A Muslim State of Mind

5:30 AM in my first morning in Malindi and a strange language is blasting from a loudspeaker close to my house. I am smart enough to know that this is not Swahili. Nor is it some sort of severe weather warning. It is Arabic, and a very cacophonous call to worship that I hear five times daily.

When many Westerners think of Kenya, they think of the lions, safaris, natives who dance and wear traditional clothing, huge termite hills and the like. I doubt they think of the coast—which is dominated by Islamic influence. This will be my world for the next 9 months.

This will take much getting used to. I work for five schools, technically, three of which are private Islamic. I lead an after school tutoring session in two public schools, but most of my teaching is at a private, female-only Islamic school. The implications of working here certainly impact my stay in Malindi. As I stated in previous posts, the place is currently dominated by Italian tourism (anywhere in the vicinity of the city, I will get a “ciao!” from young children). Malindi denizens are divided through moral (and probably religious, in a sense) philosophy, where the one sect scorns the Italians for bringing in prostitution, drugs, drinking and the other which profits from the Europeans— the club owners and hotel/restaurant entrepreneurs.

As an employee to the Islamic school, my challenge is to be respected by my coworkers, while still maintaining my American (and my GD Christian) right to have a Bud Light every once in awhile. My roommate is Muslim—and head of school—so in my own home, this will be difficult. Also, I lack a refrigerator. In the same way, my roommate would never set foot in a bar, even to eat, for fear of someone seeing him there. Malindi is a small community, and he seems to know just about every other person.

Other than drinking, I have learned that dogs are not permitted in my house, nor am I allowed to wear shorts to a Muslim’s house. I am considered naked if you can see past my knee. I learned this the hard way, slightly offending my host for the evening. Of course, I had no idea until the next time that I visited (this time wearing jeans), where everyone seemed much more comfortable, save me, because, I am perpetually sweating my ass off.

It is highly likely, too, that I will never see the necks of my female students.

Perhaps, though, one of the most difficult obstacles is speaking my liberal mindset. In the staff room, I was talking to a university student who comes to help out at the school. Gender issues came up, and someone asked about female leadership in the United States. I told her that although there hasn’t been one in the past, I believed that there would be a female president in our lifetime. She responded, “I hope not; woman aren’t meant to lead.” I asked her why, and she said that they would lead with too much emotion. Saddened a great deal by this, I decided to keep my mouth shut. Perhaps farther along in my stint here I would rebut, but it didn’t seem to be my place at that moment or venue.

I am having a blast here—a different one than I ever thought was possible. And I’m not talking about call to worship.

-Adam

PS- I will be getting a PO Box soon for snail mail… I will keep you ‘posted.’ J