a blessing?

Here's a funny story from our time in the town of Machakos. We walked from the ABC guest house into town to find phones (with no luck, although there were a couple of places to go online) and to look around. Some of us were tempted to take a three wheeled taxi just for the experience; I got a kick out of the bike taxis - for 20 Kenyan Shillings (ksh) you could ride on the back of a bike on the little rectangle cushion. We saw many people taking advantage of this mode of transportation - the ladies seemed quite at ease riding sideways in their skirts, even. Twenty ksh is about 3 Canadian cents.

The funny part comes in while we were waiting for the rest of the group before we made our way back. There were about five of us waiting, and we were approached by an elderly lady. She spoke no English, but showed us a letter from the government authorizing her to raise funds in public (legit begging) for the care of her three children, who all had disabilities. A couple of us had some cash on hand that we gave her, and she was grateful and cheerful and talking our ears off (not in English!) and then started spitting down her shirt! Beth explained to us that the older generation spits to give a blessing; knowing this we could do nothing but laugh as she shook each of our hands and spit on them, too.