marriage material?

I have my fair share of marriage proposals over here, but tonight I had the pleasure of explain to a few girls what washing machines are and how they work, and they preceded to tell me I will never find a man to marry!

It all started because I was wearing athletic shorts after a run. I rarely wear shorts around the kids and never in the community because I know it is not modest for woman. But I figured the kids know me by now and it would be ok. Well, apparently not! The high school girls called me over to them and started touching my knees. They said, you know Christie, we Africans could never wear those. Everyone would think we were prostitutes! Ohhh Nooo I am not a prostitute I told them, and of course they just laughed. But then they explained that nobody shows their knees in skirts or trousers in Kenya unless they are prostitutes, which is true as I look around and seeing what woman wear. They said I could never find a husband wearing them…. Which then led into them asking me if I know how to wash my own clothes.

Now I could laugh, because I knew they meant hand wash clothes- (and no I cannot do that nearly as well as they can.) So I started saying oh yes, of course: I pile up my clothes then throw them into the machine with a bit of detergent and wala in a hour they are clean! Thy protested saying that is not washing clothes, so then I explained exactly how the washing machines work, spinning cycles and all! I had successfully distracted them from thinking about marriage, because they did not believe me that clothes actually got clean from machines. I started to explain how nobody hangs clothes to dry either, and there are machines that do that too, but that was out of this world and too much for 1 night. Maybe tomorrow that phenomenon will be tackled.

At this point, the girls were (jokingly) not impressed with me at all, I look like a prostitute and I can’t wash my clothes, what else can’t this crazy mzungu do! So they continue to ask me, what DO you know how to do, wash dishes? Finally, I could say yes to that, BUT also add that we have machines that do that too, so I rarely need to! Shocked again, WHAT do you do then? they asked. I said, I know how to cook and bake. They immediately protested, “that isn’t work, you are expected to do that!
They looked at me in all seriousness and said, we are really sorry but you will never find a man to marry. You need to be able to wash and clean for him, and he would never look for someone wearing shorts. Haha

They really know how to make me feel good about myself! Little do these girls know all the male interest I have had from Kenyans in the last months- granted none of them saw me in shorts, or asked if I knew how to wash clothes- so I guess I’m not in the clear quite yet! I am continuously blown away by how different life is here. As soon as I think I am adjusted to the culture a fast one like this is pulled on me and I turned around again! I’m thinking ill continue to wear my shorts, and show them how non-prostitutes can wear shorts freely… only at the orphanage that is, I don’t want to deal with offending the entire community!