The Many Contrasts of Kenya

There are numerous dichotomies here in Kenya. Some are small, some are glaring, some are comical while others are depressing. On my walk to the village this morning, to buy my weekly supply of veggies, I was struck by the many contrasts that I experience and observe here, especially the contrasts that are seemingly illogical. I ran through a list of these contrasts in my head:

-Using my laptop, but by candlelight, because my house doesn’t have power
-The joy of seeing my students learn and the horror of seeing them be caned
-Washing my clothes by hand but cooking with a gas cylinder burner
-The majority of Kenyans owning cell phones but lacking the income to pay school fees
-The Kenyans walking everywhere many without shoes while my principal drives her own car
-The fact that I learned to cook things like coconut curry and spaghetti sauce from scratch in a kitchen without a refrigerator or oven
-The luxury safari lodges and the makuti (palm leaf thatch) roofed houses in the village
-The wealth of Kenyan politicians and the squalor of Nairobi slums
-Eating sukuma wiki (kale) and ugali every day in the village and eating sushi, pizza and burgers in Nairobi
-Women in bui-buis and the outfits of prostitutes on the streets
-The connections of phone calls and emails to America and the isolation of living here

Kenya is an incredibly complicated country, as the dichotomies above illustrate. It is caught somewhere in between a third world country and a developed nation. There are incredibly motivated and educated individuals who are working for change in the country, but problems like impunity and corruption are still crippling the countries future. The population is aware of the standard of living in westernized countries and many strive to attain this is level of affluence while others fear the loss of Kenya's rich culture. It is an amazingly beautiful country with a multitude of natural resources, and after being here for the last year and a half, I have nothing but hope for Kenya's future.