holy crap......chickens!

I've had a few brushes with the animal kingdom in the past 2 days! First of all, remember how I described the entrance my apartment building in Mombasa? You have to walk through this storage area for the bus companies to get in or out...a small room that gets filled to the ceiling with bags of rice, suitcases, other foodstuffs, artwork, random things. There's usually just a small pathway to walk through. Anyway, yesterday morning I was on my way out for work. I skirted by the enormous cockroach that likes to lie in wait for me on the staircase...but was unprepared for the 4 fat chickens blocking my exit from the storage room!! I just suddenly looked down at these funny brown things and JUMPED when I realized they were live chickens! They weren't moving so I thought, oh ew, maybe they're dead. That's unpleasant. But then one turned to look at me and I swear it was completely evil. I think it was cursing me for its very unfortunate situation. And who would blame it? I bet that chicken is on someone's dinner table in rural Kenya right now. Anyway, I pondered for about a minute and eventually just had to step OVER the row of chickens. Actually...I jumped and ran away fast so they wouldn't peck me and then everyone in the room laughed at the silly white girl who was scared of the devil chickens.

Then last night, I was walking to the ice cream parlour with my two brothers and a family friend who is my age and I saw the world's most ADORABLE kitten cowering in a gutter on the road!! I desperately wanted to pick it up and save it and maybe take it home with me forever and ever...but Maryam (the fam friend) stopped me. I forget that here in Kenya, animals are never pets. They are either food or strays that you do NOT touch. Mombasa has tons of stray cats and Nairobi has stray dogs. I felt so bad and actually baby-talked the kitten a little bit...and again was stared at because I was the crazy white girl talking to a cat. Oh also, in case any of you make it to Nairobi in the near future: they don't call cats "cats"or "paka" which is the kiswahili word. They call them "pussy". So just be warned.

Then today, I took a flight from Mombasa to Nairobi for the weekend. It was my first time at the Mombasa airport because I normally take the bus (I'm a total cheapskate here). And as I sat in the terminal, not only was I defending my sandwich from giant black crows...but then I saw a monkey hanging out by my gate! It was my first time seeing a monkey in Kenya....AND AT THE AIRPORT of all places! Haha, anyway, that was fun.

So yes, lots of animals the past 2 days. Fun times! Maybe I'll get another appearance from the godzilla cockroach now that I'm back in Nairobi for a few days. :)

Take care! Love you all.