This weekend, the kids and I spent some time talking about how they felt about the transition to Africa and how they felt things were going. As as starting point, I wrote down a few open-ended questions and encouraged them to respond. Here’s what they said:
We like: ugali, fresh fruit, lizards, the weather, having lots of kids to play with.
We don’t like: spiders, ants
We miss: pizza and ice cream (figures their answers were all about food!)
Biggest difference between Africa and America: weather, people
We wish: people spoke English
Things that are easy: “Not much is easy”
Things that are hard: getting water
We like to eat: ugali, sweet and sour beans, beef, roasted corn
We don’t like to eat: greens, plain avocadoes
Additional comments?: “It’s nicer than America!”
I’m sure I would have answered a lot of these questions differently, but I can’t say the answers surprised me. I was surprised to have the majority of the children all answer virtually at the same time that they wished people spoke English. It is certainily difficult to communicate with a limited understanding of Swahili, although we are grateful to know several folks who speak at least *some* English. We’re learning Swahili, but probably not fast enough for any of us!
Sounds like everyone is adapting well! I found it humorous that you children don’t like to eat plain avocados. We used to live in CA, where avocados are relatively inexpensive and abundant. 14 years ago we moved to NH and avocados are a rare and expensive treat now.
And I’m with the kids; I don’t like spiders or ants either, on any continent!