By Greg Moore, The Kansas City Star

Greg MooreGreg MooreMy family and friends back home in the U.S. want to know my first impressions of Kenya. And my East African friends are eager to learn the same thing.

My answer is this: The differences are striking ... but, the similarities have come as far more of a shock.

It might seem anticlimactic, but a foreigner expects novelty.

So while many things – like adjusting to the patois of Swahili and English, eating tilapia by using my fingers to pick the meat straight off the bone, learning to brush my teeth with bottled water, finding out that my accent is jarring to the 2 million or so people of Nairobi – were unexpected, they were otherwise unremarkable.

But the similarities have stirred me like (sukari) sugar into chai tea with milk.

For example, on Kenyatta Day -- the Oct. 20 holiday that honors the nation's first president Jomo Kenyatta, as the father of the country -- I stood with a few colleagues in front of the Nation offices.

I asked one, a reporter who is around my age, “So, do we dress like you, or do you dress like us?”

He was wearing a Ralph Lauren polo shirt and a pair of jeans. Back home, we’d say he looked “clean” – slang for well-dressed. In fact, months ago, at a shopping mall near my apartment in Kansas City, I had considered getting a shirt of the exact same design only in a different color.

Moments later, he shook hands with a friend. I could have been standing in front of an office building in my hometown of Detroit.
They first clasped hands, palm to palm in a handshake common among Americans. Then quickly, without words or signals, the two allowed their hands slide back and grip again, this time at the fingers. (Yes, they give each other dap in Nairobi.)

About an hour later, at the celebration at Nyayo Stadium, I saw a group of about 100 women wearing blue blazers, blue skirts and blue hats. They were singing in unison. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in Atlanta or Nairobi, you can spot a group of church ladies from a mile (or about a kilometer and a half) away. I almost stopped taking pictures to go looking for my grandmother in the stands.

There was a guy wearing a hat that read, “Michigan” on the front, and “Go Blue” on the back.

There was a kid wearing a shirt that read, “Don’t hate, appreciate.” I will die regretting that I wasn’t fast enough to snap his photo.

Office workers talk trash about sports.

Everyone is distracted by cell phones.

Women wear tight jeans and high heels.

Men wear t-shirts and gym shoes.

People in suits move briskly.

There is a huge division between the rich and the poor.

Really, it’s a bit disappointing. Why should people on opposite sides of the world be so similar?

And please, don’t mistake me as naive. I understand there are deep distinctions of culture to which a lifetime of study could be devoted. But I’ve been here less than a week. I am no expert on the nuiances of Kenyan life. Today, I am only eyes.

However, I will concede one key difference that Kenya has been teaching me from my first morning here in painful -- if hilarious -- fashion: People born here are adapted to life at the equator; Americans are not.

Despite the perfect weather -- labor, not walking, induces sweat -- I am sunburned.

Given this, I didn’t even consider using the sunscreen lotion I packed. Also, in a futile attempt at blending in, I kept my sunglasses in my pocket as I walked around the city for two days. Really, the weather – mid-70s to low 80s (or as they say here about 24-28) – has been no warmer than Missouri.

However, the latitude means a direct strike from the sun. I need a hat, dark glasses and SPF 978264938947 for protection.

Overexposure took only hours. I woke up my second day here with an awkward tingling around my cheekbones and lips. My eyes are uncharacteristically weary and demand rest.

And today, I stand out as the guy with the white shirt and red face.

[em]The Kansas City Star has exchanged journalists with Nation Media in Nairobi, Kenya, for the last three years in partnership with the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships. Greg Moore, who is The Star's wire editor, is traveling and teaching journalism in Kenya and Uganda for the next several weeks.[/em]