Greetings

In Kenya greeting people always begins with a handshake. Whether you just saw the person before lunch or you have never met before, handshaking always takes place. When you get to work in the morning, or when you enter a room of strangers or you meet a friend on the street or really anytime at all really it’s like a physical manifestation of the word ‘hey’. Though this ‘handshaking’ can take many different forms for different people you are greeting. There is in fact a science to trying to sense what type of hand-involved greeting is naturally expected to take place. For instance when greeting a new person a normal up and down handshake will take place…probably, but you should remember to be prepared for the other options as well. Now if you are greeting a young person who is male and you have already met, a handshake/ thumb snap will probably be required. (A thumb snap is when you grip your hands in a vise, press your thumbs together and simultaneously snap them, resulting in something that looks super cool) Remember not to get flustered and try again if the thumb snapping doesn’t work. If the young person is a female then a half-slap pause, grip, shake will take place. This is also true for male kids ages 13-16. If you are greeting a young child and the child is Muslim then you will gently place your hand in theirs and they will kiss it. This is really cute and makes you feel like you are worshiped. Next on the list is the “My hands are dirty because I am eating” handshake which entails placing your hand briefly on the back of their hand or wrist. Then there are the miscellaneous ones I have not yet categorized as logical and have just randomly appeared occasionally. There is the handshake where both people kiss the backs of each other’s hands. Make sure you don’t initiate this handshake as it is apparently a specific tribe’s handshake. There is the one where you shake hands and one person scratches the inside of your hand. There is the handshake that is what we call in America the “limp fish”. And Last but not least the Fist Bump. I could keep going of course because there are three or four different types of fist bumps but I’ll save it for the book I’m writing.