Misadventures that weren't our fault

June 10th

Funny lines from the weekend:
Reaction of waitress to Courtney’s first Kiswahili sentence: “What?!?”
“What, haven’t you read the rough guide to Kenya yet?” Neighbour (also from Canada) Rick responding to us not knowing what he meant by going swimming.
Neil: “Something black just flew past our window.”
Courtney: “Was it a bird, or a person?”

-----

Friday night Neil and I got off work early, since CABDA closes at four. We decided to go check on our neighbour’s kid, a 9 year old girl that seemed to be having malaria type symptoms when we had talked to her father, Dorryl, a couple of nights prior. She’s doing well. However, her parents were trying to talk the two kids into going with them to visit the place that Melvin, a former street kid, used to sleep in downtown Kakamega. The kids didn’t want to go, so despite only having met the kids and mom a half hour earlier, I volunteered Neil and myself to babysit.
They took us up on our offer, and we had a pretty fun couple of hours with the kids, a 6 year old boy and the 9 year old girl. They were really quite precocious. I was startled to learn that the boy hasn’t even started grade one yet, and he was fully functional, and had a cute habit of taking everything 100% seriously, and then explaining to you why what you said was incorrect.
Their mother arrived home without Dorryl, and burst into tears as soon as she saw Wendy, who hustled her into the apartment to talk, as Neil and I tried to distract the kids with hand slapping games. (I’m sure their parent’s won’t appreciate us for that, but it seemed like the best idea at the time. And it worked. So well that we then had to change to thumb wrestling, so that the boy would stop smacking everyone so hard.)
As it turns out, the filming on the streets caused more of a commotion than was expected, and a large group of people formed in the middle of the road. I think what happened was that someone from Child Services witnessed this and called the police, who then arrested Dorryl and his crew, and attempted to arrest the mom as well. Dorryl however, firmly insisted that his wife go back to the children, that “she had done nothing wrong”, and, perhaps reacting to the masculine show of authority, allowed her to leave.
Luckily for them, Rick knows people in high places, and sent one of the more influential businessmen in Kakamega, who happens to be on the board of directors for Rick’s (and Jack and Wendy’s) organization. According to Dorryl, the whole experience was quite surreal, but he knew things would work out fine when the man that Rick sent sat down, pointed at the head policeman, and said “Oh, I saw you at the Lions meeting last week.” He was let go with no fine or bribes needed and arrived home even before the food that we ordered did.
(Here I can throw in another story about the need for those protective suits that some of you mentioned. While walking with Neil to order the food I stepped in a hole, twisted my ankle, and skinned open my right knee. I had to dab of streams of blood while Neil ordered. It’s been fun trying to keep it clean, as paranoia about where I fell convinced me of the need to pour iodine on the wound. I had forgotten exactly how much that hurts. Poor Neil had to sit beside me, trying to stop the iodine from falling onto the sofa, as I twitched around. My ankle, however, is fine.)
We ended up having supper with the family, which was really nice, especially after the kids fell asleep (both fully clothed, one on the sofa) and the ‘adults’ got to talk. He’s a photographer, and she’s a journalist, so it was really interesting to talk with them, and to learn their perspectives on the Kenyan news (which Neil and I have stopped watching and reading for the most part, as it is all over the top fear mongering, filled with quite graphic and horrific images. It’s an election year, and apparently everything comes out of the woodwork just before an election. Nothing near us though, don’t worry!)
On Saturday, Wendy took us on our first shopping trip to the market, and to a cute little bakery that we never would have found on our own. It was much less harrowing than I expected, even though Saturday is market day, and there were tons of people. The only problem time was when I almost got hit by a car in what I thought was a pedestrian only lane. Apparently there are none of those here. Wendy introduced us to her lady in the market that charges fair prices, no matter who is buying, and so we were able to get fresh vegetables, potatoes and carrots and onions, and some fruits, which we look forward to eating. Neil has already made a wonderful curry dish (I swear to God, that’s all there is here, I am never eating curry again once we get home) with some of the vegetables. It was very yummy. I am very lucky that Neil is such a great cook, as I would have long starved myself.
We also walked down to the row of shops closest to us, and got some flour and water. Neil is insistent that we will make potato latkes here. One of the shops had a bunch of school books in it, and Neil managed to find a grade 2 Kiswahili book that he is trying to learn from. (Neil says- “But unfortunately it’s all in Kiswahili.”) We’re going to ask the receptionist at work if she could help him to translate it enough to use. I am in awe of Neil’s ability to sit and learn the language. The only time I learn anything is when he forces me to remember it, or when I’m testing him, mangling to language horribly. He actually carried on a three or four sentence conversation with someone today, which was just so awesome. Also, it makes the locals laugh when he busts something out; they seem pretty excited to help him learn. I’m petrified of saying something and having them respond in Kiswahili, cause then I won’t have any idea what’s going on.
And on a couple of last, positive notes, we have found a place that can put our photos onto CD, and so we will be sending some out very soon. Also, I have a tan. A little one, as I am afraid of the equatorial sun, but a bit of a tan none the less. Yeah! And tonight at dinner, I had a great time, as at the end of it, when I wanted to pack up what was left of my vegetable curry, the waitress brought some bags and tin foil, but instead of simply putting the tin foil over the bowl, I watched in half amusement, half horror, as she poured my curry into a baggie, folded it up in the tin foil, and handed it to me. I laughed for a while.

Good night and lots of love,

Courtney