Your kidding right?

We stayed up country this week. If you've ever been to Africa you know
it's slow, slower than your used to but you adjust, you learn to deal.
It's frustrating that this value of time that has been ingrained in you
since childhood suddenly ceases to exist here. So imagine with me that
your in Africa and you're learning that things are different. Now go
with me to Burundi, a whole new degree of different. Great people with a
whole different set a values, ones we possibly need to emulate but again
the frustration rises when not only is there a difference in
communication African style but now go degrees deeper, Burundian
communication. So I'm dealing, it's been a few weeks in country, I've
had many flashbacks to my time teaching last year, recalling times we
just threw our hands up in the air and hopped on a bus somewhere,
anywhere that didn't require us to decipher what was being said that
wasn't being actually communicated orally. Are we together? Now go with
me upcountry. That's right, to the middle of Burundi, outside the
capital city where the pace is calm, the people are just as friendly and
the weather is degrees cooler. We arrived at our guest house and after
checking in we were asked what we would like to eat for dinner. No menu,
not a very busy place. We were told you can have 'anything' you want. I
had to stop myself from busting up laughing right then. Really anything?
Clam chowder, DQ Bilzzard, Turkey? I tried to bring some clarification
to the request of 'anything' by asking what they usually cooked. They
responded by saying, "well you can have 'anything' you want". I felt
like we were in the middle of Jungle Book, you know that crazy scene
when the birds are talking to one another "What do you want to do? I
don't know what do you want to do? I don't know what do you want to do?"
I practiced self-control and instead of giving them a mini vocabulary
lesson on the meaning of 'anything' I asked for chicken and rice.
Apparently they think Americans like to eat lots and lots, cause every
time we ordered one or two things, six or seven come, and peas, always
peas. So today when we ordered dinner, we were trying our best to be
polite, knowing we could order anything I was going to aim for the sky.
I asked for grilled cheese. Doing a fine explanation, I though, of
bread, cheese, bread, make it hot until the cheese is soft. You know
croque monsieur? No? Okay fine, how about just some hot water and cups,
we'd like to make some hot chocolate? No? Okay fine. What I'd really
like to say is 'think outside the box people, don't tell me you can make
'anything.' But instead I blogged it out and waited for the peas.