Today’s thrilling matatu ride

Heather is posting this latest bit from Travis despite her worries about worrying our families...and friends....This is another story about Nairobi not feeling like the safest place to be. Please know that we will spend a couple of days in Nairobi when I arrive, but the majority of the time we will be traveling through the rural areas where we will be very safe. And Travis is fine! And we keep in mind that millions of people live in more challenging circumstances that we are familiar with every day...

Ok, I know I keep talking about transportation. I must preface this bit by saying that I have met a lot of great people, anytime I have stopped to ask directions people have been super friendly, the city is amazing, there are huge contrasts throughout, and the cultural differences and similarities are exciting…yesterday I was walking down a side street behind a mosque, it was fairly empty, suddenly gates along the sidewalk opened and within seconds I was in a sea of white and black fabric, smoothly undulating in the light wind. They were the long robes and tunics worn by Muslim men.

Alright, now for today’s thrilling matatu ride:

Today is devoted to writing my personal statement for grad school. I decided it would be best to get out of the house and go to a café in the city center. I normally take a taxi if I am travelling alone and a matatu if I am with Phoebe, Wendy’s niece. The taxis are a bit expensive. To get to the city and back can run close to $20US. Today, to save money, I decided to take a matatu alone.

Standing alone at the stop is much different than standing there with Phoebe. Many folks were checking me out and I got a couple of dirty looking stare-downs. Traffic was barely moving, so I had a long wait. At one point, two men walked by with a swagger and authority which I read into as they must be some important folks. Several people acknowledged their existence with hand gestures and smiles. The matatu finally arrived and I boarded. We were in mostly stop and a bit of go traffic. About 15 minutes later and maybe a quarter of a mile, the two guys I saw earlier stopped the matatu during one of the go parts and got on. One kicked a lady out of the front seat and took her place, and the other stood along the outside rail blocking the exit. I noticed that a lot of folks outside were pointing at our matatu, whistling and gesturing. I heard the word mzungu several times…means white person. So, I am getting pretty nervous. I ask the lady next to me, what is going on? She tells me that these guys are the gang leaders around here and, with the most serious voice, she says, “you need to be careful.” Uh-oh.

Side note: just before I left the house, I was skyping with Heather. I told her I am about to challenge death and ride the matatu alone.

So, maybe you can imagine what I am thinking at this point. I was trapped inside the matatu, squeezed up against the window. I opened the window, thinking if anything I can jump out the window and run. After about 10 minutes, terrifying minutes, the two guys stop the matatu, get off, walk around to the driver’s side and talk to the driver for a minute, making all the traffic go around us. Then the two guys swaggered off across the street and we proceeded to move with the traffic.

Now I am thinking, what did they tell the driver? Are we going to turn off onto some side street, were they just messing with me?

By this time I am familiar with the route we take to the city center. I watched carefully, at every turn we made, to see if I recognized where we were. I was content to jump out the window as soon as we deviated from the route.

Well, we made it to our destination. Nothing happened, just a terrifying hour of wondering what was going to happen to me. But, get this, when we pulled up to our stop (super busy place, tons of matatues, buses and people), there was a circle of people moving back and forth in the street. Two guys were going at it. One guy was holding on to the other and throwing punches here and there. It was obvious that the one guy was trying to escape but the other was pretty intent on keeping a hold of him. I asked what was going on. The guy trying to escape had just tried to rob the guy holding on to him. He kept yelling 'thief, thief!' I hung out for just a minute. The crowd got pretty big and formed a complete circle around the two. I think it was pretty obvious to the “thief” that he was not going to get away and he gave up. The crowd started getting a bit rowdy…I got out of there.

Now, I am sitting in a café, writing this instead of my paper, and about to order a milk shake. I am definitely going to take a taxi home. Oh, I found out today that there is a fourth taxi driver that Wendy trusts. His name is John. Here’s how it goes: I call James first, and then Paul, and maybe I’ll have to call Peter. If none of them work out, then, John it is.

PS. Because I am away from the internet today, I have to wait till I get back to the house to send this. I wrote the above piece 8 hours ago. I would like to report that after 8 hours, an iced mocha, Caesar salad, two beers and a chocolate banana milk shake, I am nearly finished with my personal statement. James is about to arrive. I am about to go home shower, have a real meal and send this to the blog…and then go to sleep.

Ok, thought I was done. I just got home. James picked me at 7pm. He said the traffic to Donholm was horrible, 2-3hrs at least. Remember this is only 10km. So, he decided to take some backroads. We drove out of the city on a highway, then got off and started the 45min off-road excursion. To me, we were out in the middle of nowhere. I could see the city off in the distance and a lot of darkness between us. We were on dirt roads that really required a high-clearance 4wd vehicle, I don’t know how many times we scraped the bottom of the car. It was dark and dusty. In the middle of the darkness was a security check point. Several hooded men, hunched over on benches with clubs and rifles, really, out in the middle of nowhere. They didn’t stop us. They opened the gate when we got close and let us through. Then we came out in of the darkness into the middle of super busy shanty town. This is where the road got really rough and literally hundreds of people walking in it. James had to continuously lay on the horn to get people out of the way. This stretch lasted about 1km. Then we came out onto a paved road with lots of traffic. We pulled into a gas station, put half a gallon in the tank and when we emerged for the station we were on the final road to home. It only took us one hour!

Gooood Night Everyone!!!