Here in Rwanda...
Some men grow out the fingernail on their pinky. I saw one that was 3 inches long. I asked Elijah about it. He said it's not for any purpose; it's just random. Bras are not commonly worn. Almost every car is a Toyota. Guys hold hands with their guy friends. Public breastfeeding is much more common. Luke was speaking at a church once and he said 6 of them were nursing and he found it a bit harder to get through his message. Everyone smells like B.O. Elijah says it's because people without running water only ever throw water on their head, and they definitely don't use deodorant. When you're standing in line, you have to stand close enough to someone to be almost touching in order to be considered in line. Girls look just like boys except that they always wear skirts. Most women have their hair a bit longer than the guys' buzzed heads, but it's still a pretty compact afro. Men and women often carry heavy things on their heads. They normally have some cloth wrapped around their head to make it softer and distribute pressure. Little kids love shouting “Muzungu!” (“whitey!”) and running up to us and shaking our hands. Everyone else just stares, mainly at the women. People are extremely helpful about directions; we might have gotten on the wrong bus once and 5 different passengers started arguing among themselves about which route we should take. Most of the time, the bus we take is just an overgrown van that is crowded enough that people have to get up if someone in a row behind them wants to go. A couple times, Elijah has argued with a person that was trying to charge us extra for something, but for the most part, we're charged the same price for goods and services as the locals. A lot of people speak English. Most of the time, people seem really pleased when I try to speak Kinyarwanda and show that I'm trying to learn it.
I'm glad to have learned so much about a foreign culture, but it also makes me really like American culture.
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