be compared to things in America either, but all in all the food was delicious and filling. Shortly after the meal was finished Maina arrived to the party and informed us that the accident was the other guys fault and that insurance would take care of it from there.

After Maina arrived we began the ceremony, this ceremony consisted of all of the family members coming to the front to speak, everyone presented a gift in front of all of the guests, and a vocal worship time led by Maina’s sister, Ann, in three different languages: English, Swahili, and Kikuyu (a Kenyan tribal language). By the time the ceremony was complete and we made our journey back home, it was almost midnight.

The experiences of frustration and awkwardness were overshadowed by the love that was shown from everyone that was at the party. Everyone had amazing things to say about Maina’s father and family. The events of the evening made it one I will never forget.