User:Stephen wal

Stephen Wal My life Experiences in Kenya My name is Stephen Wal and I am Sudanese born and raised. I lived in Sudan for ten years and understood the Sudanese culture. A few years later, I moved to Kenya due to a war that had forced many people, including me, to move to Kenya and learn that country, including the Kiswahili language, Religion, and other aspects of culture. My situation in Kenya was difficult, but. Fortunately, face to face contact with Kenyans people forced me to learn and adapt to the culture in Kenya. Learning Kiswahili brought me many problems at first. When I arrived in Kenya on July 20, 1992, I didn’t know how to speak Kiswahili at all. One day I was traveling by myself from Kakuma city, where I was living, to Nairobi, which is the capital city of Kenya. There were two Kenyan ladies sitting next to me. They asked me in their language for money. As a good Samaritan person, I gave them 20 shillings. They were so happy and they thanked me. A few minutes later, when we reached the police check point, those two ladies pointed at me and told the policemen in their language that I had a lot of money. I just looked at them like a deaf mute and didn’t understand anything they were talking about. The policemen walked toward me and took me outside and collected all my money. I was left alone and didn’t have any money left in my pocket. When they released me, I came back to the bus station and found that the bus had already left. I was in a bad situation and shocked because I didn’t know what to do. Soon, I decided to go back to the police station and talk to the officers. When I got there I tried my best to tell them my situation, but they laughed at me and finally told me a sorry for you in “Kiswahili. We can not help you they said, I walked out in great fear because I didn’t have a place to sleep. Since, I didn’t speak their language and didn’t know anyone, life was bad for me in that little city. I stayed there for a few days until I was found by my people from Kakuma city. I took a bus back to Kakuma and told  my people that I was so luckly from the hands of Kenyan people. Indeed, this experience taught me not to trust people I did not know. It also pushed me to learn Kiswahili as soon as I could. I also learned the Christian religion in Kiswahili because Kenyan people speak that language in church and throughout the country. The Bible is taught in the church and school, from elementary school to the university. Ninety-nine percent of the populations is Christian. When we go to church, all the songs are sung in their language. They do not care about other people or visitors. I usually went to the church to pray and I just followed them. I completely missed the main messages from the Bible. For those years, my life was bad in Kenya, and I felt so discouraged and I wanted to go back to my own country. I never enjoyed a good life in Kenya or had a comfortable situation to look back an happily. The third factor that helped me to serve my life as foreign in Kenya is cultural adaptation. Since I arrived in Kenya some years ago, I found that it has many tribes called Turkana were living in different areas. I had to begin my new life with the idea “when in Rome, do as the Romans do’’ That became the main rule of my life as I lived with those people. I had a friend from Turkana, whose name is James. He always took me to play soccer or football. I never disagreed with him because he was a good guide. I always followed and watched whatever he was doing. One day James and I went to a nightclub, and he started to introduce me to a lady. Soon, she asked me to dance with her, but I didn’t like it because dancing  was  new to me. I didn’t know to dance. He always remember me in his  life and I sometimes talk with him because, he is  my good friend. So Turkana culture is so hard for me as foreign to lived with them. Finally when a war broke out in my country, I moved to Kenya and stayed there as a foreigner. Those years my life were not sod because of the cultures interruption. As matter of fact, I always remember my bad experiences I had been in Kenya. I will never forget my worst life experiences.