First of all, my apologizes to family/friends who have been seeing pictures/updates via email, Facebook, and now WordPress about my recent vacation. I know it’s a bit repetitive for those of you who I keep in touch via Facebook and emailing. 🙂 Just ignore my next few posts.
I started my term break off with bumping into other PCVs on my journey to Nairobi, always nice to see familiar faces.
I found myself in a scary situation when I arrived in Nairobi.
At one point our bus driver had parked the bus down the street from the bus station and left the bus to walk to the station. I had no idea what was going on and then I saw things being lit up and thrown to the ground (still not sure what they were). Hundreds of people were running away from the scene and some were even banging on doors of buildings to get inside. I was stuck on the bus which made me one of the closest people to the actual situation. At one point the bus was as close as around 20-25 feet from whatever was being thrown.
I was at a complete loss as to what was going on since I couldn’t overhear people’s conversations. I kept trying to ask what was going on but no one was answering me (or maybe they were but weren’t making eye contact with me so I couldn’t lipread them…anyways I can’t really lipread Kenya English accent well). Some people on the bus were panicking and others weren’t. At one point I got pushed back to the bus with the people who were panicking and we all crouched down in the middle of the aisle. Needless to say I was terrified and assumed the worst.
When things finally quieted down our bus driver came back and drove our bus to the bus station. I then spent half an hour trying to find the cab that I had reserved in advance. I found from the cab driver what had really happened. Thankfully, it wasn’t the worst that I had in mind and I was never in any major danger. I also learnt what I should do if I ever find myself in a situation like that again.
It was one of those rare situations where I did think to myself “Dangit, only if I could hear what people were saying……then maybe I wouldn’t have freaked out so much.” Seriously…..people really do take overhearing things for granted…I was 100% on my own….
After all that excitement, I made my way to the hotel where I decided to get a huge dinner after all that excitement. Usually, the way food is served in Nairobi is different than outside of the city. In other words, it’s almost like being back in America when I’m in Nairobi. I was so excited to have some yummy chicken and fries. I didn’t realize that the restaurant I went to was a more traditional Kenya restaurant. I was asked if I wanted a half chicken or a whole chicken. I ended up with the bottom half chicken which included everything (e.g. chicken gonads and spine). After a few bites I became more fascinated with trying to identify the organs than trying to eat it.
Life Is About Creating Yourself 