"For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out. -James Baldwin"
There is a sadness hanging over the office today. Kinuthia Murugu, who used to be the Regional Director here in the office, died during the night. This story epitomizes the way life is in Nairobi.
On June, I received an email that was circulated around the office, informing everyone that Murugu had been shot the night before. He was driving home at night, and his car was surrounded by bandits, who shot him four times in the chest and shoulder. A civilian heard the shots, ran outside, and got him to the hospital. He spent a week or two in the intensive care unit, and was then moved into the normal ward last week. Obviously, we all took this as a good sign, however, now we find out that it was simply a case of someone in worse condition than him that bumped him out of ICU before he was ready. I still don’t have many details, simply that he was moved back to ICU, where he died sometime last night or early this morning.
The mood was very sombre in the work van this morning; some had heard on the radio (Murugu was some sort of government official now, making his death actual news for the public), a few had received phone calls, and an unfortunate few had to be told in the van this morning. The mood is naturally very sad today, in a tightknit group of people like here in this office, I can imagine that its more like losing a family member than a colleague.
The "Connecting Africa's Youth for Change" proposal that I have been revising and updating for the last few weeks was originally written by Murugu. Although I never had a chance to meet him, this just further inspires me to do an amazing job finishing this proposal. I believe so much in this project, and now I feel even more motivated to do an amazing job in his memory.
This is the scary part about life in Nairobi. It's easy to get caught up in the mundane, day to day life that we live here and forget that we are living in such a dangerous city. I mean, I get picked up and dropped off at my doorstep every day for work, I never go ANYWHERE alone, and I'm never on the streets after dark, which I think has given me a false sense of security in this town. I mean, I don't think I could be any more cautious, really. But it's easy to lose sight of all the risks that we are facing here.
The scariest risks are probably hijackings/carjackings/kidnappings... the best you can do is lock your doors at all times and stay out of bad neighbourhoods, but even Murugu was shot in a safe neighbourhood that we drive through daily. Additional risks on the road include the corrupt police force. If they see a carload of "mzungus", apparently they will pull you over and find any excuse to fine you ridiculous amounts of money. In the past two weeks, Cherie and Amanda both had separate experiences. If you refuse to pay, they may drag you to court, which will land you in jail indefinitely. In other words, just give them what they want (within reason). I only carry the smallest amount of cash possible wherever I go, so that if I ever ended up in that situation, I wouldn't break the bank giving them all the cash I have on me! It's so frusterating!! You don't want to fuel the corruption by giving in to their demands, but you really don't have a choice...
Just a warning, the following stories are pretty chilling and/or graphic...
Probabely the scariest story I've heard yet happened to a missionary we heard about through Marg (Cherie's mom). Apparently this is a huge scam that happens: Bandits will kidnap someone and kill them, then they will take the body and lurk at the side of a dark road. Then the innocent person comes driving along, and the bandits will throw the body on the hood of the car. When the driver stops, assuming he has hit and killed a person, the bandits come out of the side of the road dressed as police, and basically extort the hell out of the innocent driver, telling them if they don't pay up, they will be charged with murder, blah blah blah... It's absolutely terrifying, and it makes me so glad we do not acutally have to drive here. There are only 3 people that I ever really drive with: Elly, and our 2 favorite cab drivers, Moses and Erastus. It is really great, everyone has cell phones here, so you just call up your cabby pal when you need to get around, and within minutes they are right there at your doorstep. It makes us feel alot safer driving around with people we know.
Another truly chilling story happened to our friend Hallie when she was working in Kibera. One day she was taking pictures of the kids playing, and they all ran over to see the pictures on the screen of the camera (all the kids are just fascinated by digital cameras). While she was holding the camera far away from her so all the kids could see the screen, a thief came up, grabbed the camera and ran off with it. She hollered out, and said that within seconds, up to 15 men went chasing after the theif. As common as theft is here, it is not respected by the majority of the law abiding locals. Here, theft is a terrible offense, one punishible by death. So amazingly, these men chased the theif through the narrow alleys and wove in between the tiny houses until the caught the man and got her camera back. For the record, the "man" was actually a young boy, about 16 years old.
So they dragged him back to the area where he had stolen the camera, and started beating on him. He was curled in a ball while the 15 men kicked and beat on him while Hallie watched, absolutely horrified. When one of the women lifted up a huge rock and was going to stone him, Hallie cried out and probably saved the mans life. It was astounding. They were going to kill him over stealing her camera. Granted, stealing is wrong, but no one deserves to lose their life over something so silly. When I was repeating the story to Elly the next morning, he told me the kid was lucky. Often, in similar circumstances, they will put a spare tire around a theifs neck, douse it with gasoline, and light a match...
It is so hard to believe that such barbaric acts are carried out here so normally. Mob mentality is a scary, scary concept. Once again, it makes me so happy for the feeling of security we have at home. I honestly feel like I could stroll down East Hastings with thousands of dollars of cash on me now, and not even bat an eye. Its hard to decide what are percieved risks and what risks are real, but I'm a firm believer in being safe rather than sorry, so this whole trip I've erred on the side of caution, which will definitely continue until I am back home safe in Canada!
-Delaney xo
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