Fight on a matatu and a close encounter with death...

I wanted to share two stories that are slightly more interesting than the previous update entry. I will begin with the fight on the matatu. About a week ago, Crista and I boarded a matatu on our way back from Malindi (the larger city near where we live). As we got on I noticed that there were 3 guys starring at us and watching everything we were doing. I felt a little uncomfortable, but didn’t think too much of it as we usually get lots of stares. After about 3 minutes I realized that they were all still starring. They all had never taken their eyes off of us for even a minute since we got on. Then suddenly the one said hello and asked us where we lived. Crista replied “Watamu.” The guy then said very rudely, “obviously Watamu, where specifically in Watamu?” Every time someone asks us this that we don’t know well our standard response is “why do you want to know.” Usually people don’t know how to respond to this and just leave us alone then. Instead this guy became very upset and starts screaming “I thought we could be friends, but I guess not…why can’t you just tell me where you live, do you think you’re too good for us?” He kept going on an on, leaving no room for Crista and I to say anything, not that we wanted to say anything anyway, because he obviously was crazy and a very angry person. He continued to go on saying that he doesn’t even understand why people like us come to their country, detailing how they didn’t *ucking need us in their country, yelling that we weren’t wanted and that everyone from our country was obnoxious and mean and that they had thought we were a friendly country, but that we just disproved all of that. I should note that we had told them we were from Canada, as we also often say this to people we don’t know well, because Americans are not always well received. Now I mean he was screaming and flailing his arms and was very upset.

A young Kenyan guy boarded the matatu in the middle of this guy screaming at us and thankfully placed himself in between us and the guy and said something to the guy in Swahili. Crista and I aren’t completely sure what he said, but we are pretty sure he asked the guy why he was bothering us and what did we do that had provoked his anger. The guy who had been screaming at us now started screaming at this guy and began slapping him in the face very hard. He slapped him over and over and over again, and the guy just sat there and took. Which probably was the best thing he could do, as this guy was very scrawny and could never have taken one of the guys alone, let alone the 3 of them together. Thankfully the screaming trio debarked a few stops later still yelling and throwing arms.
Crista and I said nothing for the rest of the trip back to Watamu. We were both stunned by what had happened and weren’t really sure what to say. We felt terrible that this poor guy who was probably trying to help us had been drawn into this fight and was physically assaulted. I couldn’t help but think how we just drastically changed the events of the day merely by boarding that matatu. There have been many occasions where people will not board a matatu when the see a mzungo on it or they refuse to sit next to us. There have also been times where a local person gets charged more for their matatu ride because the conductor charged us more and he doesn’t want us to see that we are actually right that the ride costs 30 shillings instead of 40 shillings when he only takes 30 from the locals after just charging us 40. It’s very hard to know that you just made life more difficult for another person merely because of your presence somewhere. Crista informed me that she had never experienced something like that before in the 9 months that she had been working in Kenya, which is comforting to know, but makes that event stick out all the more. I’m just thankful that the guy never became physical with us because it was obvious that no else, other than the guy that did say something, was going to get involved or stop this guy from doing whatever he wanted to us. Thankfully I can say this is the only time so far that any of my matatu rides have turned violent.
And now for my close encounter with death. It is my first day in the field alone and I am excited but nervous as well. I was on my back to S group, which lives deep in the forest. It was in S group's territory that we found the dead, hanging monkey and ever since that day, combined with the fact that no one ever really goes back to S group’s territory I have always been a little anxious working with them, much preferring my days with K group. Anyway, as I was walking back to find them early in the morning the thought crossed my mind that I needed to remember to ask Crista for the phone numbers of some of the guys that work at the ruins in case I were to ever get bitten by a snake and couldn’t get myself back to the office on my own, or just in case anything bad were to happen to me and I needed some assistance. Literally a minute later I am walking down one of the trails deeply hidden in the forest and out of the corner of my eye I suddenly think that what I thought was a root looked a little scalely. Thankfully I stopped with foot in mid-air and looked down before stepping and sure enough I was just about to step on the most enormous black mamba I’ve ever seen! A black mamba is one of the deadliest snakes in Kenya. Its venom will kill you in half an hour. Now there have been very few cases, if any at all, where a black mamba has struck a person who was just walking through the forest, not bothering it at all. They typically strike when someone steps on them, as I was about to do, or the lay on the ground and wait for something to walk by and they strike, also what I was doing. The snake was laying across the path, half wrapped up a tree and half lying in the path. I initially had thought that it was just a root of the tree as that it what it looked like from the corner of my eye since the snake was wrapped up the tree, probably what it was hoping some poor, unsuspecting victim would think. This snake was huge, approximately 4 inches thick and about 6 feet long. I’ve never seen a snake this large in the wild before, only in captivity.

As soon as I realized that it was a snake I was torn with wanting to stay a moment and just stare at it, as I’d never seen anything like this, but at the same time I was completely terrified and knew I was already close enough to it that it could strike me at anytime, and this would certainly mean death. Therefore, I turned around and ran as fast as I could, hoping my monkeys were down another path. There is a snake farm in Watamu where I live and they have an anti-venom for every snake in the area, so there is a small chance of being saved if you do get bitten. The unfortunate thing is that the snake farm is about a 15 minute drive from the ruins, where we work, and that is if someone got in their car the second you called for the anti-venom. Now this seems fine because you have 30 minutes before death ensues, but there’s a glitch, the snake farm only brings the anti-venom to you, you then have to get yourself to a hospital which is a 20-30 minute drive away. So we are talking about 35-50 minutes before you could actually get the anti-venom injected, and guess what, you are out of time! Therefore, the moral of this story is always, always carefully watch where you are stepping because that could be one of your last steps. I’ve come to the realization after this incident that it is better to lose your monkey by looking down occasionally as you walk than to never see a monkey again because you stepped on a black mamba. Can anyone guess how I feel about working with S group now? Naturally I like working with them even less than I already did…their territory is a scary death trap. :-)

As a quick update to previous posts, I know everyone is curious to know what happened with the dead monkey and Maisha, the kitten. We never did figure out how the monkey died and it has since been eaten by ants and other forest creatures that have left nothing of it’s remains except for it’s skull, which we have taken. It now resides in our office. As for Maisha I have found her a good home with one of the guys that works at Mwamba. He has 2 other cats and 5 children whom he thinks will be great playmates for her. In particular he has a six-year old son who is ecstatic about receiving her. I am taking her over to his house today where I must say good-bye to her. It is going to be very hard to say good-bye as I have been her mother for the past month and I am the one who nursed her back to health, but in the long run I think this is the best thing for her. She is in excellent health now though. She has grown so big and has been perfecting her hunting and pouncing skills in the recent weeks, as well as playing and running all over the place. She has made a complete 180 since I first rescued her. The first 2 weeks she hardly moved at all, sleeping all the time and never playing. Now that she has receieved some proper nutrition and a little TLC she has become a drastically different kitten. Francis the guy taking her lives very close to the ruins so hopefully I will still get to see her often enough. Even though saying good-bye will be hard, I am very grateful that I was able to give her a second chance at life!