why cant we all just eat along

I come from Kenya, which is a
semi-religious country with fairly
stringent and conservative
values. I was born to believe
that my cultural practices were
unquestionable, and I had in me an unwavering belief that mine
was the crème de la crème of
beautiful and exemplary cultures.
However, with time, I realized
how judgmental and narrow-
minded I was by comparing other people’ s habits and cultures to mine and labeling them as
different and uncouth if they did
not match my cultural beliefs,
ideals and values. I now know
this was an unfortunate case of
ethnocentrism and I am now much less judgmental and critical
of cultures that are different
from mine. In my local Luo culture, eating
has many restrictions to it.
When, where and how people
eat are critically evaluated and
with a negative label bestowed
upon heavy, slow or loud eaters, people from my culture tend to
follow an unwritten code of
standards when it comes to
eating. Growing up, I was exp