What does a Spaniard, German, and an American have in common? Couchsurfing and elephants. In actuality, the trio has much more in common for they are all of European heritage albeit the American, me, being born in California. Fee Brinkmann, the German horse whisperer, and Sergi Ayora, the Spaniard guitarist fell into my life one day when they emailed me on Couchsurfing with a request to come crash at my place in Meru for a couple of days. I had never hosted anyone on Couchsurfing before, but I had an experience surfing at someone’s in Austin, TX during the epic roadtrip across America with Chase, Haley, and Tristan in the Summer of 2010. Taking a risk, I replied with a yes. The duo arrived at my porch on Sunday night around 9:30 while carrying gigantic backpacks that towered over their heads. My European instincts took over long before they arrived. I spent most of the day preparing the house for their arrival. I also cooked dinner, channa dal with coconut rice and paranthas, because I know what it’s like to be travel weary and go to sleep hungry. We talked about our lives, traveling, Europe, and languages. It was amazing – I didn’t go to sleep until 12:30 that night. On Monday, I had class so the two wandered off into town in search of a forest that might yield an elephant sighting. After class was finished at around 11, I headed to the market and returned home to meet the two at around 3:00. Their earlier excursion in search of elephants proved to be unsuccessful, but that didn’t stop them from trying again. I asked the amazing school secretary where we would have a chance of seeing them, and we were off. The exciting thing about going there was not that we took a taxi, like I normally do to get around, but that we hitchhiked all the way to our desired destination. It was amazing! I got a taste of what Sergi and Fee have been doing the past 9 months. Yes, they’ve hitchhiked their way through the Middle East to Oman, Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, and then finally into Kenya. They’ll continue on to the Congo and then up to Mali and Morocco before crossing over back into Spain. Anyway, we arrived at the location and we could clearly see that it was an elephant stomping ground. The evidence was everywhere – broken branches, dung, and warped earth was everywhere. We waited patiently until we saw a male in the distance, about 250 meters away. Our adrenaline rushed through our veins as we saw the elephant approach. Worry flashed through our thoughts of the possibility of more elephants coming from behind us, but that never happened. The lone elephant bull in front of us started flapping its ears vigorously before suddenly turning and walking away. I think it heard us. Bravely, we sought out to follow its path in hopes of seeing it closer or that it might lead us to a pack. We followed. Yes, we followed it. After about half an hour of nothing except the African highland bush, we decided to turn back. Hitchhiked back home. They left the following morning. Ah, such a pleasure to have them around especially because I’ve been around only Kenyans and Americans these past seven months. I realized I need Europeans in my life. I guess I’m more European than I thought after all.
Now, I’m in Nairobi. Yesterday (Wednesday) was a public holiday so there was no school. I took delight in the fact that I would have a day in the middle of the week to just relax, watch a few episodes of Glee, and story with the students. I woke up at 8:12, rather late for me, and jumped right into an episode of Glee while eating an avocado and fruits for breakfast. I started baking a carrot cake for a student’s birthday at around 11:00. It was around that time that I noticed fingers vying for my attention through the window. I felt tinges of fear run through my body as I realized it was the Muslim woman who was bothering me from January/February. I opened the curtains (if it can even be called that) and told her to please leave. I turned my focus to finishing the cake, thinking the woman wouldn’t have the gall to ignore my command. About an hour and a half later, the cake was finished and I started applying coconut frosting on it. Once that was done I opened the door, with the cake in my hands, to the woman standing in front of me. I was momentarily stunned but regained my composture. I quickly locked the door behind me so she couldn’t get in and started for the classroom where I had told the students to meet me. We had our little birthday celebration, but I will admit I wasn’t quite in the right mood for the woman was still bothering me in the back of my mind. I went back to the house to return the tin and knife after everything was finished only to find the woman still waiting there. ARGH! I quickly went back to the classroom so she wouldn’t have access to my house. She thankfully followed me, away from my house. Near the front gate, much to my dismay, we began typing back and forth on her cell phone. Basically, she implored for me to become her friend and ally, which means something completely different than what the words mean if you catch my drift. I continually rejected her and told her she needed to leave. No. Still there. We went back and forth with her pleads and my rejections, growing harsher with every plead. She even threw into the medley of pleads that she would committ suicide if I did not become her friend. Once she said I needed to give her five reasons why we cannot be friends, I was so fed up that I walked to the gate, opened it, and motioned for her to leave. As I was turning around to make eye contact with her for her to leave, I found her kneeling on the rocky ground. At that point, the guard told me to leave, and so I went to the dining hall. That wasn’t before I caught her bringing her index finger to her throat and moving it sideways in a slashing motion with the evilest eye I have seen in my life. I forgot to mention that all the while, there was a steady flow of students coming out to the gate area to see what was happening. 30 minutes passed before one student told me to come to the gate area because a house mother had called me. I walked over and the house mother said that I needed to make up with my sweetheart. Red washed over my eyesight and I became livid. I immediately said that the woman was causing a problem and she needed to leave. I turned away so fast as to not give any of them a chance to respond and to cool myself down. An hour passed before students started coming back to the dining hall because the woman had left and the drama was gone. I notified the Peace Corps and they told me to come to Nairobi immediately, meaning the following day because policy prohibits traveling at night. Ayiyiyi.