Work and "work"

Things have been busy and not busy at the same time; my life has become full of contradictions like that. Last Saturday we held a training for women in a village called Ololunga. My organization holds a training every other month where they talk to women about children's rights, HIV/AIDS, family planning- and now that I'm here- business/ microcredit. I understood virtually nothing because it was all in KiSwahili but I did manage to introduce myself in KiSwahili. Afterwards, my supervisor told them that I would be working as a business advisor for the next two years and they all seemed very excited. The training was held at an elementary school and most of the women have small children so at the end the women were given mosquito nets to take home.

I titled this work and "work" because a lot of what we do as volunteers is informal and not what I would have considered a couple of years ago to be work. Here, however, it is the majority of our jobs. Peace Corps has three goals:
1) To help people of interested countries meet their needs for trained men and women.
2)To help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the people served.
3) To promote a better understanding of other people on the part of the American people.
As you can see, cultural exchange is 2/3 of my job here. Here are some examples of that "work"

Black Americans?
As a black American, I usually cause some head scratching among Kenyans. First is the understanding that I'm actually an American- that I was born there and my family has lived there for generations. Sometimes they will grant me the fact that I am an American citizen but will insist I'm not a real American. If they can grasp the concept that I'm American they are still confused as to why I can't speak KiSwahili. This one I don't really understand the confusion because it's only in East Africa that people speak KiSwahili so the idea that someone is the same skin color as you but speaks something different shouldn't be all that difficult. Usually it is easier to get this idea through to them if I am with other (white) PCVs. However, while I was waiting for my furniture to be finished the other day, one of the carpenters started down the, "You are American?" line of questioning. He also told me that it is hard for people to get along in Kenya because there are 42 different tribes. (sidenote: I have also frequently gotten the question, "How many tribes are there in America?") I started to explain to him that there are many different types of people in America and we all get along (relatively) peacefully.

So in America...
This is how many conversations begin once someone finds out I am American. The popular mindset is that Americans are all rich, drive everywhere, and have machines to do everything. And that we all live in metropolises. To a certain extent, and definitely if you are looking at things in a relative context, this may be true but we do have our fair share of poor Americans and America doesn't just look like one big version of Manhattan (though it would be nice if it did!). So I share with people that we do have farms and some people also can't afford to pay their electric bill, etc...

9-5
Just as an example of how work here can hide in strange places, I was called upon to go to church today. Now, I had attended church last week and thought that I would just go once in the name of cultural exchange. I didn't really have a choice this time though so at 9am I left the house with 11 girls to walk to church. Two hours later we arrived. Then I sat through 3 1/2 hours of singing (which I enjoy for the first hour) and preaching (which I never understand because it's in KiSwahili and Maasai). When we left "early" as we were heading into the fourth hour of service, we then had to go to someone's house for lunch because they didn't want to send us back all that way without food. So at 5PM, we finally arrived back at home. Initially, I was not pleased that my Sunday had been hijacked against my will but it ended up being a good opportunity to speak with the girls more closely and for them to get to know me better. Also, the pastor at the church we attended was interested in getting a business training together. So, in the end, it was an unexpected workday but a good one nonetheless.