Chinese, really?!

As I was walking down the road one day, I heard some boys greeting me with "me-how!" repeatedly. I knew it wasn't English and I was pretty confident that it wasn't Hausa, so I decided to go ask them what language it was! At first they giggled and then they told me it was Chinese because "aren't you from China?" they asked. It cracked me up! They explained that it's Chinese for Hello. I asked them if they wanted to learn Hello in Spanish. They were pretty excited about that, so I taught them Hola. They dutifully repeated it over and over again. When I passed by a few hours later they greeted me by shouting "Hola!" :)

Then, a few days later someone else yelled at me "Hey, China!" later that same day someone rode by on a bike yelling "Italiano!" So funny! :) I'm entertained, but can't be too critical because just as people here think all white people look the same and can't easily distinguish between the different ethincities, I'm always intrigued by the way that they can tell a Nigerian from a Liberian by look.

I once read somewhere that people are much better at distinguishing characteristics among people of their common race and have found that to be totally true. When I first arrived I had a really hard time telling people apart, but I've improved significantly after making a lot of mistakes. I guess I'll cut them a little slack for thinking I'm Chinese! :)