Questions (and Answers):

What is the difference between a peck and a French kiss?

My coworker (male) asked me this question, not without showing me an example of what each should look like.  He pecked at the air and then attempted to French kiss Casper.  I laughed one of those uncomfortable laughs and left it at this: they are the same, one just lasts longer than the other.

Slapped

In another conversation, this same male proceeded to raise his hand and lightly slap me across the face.  At the same time that his hand made contact with my cheek, he said, "What is this called?"  A little bit offended at first, but then realizing he meant no harm, I told him that it's called a slap, and in America it is very rude to do that to someone.

Private Parts

Sitting around one day while things were slow at the health center, my coworkers decided they wanted to ask me about private areas.  They asked me what a male part is called and I told them it is called a penis.  And then, instead of asking what a female part is called, one of the female nurses stood right in front of me, bent over, and pointed her finger (not even two inches away) directly at what she was curious about.  (Can you say, too close for comfort??).  I told her it was called a vagina...and then the words penis and vagina became the words of the day...every time I walked by one of the nurses, I would randomly hear one of these two words in English, then in Kinyarwanda, followed by a light chuckle.

What Happened to Your Butt??

And here comes the weight loss :(  ...one of my corkers asked me what happened.  I had no idea what he was talking about so I asked him what he meant.  He said, "When you got here, your butt, it was big...now it is small."  Looks I need to start cooking more because weight loss certainly was not a part of my Peace Corps plan :-/

Are there Goats in America?

"Yes, but we don't eat them like you do here."  Then I was asked, "If you don't eat them, what are they used for?"  I said for milk, but I honestly don't know the answer to this question.  What are goats used for in America??

You Like Blacks??!

Flipping through my scrapbook one day with my coworkers, I turned to a photo of my 'fiancée.'  When they saw the picture, one of them said, "Wow, you like blacks!"  For some reason, my coworkers don't think that I' m black.  They think I'm "hybrid" (whatever that means).  When I show them pictures of my family, they wonder how everyone can be black, except me.  To avoid having to explain the concept of genetics and  go into more details than necessary, I just tell them I look like me grandmother.  That answer seems to satisfy their curiosity just fine.

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea