Nakuru... not my favourite town

It's been a rough couple of days. Amazing safari in the Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru. Nakuru town... not so great. I haven't been able to bring myself to blog yet. But I have taken very good notes and will have a thorough, happy, exciting entry on the Maasai Mara soon.

Right now we are in a very speedy cyber cafe in Nairobi just for a quick stop until we meet our friend Julie, from Courtenay, who is volunteering on a project in the slums for 3 months. We will be staying with her here for a couple of days.

This morning I ventured out for the first time on my own. 7am, Sunday morning. Figured I was safe. Terry was off for a run. I hopped on a boda boda and asked him to take me somewhere that was open for chai. We had only gotten about a block away when I saw men ahead at the cross street, pointing, running and yelling. As we got closer I saw a man on his knees in the middle of the street and another man standing over him with a machine gun... he did not look like a police officer, but it all happened very fast. I tapped my boda boda driver and asked him to turn around. He dropped me at a restaurant that looked barely open, but there was a nicely dressed lady inside, so I figured I was o.k.

When I came in, they asked me the usual, "How are you?" To which I replied, "Very scared, there is a man down the street with a gun." No response. Sometimes "How are you" is as far as the english goes. I orded a chai, bought a newspaper and tried not to cry.

I was sitting near the door and a really drunk man came in. Another man inside the cafe was hitting him with a jacket on the back... It looked like they could have been kidding around, I just couldn't tell. I moved further in to the restaurant and asked the staff if everything was o.k. "O.K." they assured me. The jostling stopped and the drunk guy just kept staring at me, with the odd creepy hello.

Now my heart was pounding and all I could think about was how I was going to get home. I looked at one of the women in the restaurant and asked her again if everything was o.k. She told me he is very drunk, but don't worry. He ordered a chai and I took that as my opportunity to leave. I hopped on a boda boda and asked him to ride me the 1/2 a block back to the hotel. Then I walked the five flights of stairs up to our roof top room and cried until Terry got home.

I'm feeling better after an uneventful 2 hour busride to Nairobi. And now we are meeting a friend, so all is well.

Finding out what I'm made of here. This place is breaking my heart, pissing me off and seducing me all at the same time. We met an Australian medical student last night, Adam. He says he loves and hates Africa. Me too.