today my friend becca and I grabbed a matatu into kibera. becca is working on a project with a girl's school in kibera slum and I volunteered to help her with arts and crafts day.
matatus are fourteen passenger vans that provide cheap transport around nairobi and all of kenya. they are considerably less regulated that the public buses. matatus are decorated with pictures of rappers (most commonly rick ross for some strange reason), quotes from the bible, cash $ symbols and other random things. music blares inside and you can't hear yourself think. although the limit is fourteen passengers that is never adhered to, and its not uncommon to sitting on someone or be sat upon. robbery is common in matatus and you really have to watch yourself.
today was no exception.
we boarded the matatu, becca and I being passengers 13 and 14, and three people boarded after us. a man pushed squished me in, so it was becca and I seated (wedged) between two youngish kenyan men. the man sitting next to me had a bag with a magazine in it. as becca and I talked the man proceeded to inch the bag over my bag (which was on my lap.) all of a sudden I felt a slight poke and realized the man was trying to unzip my bag to get at the goodies with in. he'd managed to unzip it almost enough to get a hand in before I noticed. very sneaky... I glared at him, moved my bag and re-zipped it. I turned to becca and said, "so this guy is trying to rob me right now..." at which point she noticed the man next to her had moved his jacket on top of her bag and was in the process of trying to rob her.
as becca moved her bag out of mr. grabby hands' way the matatu driver told everyone to put on their seatbelts because there was police check up ahead. at this point a shuffle in the matatu began as people tried to find seatbelts. the man sitting next me half stood up and tried to squeeze in between becca and I while attempting to reach into becca's back pocket.
at this point we'd had enough and demanded the matatu driver pull over and we got out.
matatu rides - sometimes you get a good one, sometimes you get a REALLY BAD one.
Maybe it's time to put a rat trap in your back pocket.
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