At first, I’ll be honest, this woman was pretty much just politely tolerating me. I told my translator to tell her I liked her ear cuffs, that I used to have something similar. She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

My translator told me, “She says you can photographer her, but she doesn’t believe you.”

“First of all,” I said, “I didn’t even ask to photograph her, and secondly, what does she not believe? The thing about my ears?”

“She sees your camera,” the translator said, “and she also sees your ears. No holes.”

Ah. Well we can easily solve this, I thought to myself, as I pulled out my phone. I found a photo of me from the 90s, with my ears stretched out with Double 0 gauge rivets.

But the huge holes in my ears kind of took a backseat to the enormous 10-gauge bull ring in my nose. 😂

I showed this woman the photo and, as I expected, it clearly tickled her to no end. She would look, laugh, then look again, then laugh again even harder.

I wasn’t offended— I knew I looked ridiculous. The bleached blonde hair didn’t help. 😝

After that, she warmed up to me almost immediately, and suddenly I was her new best friend. She even gave me a beautiful Maasai knife* she had made— which she refused to let me pay her for.

Apparently, me and my preposterous 90s piercings and ridiculous grunge fashion were payment enough.

I may travel the world because the differences intrigue me, but it's the similarities that never cease to amaze me. At their core, people are much the same everywhere. --Ryan Covington

*An interesting side bit— all weapons, even knives, are illegal in Kenya, EXCEPT for the Maasai people. The Maasai are exempt and have some kind of special arrangement worked out with the Kenyan government that I still do not entirely understand.