And surely, almost the moment I reached town I was approached by one of the hundreds of boys who roam the streets of Eldoret, dressed in rags that you can just guess the original colour of, and with their bottle of glue faithfully installed on their upper lip. "Help me with a ten-bob for a cup of tea", he said, a phrase that I have heard from dosens of other children on dosens of other occations during my stay in Kenya.
But this child, and this occation, would turn out to be a bit different.
The next thing I knew, Carol and I found ourselves in a small restaurant, together with Samuel (that's his name) and his friend Wilson. As we took tea and mandazi, we listened to these 13 year-olds' stories of how their parents had passed away, leaving them homeless and without money for school fees. At the counter of the restaurant there was a small television, and the two kids soon fixed their attention on the "Scooby Doo" movie that was playing. I remembered how I used to love movies when I was their age, and asked myself how often these guys could be able to sit down, just relax and watch TV.
One thing led to another, and suddenly I found myself on the back of a motorbike, going together with these kids and two others who joined us along the way, to my friend Hillary's house to watch cartoons. We ended up spending the whole afternoon there, watching "Finding Nemo", having lunch, playing computer games, all those things that kids usually love doing.
"Do you use glue?" I asked one of the kids who joined us on the way. His name is Job, he is one of the most clever 12 year-olds I have ever met.
"Yeah," he said. "But not so much. I only use it at night, because if I don't I can't sleep."
After an afternoon that was definitely out of the ordinary for all of us, it was time to part. Job and Ken escorted me to the bus stage, as is commons courtesy in Kenya. When I was getting into the matatu I asked Ken where he and Job were going next.
"I guess we'll start looking for something to eat for supper", he said. As we left for Kamukunji, the other passengers must have been curious to see the "their mzungu" in the back of the vehicle, struggling to hold back her tears.
Now it is 11 o'clock at night, and almost bed-time for Carol and me. But I'm wondering whether I'll get any sleep at all, knowing that Samuel, Wilson, Job and Ken are spending the night in the dangerous streets in town. That there is noone around to make sure they have food in their stomacks and that their clothes are clean, to care for them when they are sick or protect them when they get scared.
And that these four friends of mine are only a few of the hundreds of boys who roam the streets of Eldoret, dressed in rags that you can only guess the original colour of, with their bottle of glue faithfully installed on their upper lip.
(Today more than ever I wish I had the cable for my camera, because Job took some amazing photos today that I would have loved to share with you. Instead I guess I'll have to illustrate even another post with some impersonal photos taken from the internet.)
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