So as I was sitting here trying to decide what to write about, my housemate, Jennifer, came running into the common room from the kitchen screaming bloody murder. She and her husband had gone into the kitchen to make some toast as a bedtime snack. Some people thought it was a bug-scream or rat-scream, but I had a sense that it was a scream that required mobilization. She seemed unnerved and a bit terrified. I heard her gasp, ‘There’s a person behind the fridge!’ A Kenyan!’. Her husband, Matt, was still in the kitchen and I could hear him saying , ‘Whoa. What are you doing here?’. We live in a pretty isolated and secure compound and it’s quite late (most people were already in bed), so having an unknown stranger hiding in the house is not a situation to be taken lightly.
I was torn between running into the kitchen to try to assess the situation and help Matt if needed it, or running to get our CEO, Jake, (for whom the word 'tough' seems an understatement and who I would already trust with my life in a pinch). Being in a dress that doesn’t give me a lot of movement (meaning if I walked into a bad situation, I would have a hard time trying to run or fight my way out of it) and imagining in the worst case scenario (that it might be a Kenyan man likely armed with a machete), I bolted out the door to Jake’s window. I have to say it is the first time since I arrived that I have seen Jake go to sleep at a reasonable hour and he had looked completely exhausted. I felt a minor pang of guilt amidst my concern when I roused him from his room, but the man bolted into action and was up, armed, and in the upper house kitchen (where the person was hiding) in moments. I followed him into the kitchen and saw a foot in the shadows from around the corner of the fridge. Jake relaxed a bit at what he saw (which in turn made me relax) and reached out his arm, pulling the person up.
It was a child. A girl. Maybe nine or ten years old at most. I recognized her instantly. Chelsea, (a colleague/housemate/new friend), and I had walked into town this morning to buy supplies for breakfast burritos and we noticed a girl sitting next to the food-stand staring at us. We said hello and tried to engage her, but she just smiled and remained silent. About halfway home, we noticed she was following us, and once she realized we knew she was there, she walked right alongside us all the way home. This may sound strange, but it is not uncommon at all. My program manager, Lindsey, constantly has children at her side and they often have nothing to do but to walk you all the way home. It happens every day.
To add to the strangeness of the night, and as a sign that we should take even slightly odd circumstances more seriously: 1) My friend Rebecca had mentioned that a girl had been at her window early in the morning (inside the compound) yelling ‘Hodi!’ which is ‘Can I come in?’. She’d mentioned the girl didn’t speak or seem to understand Swahili or English when spoken to. Rebecca assumed she was an admirer of Lindsey’s come to say goodbye since Lindsey is leaving Kenya this week and the children around here just love her. Lindsey in turn assumed she was one of the laundry ladies. 2) I had been giving out digital copies of photos on my external hard drive to my friend’s Janine and David in their room when we saw something big run by the window in a flash. We joked that we hoped it was a person (there are maybe 17 or 18 of us around the compound at the moment) and not some creature because it was really tall for an animal, but it was pitch black outside and all we could see was a flash of white. When I left their room I saw my friend Matt, who tends to run around a bit, wearing a white shirt and just dismissed it as having been him.
So, back to this girl. She stated she had been beaten and cast out by her father. She snuck into our compound walls and hid in an outdoor latrine through hours of heavy rains. She got scared and snuck into the house and just wanted to stay here, hidden, probably just to have a safe place to stay. I am certain Jennifer’s scream scared her. It scared us all. And I can’t imagine how Jennifer felt. She’d been in there making toast for some time and when her husband came up behind her, he noticed the foot in the shadows. To be there, inches away from someone hiding in the dark for so long, not knowing they are there, if they are armed, or what their intent...I am not a screamer and I tend not to panic, but I cannot blame her for her reaction. Jen had just caught a glimpse of the body wedged in the nook between the fridge and the counter. A soon as she realized someone was there, took off running. I must say that I wish I had known it was a child, so I could have passed that information to Jake before he came running in, but as it was, the child was probably even more petrified when she saw Jake, a big and armed mzungu (white person).
Jake took her outside and talked with her and Thomas, who is our regular guard but has Sundays off. Luckily, Thomas and his family live just across the path from our compound and agreed to let the girl stay with them. Lindsey brought up that we should speak with the chief to help intervene with returning the child to her home in the hopes that she won’t be harmed again.
I feel so terrible for the girl, but I am also relieved that the stranger hiding in the dark was a little girl just trying to find safe haven and not someone with malicious intent. Even now, as I sit here, the strange sounds I previously accredited to being in Kenya are standing out as warning signs of lurkers in the dark. I took two sleeping pills, so hopefully that edge will wear off soon and I will be able to sleep.
So in addition to tonight’s excitement, in the past week I walked over to Tanzania and went fabric shopping with friends, the sister of one of my first Kenyan friends passed away (I have been in situations like this before, but I can never acclimate to how many funerals there are),and I made the walk home alone twice with only one or two minorly sketchy incidents. I will probably carry my pepper spray in future and continue learning martial arts, just to make me feel a little more prepared for any potential incidents. I really, wholly love it here and believe that everything will be fine, but being prepared will just help put my mind at ease. 
I also got to observe the Education Team at work at two very different schools (one a town school and one rural), which was both enlightening and informative. I rode around on bodas or walked down the streets and children already knew me by name and called out to me. I got the tiniest yet most agitating splinter that took two people/two pairs of tweezers/almost two hours/and a safety pin to get out.(It’s crazy how one can remain calm when a two by four rips their calf muscle off the back of their leg or when they get their teeth knocked out, but a miniscule splinter can drive the same person mad. ) I relaxed in the hammock for the first time this week...and I had my first mandazi (or fried bread). We celebrated our CEO's birthday with peanut butter and sriracha sauce galore. And finally, I got to have a one on one with him, which reaffirmed my excitement and gratitude to be a part of this project.
So, that’s about it for now. It is almost one in the morning and I am hoping my sleeping pills will kick in soon so that I can sleep through all the strange noises that never bothered me before tonight’s incident.Much love to all,
Jesi
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