Pepsi or Coke?

Decisions... decisions.  The Pepsi or Coke issue in Kenya is such an easy one.  There is only one place that sells Pepsi and it's expensive.  Good thing I'd choose Coke anyway, it's just way better. If only all of our decisions in life were that easy.  This feels good, or tastes good, or looks good and that's what I want.  This week has been about decisions and choosing the bad, icky and ugly.  I have sort of always thought about this trip as choosing the crazy thing and not necessarily the smartest or most conventional.  So you'd think that I was better at choosing the harder option. Not so.  I am a human.  Humans make mistakes. 


Thank God that humans also understand other humans or I would be in a lot more trouble than I am.  My biggest mistake this week was calling someone a jerk.  In America if I said, "You're a jerk" many hip young people would think of the New Boys and say, "I know." and maybe have a good laugh, because although it can be a somewhat disrespectful word, it's not like using some other choice words.  It's very mild as far as insults go. In Kenya it's pretty much equivalent to calling a person the scum of the earth.  In my defense, I'm new here and had NO idea that's what it meant. But really I have no excuse. I should never have said it in the first place.  In this case I should have said, "you were being insensitive," instead of, "you were being a  jerk."  I made a huge cultural blunder and quickly found myself in a much more serious discussion than I'd intended.


Luckily, humans understand each other and after some time the situation cooled down and although I made a mistake, I hope that it's now forgiven.  Pepsi and Coke are really different, but ultimately I think that in a pinch we would all be fine with either, but when you step into a completely different culture, the choices aren't that easy or flexible.  Allison and I were talking and I think we both agree that the best option is always the hardest and the best path is the roughest.  What a bummer. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just choose the easy, selfish thing and have it magically work out?  But that's just not the way it is.  I think my biggest issue this week is the "what if" game.  What if I decided to do this, or that? What if I chose a different word in that doomed conversation? What if, what if, what if.  I'll continue to have hard choices to make, but I hope that they get a little easier over the next few months as I get to know this role and this place a little better. I hope.