A few weeks ago I was sitting with the other teachers during tea break and one of them, Mr. Kaka (he's a Massai, from Kenya), took my hand and turned it over to where my wrist was facing up. He and Teacher Samuel leaned in close and started running their fingers along my wrist and upper arm. I finally asked, "Um, what are you doing?" Samuel said, "Your blood. We can see your blood." At first I thought I was bleeding, and then I realized that they were saying that they could see the blood veins that run close to the surface of the skin. The underside of my arms are so pale that you can easily see the veins there. Kaka's tribe is not very dark, so I looked at his wrists but still the veins were not visible under his skin. So I layed my arm next to his and the contrast was so sharp that it struck all of us as funny. This drew the other teachers, who also leaned over and started running their fingers along the map of veins in my arm. Kaka finally raised his head and asked me, "Are you white or clear?"
Then, on Friday, the biology teacher left his classroom and approached me in the dinning hall. He took my arm, looked at my wrist for a moment, and then gently pulled me in to his classroom. He then took me to every desk of students in the class, stretching my arm out for them and showing them that the different veins in my arm showed how oxygenated blood is a different color from non oxygenated blood. The students were fascinated! They all leaned over my arm and started chattering at one another in Luganda, which I pretended not to hear since they are supposed to only speak English in class. Some of them tried to tap my arm to see if the veins would pop out (like when the doctor draws blood), but this earned them a smack on the head from Teacher Jacob. I didn't mind, though; I thought it was a lot of fun to be a human biology lesson. I also think I may have learned more that day than the students did, haha.
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