About that Nairobi brusqueness

Brusque - Synonyms: curt, abrupt, blunt, short, sharp, terse, peremptory, gruff; 
offhand, discourteous, impolite, rude

  Being a Christian and a Nairobian is a delicate balancing act. On one hand I want to be kind and accommodating toward people. But on the other I'm hyper-aware of the rampant conman-ship we encounter on a daily basis. So you genuinely try to be concerned about the needs of other...but from a slight distance, you know. Just in case.

   I met a woman in the bus the other day. She was sitting next to me and I probably wouldn't have spoken to her if it wasn't for the fact that the bus ran out of fuel and abruptly stalled in the middle of the road....at 7.30 pm in the evening. And yes I’ll admit it. Up until that moment my face was firmly glued to my phone screen. So she sighed and asked me how she would get to the hospital (Kenyatta National Hospital) considering that the bus had stopped and was refusing to start. She was to meet somebody there and her phone was dead. I told her that there would be other buses passing the same route since we were quite close to a bus-stop. She then asked me where I was going. Alarm bells warranted or not went off in my head.  She looked innocent enough but don't they always? I was also heading to the hospital but told her I was going to Upper hill, which was technically true considering that the hospital is in upper hill. I just wasn’t comfortable telling her that I was going the same place she was. One does not simply inform random strangers about their movements in this city okay. We’ve heard too many stories about that going badly for the over-trusting party. Unless you’re on foursquare. People on foursquare are forever telling us where they’re at. But I digress.

    The other passengers started alighting to see if they could catch another means of transport. I took this as my cue to leave and escape further conversation. You know, just in case she was trying to con me. I was seated at the window and had to go past her to get to the isle. I was halfway to freedom when the driver asked us to wait because they had just gotten fuel (don’t ask me where from) and were just about to manually put it in the tank. So shuffled back to my seat and waited. Maybe I was just slightly less sceptical about her intentions than I had been a few minutes before. When we eventually left, she asked me to tell her when we got to the hospital. The rest of the ride was without incident. We got to the hospital and I gave her directions to the entrance. Turns out she wasn't a con woman after all. False alarm! She was just a stranger who needed some help and now I feel guilty for having misjudged her.

   But this story could have turned out very differently. Judging by the sheer number of warning forwards we distribute in a week, one could conclude that Nairobi either has a lot of people walking around with mal intent or that we are very paranoid as a populace. And rightly so! And it get’s exhausting having to have this guard up all the time. More so because I have one of those faces. You know the ones. Those wouldn’t-hurt-a-fly-she-must-be-someone-helpful kinds of faces. Which means strangers stop me to ask for directions and what-not more than they do with the average Kenyan. I’m serious people! I’ll give you statistics next time.

   So do I wish that we were a more trustworthy society? Yes I do. And that may be more idealistic than realistic, but allow that idealism for just a moment. And for all of you non-Kenyans who complain about Kenyans not being that friendly, now you know why. It’s not personal mate. We’ve just burned each other way too many times in the past.

Ciao...

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