The running of the mzungu

Wednesday I was grateful to have a day with nothing scheduled to relax, stay off my feet, and catch up on writing about all my experiences. As it is, I'm writing this on Saturday evening, still struggling to catch up with everything that's happened. For those of you who feel that I'm writing a ton, I didn't plan to write half this much, but it's turned out similar to Urban Plunge where there are too many new experiences and interesting observations that it would bother me to leave out of my account of the trip. Something that I'd been missing out on through most of my first week was running and playing in the streets in the evenings, because we had been getting back from town either late or very tired, and usually both. When we were coming in after dark on Tuesday night I had Paul, one of the first and most talkative kids to interact with me, asked when I would be around to play with them. I told them I hoped soon, but I couldn't be sure and he clearly wasn't satisfied with that answer. The other nice thing about the evening is the temperature cools off as the sun goes down, which leaves a lot people here shivering but for me that's when it's just perfect, I would guess maybe high 50's or low 60's. Apparently since this is so close to equator there aren't the distinct four seasons we have farther north, and it also means it is consistently hotter. This the "rainy season" right now, which is the coldest time of the year, but it's still at least in the 70's most days. I'm grateful I didn't come when it gets hotter, I think this Montana boy would probably melt like a popsicle. I had been running in the mornings and planned on running more in the evenings but hadn't been able to work it in (which was really the reason I'd been running in the mornings. Running after a day of walking around Nairobi is not a tantalizing prospect). The other reason for running in the mornings is because in the evenings I'm inevitably swarmed by kids, which is great as long as I've already got in my main run for the day and am free to run and play with them. Trying to get a specific training run in with 20 little kids all around you is not something I care to attempt. After a minute or two of running, I began to hear the cries of the kids as they alerted the others that the mzungu was out. They would wait at a corner for me, usually at the top of the loop, and take off running before I would get there and see how far they could make it before either jumping into a doorway or driveway, or being grabbed by me. The running of the bulls, except with a bunch of squealing little Kenyan kids and a big shaggy white guy chasing, is the best picture I can think of to describe it, plus a mixture of amused, bewildered, alarmed, and concerned (I think, I still don't think I can really read their facial expressions correctly yet) parents. Sometimes the kids would grab my hand and run with me, but usually I just chased the whole bunch of them. After a couple minutes a football (soccer) game was starting up, so I jumped into that. I was instantly the new star that everyone wanted on their team, and I decided to officiate the team building process to get the game going. I remember how much fighting there was over that when I was a kid, and having a clearly senior person to have the final word on it greatly speeded the process. I ended up with all the little kids on my team because neither team wanted them, but I told them they could play if they wanted to. I suspect normally they don't get to play and usually just sit and watch. I mostly played defense because, again remembering my own childhood, I knew all the kids would rather be on offense trying to score goals. Watching the game unfold was fascinating for me, partly because it was such a throwback to my days growing up playing backyard football and soccer and baseball with my brother and friends. Arguments broke out, but for the most part I tried to let them sort these things out, partly because I think that's what's valuable about kids playing sports and partly because I didn't know what house rules existed as far as what happened when the ball was kicked into the bushes or there was a dispute on a penalty kick. If the fists started flying I stepped in, but that was only once or twice, and for the most part everyone seemed to be having a great time. It was also interesting watching because, at least to me, these kids were pretty darn good for being 8-12 or so. There was one really talkative and cocky but extremely amiable and likable kid that was playing offense on the other team that I was good naturedly trash talking with throughout the game, and was guarding a lot of the time, as he was probably their best player. I was not nearly as overpowering as you might expect, given my lack of quickness and soccer skill. Austin, the kid I was guarding scored a couple times, but most times I cleared the ball out, but whoever won every battle made sure to let the other one know about it, and I'd usually yell and pick him up over my head when I'd stolen the ball and cleared it. It was absolutely a blast, a fun throwback to my playground days (dang, that made me sound old again. I need to stop reliving the glory days), and I'm sure exciting for the kids to be able to tell their families and friends that they'd played football with the big mzungu. We came back to a power outage, which have been happening quite frequently, but I'm told don't normally happen this regularly. We've probably had five since I've been here, ranging from an hour or two up to 8-10 hours. Lamps were lit, dinner was cooked over the portable charcoal stove, and I played cards with Junior and Mo (one of the older ones among the kids I play with that spends a lot of his time at the Otieno's house) after dinner until bedtime. One funny note on that, Mo asked me if I wanted to play poker, which of course I did. He dealt me four cards and started playing a game that didn't even slightly resemble poker, but as he explained the rules I recognized it as the "Kenyan poker" that Patrick had taught me. I guess it makes sense that in Kenya "Kenyan poker" would just be "poker".