Mzungu - A Person of European Decent

So today I was going to go to Meru but I ultimatley decided not to. It's about a three hour drive away and I had some work at the office to do. I recieved some emails from Paula and Keith about my videos and they gave me a lot of good suggestions. Keith talked to me about Gervas singing a religious song in his video and I how I should stray away from that because we want to keep Friends of Ngong Road a non-denominational organization. I completley agree with this; after Gervas told me he could sing, I asked him to sing me a song that he'd be comfortable doing and that's the first thing that came out. I wasn't really thinking about Friends of Ngong Road and keeping it non-denominational at the time because the majority of the music you hear here is religious. You also see this at the Saturday program, the only songs they sing are Christian. I do agree however in keeping Friends of Ngong Road disconnected from any specific relgion, that's one of the reasons I like it and one of the reasons I chose to intern for them.

Something else I'd like to talk about is how strange a feeling it is to be called a name based solely on the color of my skin. I don't mind being called "Mzungu" by children or Peter or workers in the office (I just call them "Mafrika") but when strangers on the street try to get my attention by screaming "Mzungu" at me, it's almost hurtful. If a Kenyan was to walk by that same stranger, they would politley say "bwana" (which is Mr. in swahili) or say hello to try to get their attention. I've felt like a minority before when I traveled to Tibet, Japan, or Morocco but never to the extent as in Kenya. I know "Mzungu" isn't a racist term, in fact, Paul and I say it all the time if we see one walking down the street or driving by but after a while, you realize that that word comes with a lot of preconcieved notions about a white person. I am not insulted by the term and I will continue using it but I just wanted to say how strange a feeling it is to have the color of your skin be the only thing people think about when they first see you. I'm glad I've felt this though, it puts me in another man's shoes, ones that I've never truly tried on before.