September 11th, 2010

When Kenyans discover that we’re from America, they are generally extremely welcoming. Besides Obama’s Kenyan roots, they love American music, movies, and clothes. When I visited my Swahili teacher’s house, all the apartments were blaring Beyonce and Jay Z and they quote American movies and TV shows frequently. Many people we’ve talked to have expressed great interest in visiting America above all other Western countries.

They seem genuinely surprised that we were interested to come here for a year and that we’re very eager to learn about Kenya. We are proud to be Americans but we do make it known that we don’t think America is perfect and Kenyans are generally very surprised that we don’t think America is always “better” or “right”. There seems to be a general consensus that anything Western is better and America is especially popular because it’s seen as a land of prosperity where you can work to get ahead.

It’s exciting to be one of the first Americans that most of my students have ever met; American tourism is extremely rare in this part of Kenya. Mary and I want to do a geography lesson with them so they understand where I come from and how it’s different than the European countries that send the majority of tourists. The headmistress also mentioned that she wants me to speak to the older elementary school students about the US constitution since parts of the Kenyan constitution were based on the US version. It’s a little daunting to represent an entire country of 300 million people but I think it’s important that I leave the kids with a positive impression of America. It certainly can only help that that they have a name to put with the country they hear so much about on TV.

We have not encountered any anti-American sentiment yet though we have heard that certain places in the north part of the country [near Somalia] can be dangerous for Westerners and Americans in particular. As previously mentioned, Kenya has a large and growing Muslim minority and in the coastal region about 20% of the people are Muslim with many pockets [including Msambweni] that are almost 100% Muslim. Nonetheless, we have been warmly welcomed as Americans but we do worry that will change if the Quran burning happens.

Multiple people have mentioned to Max and I that they have heard about this Quran burning idea. They want to know our reactions and the reactions of Americans. As I’m sure is clear to many of you, this is a horrible, horrible idea. Of course there are radicalized Muslims that may wish America harm but the majority of Muslims are like the Kenyan Muslims we’ve met, they have no problems with America and think it’s actually a pretty nice place. All this will change if they burn the Quran. The radicalized groups will still be radicalized but the average Muslim will be horribly offended too. It accomplishes nothing and serves to make a statement that America hates Muslims; it endangers us as a country and it endangers M and me while we’re here.

Some of my students are Muslim who just celebrated the end of Ramadan and I pray I don’t have to explain to them why my country burned their holy book on Monday. I can’t imagine anything more sad or disturbing for them to learn about America. Right now they believe that America stands for prosperity and freedom of religion and I hope that’s what they continue to believe.