I had been calling our Reverend’s children “silly” for a few weeks before one night the mother asked me what “silly” means in the States. Uh-oh, red flag, it must mean something different here. You get used to words having different meanings and people being confused.. it’s a normal part of life when you are traveling the world. After turning red, and beginning to sweat a little, I explained to her what it meant in the States and asked what it means in Kenya. Apparently it means you are hard-headed. So… I guess I won’t be calling kids “silly” anymore here. You wouldn’t believe how many times I have had to catch myself. And that is why this is a funny story and not a silly one. First, while we were taking those pictures straddling the equator, I managed to kick over a pitcher full of water… the pitcher we would later use for the demonstration. Strike one. Ten minutes later, while very intently watching and filming the demonstration, I stand up and hit my head, brain-rattling hard, on the bottom of the sign. Video cameras immediately went from the swirling water to me laughing/ shouting “ow” and asking people to please continue filming the water and not me. Strike two. Apparently the equator has a funny effect on me. When we got back to the car, we heard their perspective of the event. They were sitting at a distance in the van. Mama saw the llama running toward us and us running away, and she asked Dustin why we were playing with that “thing”, the llama. Moments later, we began screaming and Dustin knew we were not “playing” with it. Hiding in the men’s bathroom from a playful llama, strike three. An eventful day and it is not even over yet! The lunch ladies and llamas… the bathrooms are the blue buildings. I survived!!!
Today was our day off and since it was our last opportunity to do the touristy things, we decided to pack it all into one day. We started by going to the equator line. (Never thought I’d get to say that.) Yes, we took many pictures straddling where the signs said the equator lies, and watched a demonstration of items swirling different directions in water on different sides of the equator. We learned to the North of the equator things will swirl clockwise, and to the South, counterclockwise. Kinda fun to see in person!
The next stop was a castle that Shaun had heard about. It was out in the country and after a tour of the place, the ladies decided to use the restroom before getting back in the car. We thought it funny that the place had llamas, but didn’t think much of it until it began to stare us down. Let me describe the scene a little. Women were sitting on the lawn eating lunch, men working on the landscaping and four mzungus (remember from previous blog this means “white people”) heading to the hole- in- the- ground “bathrooms”. After I shut the door, I heard shouts and screams from the girls. I came out and heard through the girls’ laughs that the llama had charged Jessica as she went to look at the animal farm nearby the restrooms. We were laughing pretty good when all of a sudden the llama decided to charge us again. The four of us immediately ran to the nearest shelter, which of course happened to be into the men’s bathroom, and closed the doors. I can’t imagine what it looked like for the women lounging in the grass, watching us. There was lots of screaming and running. When we finally emerged from the restroom, the landscapers told us the llama was nice and that it was just wanting to play. How on Earth do you play with a llama?!
