Before leaving the house that morning, Aly gave me the run down on staying close and being aware of my surroundings. After living here for a month, I kind of knew what market she was talking about. We pass these types of markets day after day heading into the city.
We met up with Michael, Elijah, and Sylvia at the head office then off to shopping we went. When we arrived to the area of where we were shopping, I could see in Aly’s eyes that this was a little different than what she expected. People were flooding the streets. More so than in the areas we usually go shopping. In other words, there were absolutely no other white people around. Just me and Aly.
We split up into pairs of two. We knew that walking around in an environment like this, and trying to keep up with four people at once was going to be chaos. Not to mention we had quite of few things to get. So, Aly and Sylvia stuck together, and I tagged along with Elijah. Michael waited in the car.
It was only a matter of seconds before Aly and Sylvia were out of sight. I was over-whelmed as my heart beat fast, wondering what I had gotten myself into. There were so many people that it was almost impossible to not bump into someone else. I followed closely behind Elijah. He would look back every couple of seconds to make sure I was close. At one point in time, there was a guy walking behind me yelling “muzungu, muzungu!” He even went to grab my arm. By this time I was on the verge of tears! I had never ever felt so unsafe and uncomfortable in my life. People were staring...EVERYONE was staring. After ignoring him, he eventually let off and stopped following us..
As we were walking in the midst of the chaos, I asked Elijah what it was like walking around with a muzungu. He said that it’s extremely rare for someone like me to be walking in an environment like this. He said that you’ll most likely never see a white person here. We walked down allies that were dark filled with strange men and filth everywhere. Men that looked at me strangely. Others that called out “Madam!”, trying to catch my attention. I was definitely in a state of culture shock.
The streets were filled with men running around with sacks on their heads and hands full. And if you were in the way, they would whistle at you to move. If you didn’t move in time, you were surely going to be ran over or pushed out of the way. If you walked in the streets and not off to the side, you better watch out for boda-bodas and big trucks coming thru. They don’t stop for nothing. Nor do they care if you’re in the way. All in all...
You better watch your back.
It was a relief seeing Aly back at the truck. A few other AMG workers met up with us to keep watch over the items bought that were in the back of the truck. If they hadn’t been there, I am sure things would have been stolen.
We finally made it out safely, and arrived back at the office. Unfortunately, that was not the end of the chaotic day!
After leaving the office, Aly and I went for our own shopping for food. As well as buying airtime for our phones. While she went into ShopRite I went into the MTN phone store to buy our airtime. A man who worked there walked up to me and assisted me. As I was waiting for him to come back with a receipt, a suspicious looking guy walks up to me asking for my information. What caught me off guard was the fact that he had been standing there for about 10 minutes waiting to come up to me. There were four other muzungus in the store, and not one of them did he go up to. I made the mistake telling him what part of the US I was from, GA, because after saying that he “surprisingly” was a part of an organization in GA. I had the gut feeling that something wasn’t right. As he was asking me for my contact information, the man comes back with my receipt and Aly starts calling me. I quickly told him I had to go, and walked away looking for Aly.
I was already shaken up from being at the market, and experiencing a whole new environment. Needless to say, Aly and I were happy once we made it home safely. Our day was definitely the topic of the night..
- Kaitlyn
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