Skip to main content

American oddities

America has some odd things about it:


  • Mechanical systems: when opening a bank account, the customer service officer will literally rap to you what accounts are available, what features and so on. People who sell fast food as well, seem to be in a trance-like state, mechanical even. This is perhaps due to the fact that they have to serve multiple people in a day, so no dilly dallying. This reminds me of Kenyan waiters who we keep waiting for 5 minutes while deciding whether we want mbuzi kaanga or mbuzi choma.
Queue at a popular fast food joint
  • Strange names for some things: football as we know it is called soccer, taps are called faucets, a bonnet is called a hood, a boot is called a trunk, petrol is called gas, takeaway is called takeout and many more.
  • Address systems: one of the easiest systems of navigation is the house numbering system widely employed in the US. This simple and obvious system is so useful, that it is impossible to get lost if one knows the address. With Google's Maps and satellite navigation, you can find virtually anyone, if given the correct street address. This is something we can employ in Kenya to avoid using "the house near the mugumo tree" kind of address.
Most US homes have a number and a street address making it easier to find

  • Sockets don't have switches: this is odd. I can't imagine why the socket holes are always powered ;) 
These sad looking sockets seem to have lost their "on" and "off" switches.

  • Government services work: though citizenry pays taxes to federal and state governments, the government seems to provide sufficient water, gas and electricity to its citizens.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On thinking

Why do I believe what I believe? Why are my values what they are? Where do my thoughts come from? Are my ideals 'mine'? The question of thought, is a complex one, not least because thinking is so difficult. Many of us do not think, we take the thoughts of others and use them as the foundations, walls, or thatching of our mental structures. But we rarely think, and deep enough on important matters anyway. Thinking involves the admission that we do not know, an admission coming from a place of humility that we are ignorant and could do better. It does not, as is usually thought, have to be from a place of knowledge, even though knowledge can inform thoughts. If it was, then we would not necessarily be thinking, but just reorganizing previously known ideas. It begins with asking the question, why. Why do we go to school? Why do we marry and have children? Why do we work to earn money in order to buy things? Why do we elect leaders? Why do we go to places of worship and perfo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Look, I am become a diplomat

"You speak very good English, where did you learn?" a person I just met asks. "In Kenya, in school…" I calmly reply. "Wow! You speak English in Kenya?" He continues. "Oh yes, we do …" The conversation goes into how we do (not) live with lions as pets and how I don’t run like "all" other Kenyans they've seen on TV. If you are wondering, this is an actual conversation I have had with persons I have met here in the US. This is not to say every conversation I have had goes this way. On the contrary, in the greater Washington metropolitan area where I live, this is the exception. Any time I have to field questions about Kenya, however, I feel as if the responsibility to represent Kenya and communicate its brand is upon my shoulders. This is despite not getting any training on this aspect of my travel experience. Some other well-meaning people have said, once hearing I am from Kenya, that they visited Uganda, Rwanda, Bots...
Post a Comment
Read more

How well-meaning parents ruined us

Growing up, it was common for our parents to encourage us and tell us how we could be anything we wanted in life. "You can do anything you set your mind to do!" They would cheer us on. "Even the president?" We'd ask unconvinced. "Yes, you could even become the richest man in the world!" All this fascinated us. We vowed to ourselves that we'd in fact become people of substance who would be recognized in the entire world for our achievements. We'd ride in super-yachts like Abramovich and the rest of the mega-rich. We would produce life changing inventions, innovating our way to stardom. We'd become the next prodigy in music and sports. All this is well and good, meant to lift our spirits. Assessing our lives however, no matter how much effort we have put in to realize our dreams and visions, they have eluded us. We have become adept at doing other things though: commenting on FB posts, retweets, identifying the hottest political issue...
Post a Comment
Read more