When it’s 8pm and you’re at the matatu stage trying to find a way to get back to Kianyaga, and you realize there’s not a matatu that goes there so late in the day, so you will have to go to Kutus and then take a motorbike at 10:30pm, and the matatu isn’t even full yet so you would have to wait alone for an undetermined length of time, and there’s a creepy guy sitting next to you drinking changa from a water bottle and suggesting that you share a taxi when you get to Kutus because (coincidence!) he is also going to Kianyaga, and you don’t have a phone because you’ve lost your SIM card, and you have no money either, but you do have a laptop in your bag and a slightly low-cut shirt, and you’re a white girl, and you’re feeling like maybe you’re a wimp because you want to just go to a hotel in Nairobi and leave for Kianyaga the following morning, the smart thing to do is you get your butt off the matatu, hail a cab, take refuge at your usual backpacker hotel, have a glass of wine, and commend yourself for not being very hard-core. Sometimes being a pansy is really the smartest thing.
OK. This is both alarming and reassuring. Alarming, because you place yourself in vulnerable situations. Reassuring, because you are clever at getting out of them. Please continue to appreciate the pansy in you (also known as fear, which humans have for a very good reason: it informs them whether to fight or flee).
I am visualizing your inner pansy helping you stay safe.
xox,
Sprout