Ive been in the majority my whole life, and never really noticed it or thought about it. Coming to MIT, where 'white' makes up about 40% of the population was pretty cool, and gave me the opportunity to learn about many different cultures and hear different languages. I enjoyed doing Bible studies where there were as many white people as Africans for instance. I think its important to realize how big the world is out there, and my small Ashland bubble is a tiny picture of all the people God made.
Here, white people probably make up .01% of the population (which is even more than in rural areas), and the Kenyans do a very good job of making you aware of it. I got plenty of stares all day, comments thrown my way that I didn't understand, offers for taxi rides, charged more for a SIM card, and little to no searching of me through security. My mom got stares in the grocery store since I was with her. When a beggar asked David for money and he replied that he had none, the beggar simply said 'mzungu', aka you must have money because your with a white person. Its kind of sad that when people see me they think money.
I didn't take any pictures today in the city, because I didn't want to call any more attention to myself. I didn't even put on my sunglasses, because Kenyans are not phased by the sun, and no one was wearing them. I just followed David in everything he did, trying to not scream tourist, although I still do. David said when he came to my apartment complex this morning, he asked the security guard if my host mom had left this morning, and his response was 'yes, with a white girl'.
I've been warned that once I am in Kibera (the slum I will be working in) I am going to stick out even more. We will see how that goes...
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