Instead of embracing the chaco wearing, water bottle carrying, sweaty tourist look, I have decided to keep it real professional. Kenyan business casual(KBC). Starting today. Today, I sported some sweet Banana Republic pants that were never long enough for my “white stick legs” (mom’s description), a J Crew Tuxedo shirt that never quite fit either, and some Bata slip-ons. (I found slip-ons for 3 dollars. Rite-aid is out, Bata is in.) What socks did I wear? Why white ones of course, which you could definitely see because A) my pants are too short and B) slip-ons don’t really cover ankle socks.
Now my outfit may have looked ridiculous if I worked for Merrill Lynch or Citigroup, but in Kenya, business casual is a broad and all encompassing category. KBC allows men to buy their second hand shirts that are at least two sizes to big, tuck them into some linen pants, and wear some rubber sandals that look like Walmart meets 4 yr old adventure shoes.
I did it all real professional today though. I caught a matatu to work and continually checked my watch, cursing the rush hour traffic. We had a two hour meeting, which I had prepared an agenda for, and afterwards, Andrew and I joined Kenneth for our lunch break in town.
Kenneth has owed me an outrageous number of chocolate bars for all the meetings he had missed or come late to and it was time to get paid. He bought me a Bounty bar, which I ate in about 3 seconds, and then we followed him through the city to find some cheap Swahili food. We walked down Digo Ave and Andrew paid for us to be weighed. Why not? That’s perfectly normally right? Paying to be weighed? Andrew has been loving his life all afternoon. He lost 5 pounds. Me, 3- I think. Kenneth weighs twice as much as me.
For lunch we wandered down Digo Ave and turned down a side street, went up some random set of stairs that had a sign about a Cyber Café, and there was a room with tables which = restaurant. I had a spanish omelet and Andrew ate his beans, sikuma, and chapati while Kenneth, David, and James (the managers) had a drink and chatted with us. After lunch, we went for a brisk walk back to the office-those experts always stress how important daily exercise is.
I left the office a little early, 4:30 instead of 5:00, but I kept it professional by riding a matatu home. I said hello to the guards and “Good. How are you?” to all the kids that asked me “How are you” about fifty times as I walked past and finally got back to the apartment to ditch the professional look and put on the “after work outfit.”
Andrew and I prepared pasta salad and pineapple tonight and I had to run to the produce stand to grab some pasta and tomatoes. While I was walking, I looked down and noticed my “after work outfit.” A lady convinced me that I needed this bright purple, rainbow striped, spandex, Speedo brand skirt for 115 shillings= about 1.50 maybe 2 bucks. So I had that hot number on, plus a long sleeve Old Navy t-shirt, and dark blue, dirty slip-ons.
Now I'm sitting in a cyber cafe, same outfit, just finished a refrigerated snickers bar, eating a piece of trident, and I'm definitely loving the preachy gospel music that is accompanying the finished blog.
That being said,
I posted more pics in the same album:
http://byu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6566&l=7e331&id=586037020
and Andrew would like you read his blog.
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