A Blessing

Note for the folks at home: as it's been explained to me, the custom of spitting into another's palm to give one's blessing is born out of the fact that, in the semi-arid Samburu region of Kenya, water is a very valuable resource. Sharing one's bodily water (through saliva) is a means of demonstrating the spittee's worth in the eyes of the spitter. Further: the proper way to receive this gesture is to wipe the donated saliva into one's hair. Luckily, a foreigner isn't held to cultural norms as rigorously as a local, so I haven't yet been forced into applying bodily-fluid-shampoo.