Misconceptions

We´ve left the confines of our mud hut in Kenya but not without many memories to muddle over. It seemed like most of the people we met there wanted to be in the U.S. We were told that everyone in the U.S. is comfortable and rich. They believed you could do any job and get paid a lot for it. They had no idea there was poverty and a journalist told me she wished her grandfather had been an African slave. On top of that they had no idea there are black people in the U.S. and you don´t know how many times we were asked if we were ¨white¨. One person was so confused that they wanted to know how could we be white with such dark skin. Ok, so now I was confused ¨What about all the Black American artist plastered on everything from the Matatus to clothing? We saw more 50 cent stuff in Kisumu than we ever see in Arizona. Oh, well that´s because ¨50 cent is so dark he must be a Luo from Kenya¨. My mouth was dropped wide open. ¨So what about all the other black entertainers whose names and faces are airbrushed everywhere?¨ It turns out that there are people who believe these are Africans coming from some other country in Africa that they are not familiar with. This is all a true story. With that said my ideas of the back to Africa movement are over. If you want to know more you´ll have to read my book.

Today I woke up in Barcelona and walked to a fluhsing toilet after I reached for my own roll of toilet tissue. I don´t have to carry that with me around here but I think it will be a while before I kick that habit. I went to wake up Mateo and our new travel buddy Miss Sylvia ¨Akua da poet¨ Doku so we could cruise downstairs for some free breakfast. It´s a good thing it´s free too because the Euro beats the dollar 1.2 to 1 and money goes fast in this part of the world. So much for being rich. Now that there´s three of us travelling, perhaps we´ll be able to stretch the money a bit further.

We´ll be heading North to Huesca to an organic retreat in the mountains where we´ll have to quickly adjust to consisitent Spanish dialogue. We´re getting our taste of it so far and we´re handling ourselves but between the three of us we speak about 60% Spanish. Let´s see how we do in a months time.

I have a little roll call I want to do. We´re not sure who is following us so respond to this post and give a little shout out to let us know you´re here. We see some consistent names and we are usually really excited to read our blog responses to see if those people have commented but we don´t know if other people are out there but silent. Also if you may, tell us what´s been your favorite place that we´ve visited so far and what is something we haven´t done that you suggest we do.

OK folks, we´ll be standing by to see who´s out there.

Joronda