mzungu, chinois, tssss

I may or may not have lost it a few times in the last few weeks (right before christmas break so stress was pretty high) when I heard these words uttered.

Mzungu: Rich white man or woman often followed by "give me my money" not "give me money" but "give me MY money"

Chinois: Any person that looks asian often preceded by sounds that go ching, chong chung.

Tss: A very loud hissing noise made by pronouncing a "ts" sound for a prolonged period of time. Not used only with foreigners but often followed by one of the above words when used with foreigners.

Now I understand and have been repeatedly told that many Rwandans cannot distinguish between asian cultures. No harm there. I would be hard pressed to distinguish a Rwandan from a Ugandan. Incidentally Rwandans and Ugandans don't like being mistaken for each other so I refrain from trying to peg them as one or the other.

I also understand when little kids get super excited and jump up and down and yell "Mzungu! Mzungu!" while our car drives past or we walk past alerting all houses in the surrounding area that there is a white man coming through. I get it. But it's been months of non-stop Mzungu-ing. In the neighborhood we live in. Where everyone knows us at least by sight. It gets old.

What really gets up my ire is when I'm hiking with my 5 year old daughter in our neighborhood and two 20 something young men hiking down the hill start yelling "Mzungu, how are you!" They know better. We live in a city not some rural village that has never seen white people before.

What also gets me is when we are slowly driving in our car (african roads remember) and a group of teenagers looks at Kimi and starts making "Chinese sounds" (whatever that may be) and yelling Chinois.

Usually a well placed mom stare will at least get them to think twice or turn away in embarrassed laughter (or mocking laughter, but I choose to believe embarrassed)

However, I might have looked the two men walking down the hill in the eye and said. "Hello! so nice to meet you, Ugandan" with confused stares and stammers "Uganda?...no we are Rwandan!!"  I give them my hand and say "My name is Jessica, not Mzungu" (Incidentally they sell t-shirts here with a similar phrase on it...highly contemplating getting one). The incident ended nicely though no apologies were forthcoming which I didn't expect. a "ahhh, Jessica, Nice to meet you maybe we will see you again. I will remember your name..." was sufficient.

I might have solved the other incident by yelling out the window "He is NOT chinese but Japanese!" that was followed by much laughter and more name calling. So didn't change but made me feel slightly better.

as to the tssss...it's one of the MOST obnoxious sounds in the world. However, very effective when you want someone's attention. I dare you to try it in a supermarket or walking on the street back home some time. Now imagine hearing that sound. All.the.time.