Be careful what you wish for. I HADDDD to run my mouth and obviously within a few days my words had come to fruition. I got pickpocketed. A few posts ago I wrote something along the lines of “I need to get pickpocketed”. How big of an idiot can I possibly be?! Before I tell the story let me first clarify that I am fine and that nothing important was taken… Seriously. I’m fine. Now let’s get to the story.
Daniella and Tarin had moved out and Jack was on an excursion so Nikki and I, left alone in Ngong, decided to carpe diem and take a trip down to City Park down in the heart of Nairobi. We walked over to the Matatu stage next to the open-air market in Ngong only a few hundred yards away from our doorstep. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. It was even quiet in Ngong. Maybe a little too quiet… We boarded the first available matatu because we had gotten a late start and we didn’t want to delay due to the intense traffic… but not before stopping for some sugar cane to hold us over on the potentially long ride. I sat next to a late teens or early 20 something kid with a ripped shirt that looked like it had been donated from a high school in the United States. He had busted knuckles and an American baseball hat (Cincinnati Reds if I remember correctly) that looked like it had been worn by his father and his father’s father. He was missing a few front teeth and the ones that remained were stained brown and yellow. I sat on the window side and he jammed himself in next to me and in retrospect definitely encroached on my personal space. Whether the fact that he jumped in front of Nikki when boarding the matatu in order to sit next to me was intentional or if he just took advantage of the situation that fell into his lap, I will never know. But either way, I should have seen it coming. It’s like they say, “hindsight is always 20/20”. About halfway to Nairobi I felt a tap on my shoulder from the kid that I just described. And that is when it happened…. He asked me for piece of sugar cane.
What? OOOHHHHHHHHH! You probably thought he was the one that pickpocketed me. Wow! I’m sorry… I guess I could see how that was misleading, but you really should be careful before you judge people. It can really get you into trouble. Anyways, so I gave him the sugar cane and finished off the matatu ride down to the city center (business district in the center of Nairobi). From there were transferred matatus and finally made it to City Park after a few minutes of bumpy road and crazy matatu driving. When we arrived at the park, Nikki said she had to go to the bathroom, so I figured I’d seize the opportunity and use the public toilet as well. I settled into a urinal and a man came and took the one next to me. He smelled like he had never even heard of deodorant and his breath smelled like a biker bar that had just had a movie-style brawl that sent the entire contents of the bar spilling across the floor. He looked at me like an ATM and when I had finished, he timed it perfectly to follow me out the door. As we approached the door, he bumped into me and with a certain look in his eye he said… “I’m soooo sorry!” The look I described could be described as nothing other than utter sincerity. We continued on the paths of our lives with smiles on our faces. I reached for my phone to see the time only to realize…. I had turned it off by accident.
Wait?! You fell for it again… seriously?
It was only once we arrived inside the park that I finally met the mwizi (thief). With a granola bar and bag-of-peanuts-picnic -packed in my pocket (say that 10 times fast), Nikki and I braved the beautiful woodland park. We entered to find these thieves roaming in packs from old to young, white, black, brown and orange, females as vicious as males. As Nikki and I were walking through the park I caught one of the thieves red-handed, reaching into my pocket and am seriously considering sending this candid shot to the authorities.
The little bastards got my granola bar! I guess the fact that she left my phone, money and camera should be a little bit of a relief, and I’m not trying to be overly dramatic… but I was realllllly hungry. I guess I should have clarified that earlier that it was monkeys, and they only took my granola bar. Again, my deepest apologies for leading you on.
City Park (aka the den of thieves) is a beautiful park in Nairobi that is known for its population of over 100 monkey species. They come from areas surrounding the park and follow the woods until they wander into the human infested park and interact with the people that routinely sleep, eat, play and feed monkeys there. Nikki and I were planning on the last activity on that list when we decided to go to City Park. Outside the park entrance people sell bags of peanuts for 5 shilling (I’m telling you, EVERYONE has a hustle in Kenya) and people ramble through the park and interact with the monkeys, some species being a little bolder than others. They are all friendly and are crazy intelligent. They aren’t scary because they will attack you, they are scary because they will outthink you. They work in groups and it’s not just me that they maliciously outmaneuvered. They ripped off one of the vendors of a bag of chips and jumped into a tree before the livid merchant could smack it with a stick (presumably used exclusively for these situations). We spent an hour or so playing with these monkeys, feeding them, having them crawl all over us and chasing them (and having them chase us). It was so much fun. They are little people, catching peanuts in the air and bickering over whose turn it is to get the peanuts from the mzungu’s hand.
Well, there you have it. I got robbed. And now you know the story. Like I said, I’m fine. I may have lost a granola bar, but I definitely gained another story in my increasing catalog. Aright. Enough of me writing this nonsense. I know you just want me to quiet down and show some pictures; so here they are. Just remember; be careful what you wish for!
Well, there you have it. I got robbed. And now you know the story. Like I said, I’m fine. I may have lost a granola bar, but I definitely gained another story in my increasing catalog. Aright. Enough of me writing this nonsense. I know you just want me to quiet down and show some pictures; so here they are. Just remember; be careful what you wish for!
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