the light hearted stuff first...
i bought a drum; it's being attacked by bugs, not termites (did i already tell this story?); they're making holes in it everywhere. i sprayed it with bugspray, no luck. i had it varnished, no change. milham spent over an hour trying to smoke them out. there's still saw dust falling to the floor from where they're eating it. um, hello...how did they not get carbon monoxide poisoning and die????
when alex saw the policeman standing collecting bribe money from the mataus by the juvenile, he very loudly says, "hey, this is not an ATM here."
a lot of kenyans are nosy. or maybe to be polite i should say curious. for example, whenever something even minor happens life stops and everyone freezes and stares. like today 2 men were in some sort of quarrel in the street. the entire block of people stood glued to the sidewalk, eyes fixed to a not that exciting event. and then today i decided to help alex pay for some of his college tuition for this term. we went to the bank to deposit money. this man next to us was being so nosy staring at me giving him money and how much alex was writing on his deposit slip. jealousy right?
people make comments about me all the time. except i can't understand what they're saying. and it always happens with victor or popo. like the day we went to carnivore, the matatu conductor went on and on about me. kept asking victor questions about which matatu i take home, and what i'm doing for lunch tomorrow, and i'm sure some comments about my africanesque body (thighs and butt). i think they get a kick out of this b/c they know i can't understand them.
now the good stuff...
the scariest thing that's happened since i've been here occured on october 2. it was matt's first day here. we were coming back from juvenile. there was a big jam of traffic. or so i thought. i looked up from our stopped matatu. we were close to the action, but not too close. i saw police running across the road throwing out tear gas and then firing off something. i've been told it wasn't bullets, but i sure thought it was at the time. they were chasing someone. i turned to matt and said, "this is bad. this is really bad. we need to get out of the matatu right now." everyone jumped out, i clutched his hand, and we ran across the street. we stood watching on the steps underneath the entrance to a building. finally when things no longer looked eventful, i asked the man next to me, if we could use this other road to get up into the city. he said he thought so. so we went walking and passed lots of people covering their noses with handkerchiefs so they wouldn't breathe in the tear gas fumes. and that was the end of that. i didn't tell you before b/c i knew you'd freak out, but i told mom when she was here, so i guess the secret's over.
another great one...
one day 2 men were shot dead in the park outside our office by the police. they had previously robbed a store and murdered the owner in the process so it's not like they were innocent. but still...shooting people in broad daylight? comforting. by the way, this is the same park where i spent christmas. :)
on christmas day, this boy stole something from a woman at the park. i was in the office and could hear her screaming outside. victor and i looked out, and the kid was booking it across the street with the woman chasing behind him. he was too fast.
okay that's probably enough for you to lose sleep about for now.
found out that the "lost" boy from juvenile was really not lost. he was trying to escape. yep, lied to us. apparently he's back there now, since the night victor put him on the matatu. but i haven't seen him. 4 boys have escaped in the last month. and if they escape, that's about it for them. i mean, what will they do? their parents don't want them, they won't be able to get a job. they'll be stuck on the streets.
No comments:
Post a Comment