Greetings, Kenya style

“Hi. Good, thanks.”

Sometimes people greet us with these three words uttered quickly, without us ever asking, “How are you?”

In a way, I suppose it’s more convenient. You don’t have to bother asking “How are you?” On the other hand, I can think of it as being quite presumptuous – I care how you are only if/when I ask.

In other ways, Kenyans view greetings as very important. Men shake hands a lot, even when you see a friend or colleague, and if there’s reason to show a closer bond with somebody, you do two types of grips in one hand-shake greeting.

Men often call each other by their last names as well. Some Kenyans know how to pronounce Padre and are aware enough to ask me if I know what it means. Most, however, have problems with pronouncing it, and, rather than just calling me by my first name (which isn’t unusual here), they struggle with my last name and say it’s Peter or something. I had a coworker in Geneva who was Dutch, and several times when I wrote a news article and referred to somebody by their last name on the second and subsequent references, she came to me to tell me how offensive this was to her in her culture (even though it’s a standard journalism practice all over the world). I can just imagine how she would feel here in Kenya with this common practice among men – and there are a lot of Dutch people here!