Our Names...

…are apparently not the easiest names to have if you live in Kenya! We hadn’t ever given much thought to our names before, that they were strange, or difficult to say, but now we know that they are. (we blame our parents for this! =) )

Let’s start with Trevor’s name. A typical introduction conversation might go like this:

“My name is Trevor.”
“What?”
“Trevor.”
“WHAT?”
“TREVOR.”
“Travel?”
“No, Trevor.”
“Driver?”
“No, TREVOR.”
“Trouble??”
“No, T r e v o r.” (said slowly.)
“what?”
“Treva.” (Trevor, resigning himself to his new name, rolling the ‘r’, leaving off the final ‘r‘)
“OH, Treva!!” (with a smile!)

He has been called Driver, Trouble, and Travel on many an occasion! The name written on his coveralls says “Terror”! So now he finally has just resigned himself to always introducing himself as “Treva” to those he meets…it’s much easier that way!! =)
At the airport in Mombasa, one of the guards there asked to see our tickets. Trevor showed him the paper, and he looked at Trevor’s name. “Trevor Wolfe? That’s your name???” Trevor said yes it was. The guard handed the paper back…”that’s a funny name” with a look of I don’t know, disgust (??) on his face.
His name has given us many a confused look, and many a confusing conversation!

And what about my name? Well, turns out that my name is easy to say. That’s not the problem. They say it “An-drAYa”, like the Spanish way of saying it. It sounds really nice. No the problem is that Andrea is a Swahili name. It’s Swahili for Andrew!
We were in our first up-country Church in Kurungu (in October). Nobody speaks English, they all speak the Samburu language. We had to stand up to introduce ourselves, and when I said my name, EVERYBODY started laughing!! EVERYBODY! I looked around with a confused look on my face, wondering what I had said that was so funny! It was then that I was told that I have a man’s name. And since then, there have been many times where I have introduced myself, and a Good Samaritan will whisper to me “Did you know that you have a man’s name???” Yes, yes I know!

When we were in Kakamega for Easter, Benedicto’s wife, Nancy didn’t call me by my name all weekend. I didn’t think too much of it, until the last evening, when she asked me about my name again. I told her it was Andrea. She said “that’s what I thought you said the first day, but I was sure I misunderstood you and didn’t want to call you by a man’s name! I didn’t want to offend you!”

So that’s the story. Trevor and Andrea are not ideal names to have here in Kenya! We’re thinking of changing our names. Maybe to Peter and Jane. Those are very common names here, and would make for much easier introductions! I guess it wouldn’t be as interesting though… maybe we‘ll keep Trevor and Andrea. This way nobody will forget us! =)