fire in nairobi

we spent a couple days in nairobi before leaving for our flight to london. the first thing we experienced in nairobi was actually completely unplanned and totally random for us all.

a fire.

yeah, you heard me right... a fire. a huge grocery store caught on fire when the power to the store went out (which frequently happens here), and then the generator started up and exploded i guess. we had no idea that had happened... all we knew was there was a huge amount of smoke in the air the afternoon we arrived.

of course daniel had to go check it out... and we trust his judgement, so we were game for an adventure. he'd never knowingly take us into a dangerous situation. he knows this culture so well... he can figure out what's going on with a group of people in one glance... he's like 007 or something. pretty schnazzy.

we walked a few blocks and hit the outskirts of the crowd that had gathered to watch. i think its misleading to call it a crowd, though...

it was more like a mob.

of thousands of people.

like... every street filled with spectators.

nowhere was unacceptable to stand and watch what was happening... and in fact, the higher you got, the better. people were hanging off of each other on the barriers in the middle of the street... everyone was watching as the store burned, and it was like their version of a reality show... only this was as real as it gets.

one of kenya's prize cities was in jeopardy.

people cheered when it looked like the fire truck that was trying to get control of the fire looked like it was succeeding, and then hushed as the flames again lept out of control.

we were on the outskirts, so we walked to the safety of the somewhat empty sidewalks (since everyone was in the streets and on the road dividers getting as close as they could), and tried to see what was going on.

everything was fine... for about five minutes.

then the police showed up.

apparently it's not okay to stand on the barriers in the middle of the road, so when they charged into the crowd with their batons cracking on people's shoulders and heads, the hundreds of people on the barriers all jumped or fell into the crowd, and that in turn pushed the crowd towards us.

in a matter of seconds it was like a much too crowded concert. we put one hand on our bags incase of pickpockets (which dan had already warned us about), and looked to him for direction.

he started shoving.

when daniel starts shoving people, you seriously act like Jesus just gave you a command, and you start shoving too. when chaos happens, you look to daniel. i grabbed little lauren's hand, and kept my eyes on daniel's head since i could see over the mob of kenyans. i literally dragged lauren forward at some points i think. it was insane and SO cool.

i didnt feel in danger at all... i knew i had my hand on my bag, and i knew that dan was looking back every few seconds to make sure we were all following him. it seriously was awesome. if i ever lost sight of dan, i knew that because i was a tall white girl, he could see me and know that lauren was in tow as well, so it was great to be a tall white girl and very literally "stand out" in the crowd.

pushing... yelling... screaming... watching pickpockets steal from pockets right in front of me... fire... policemen with batons... kenyans who just wanted to be chased by police because they're bored with life...

it was awesome.

we got out of the mob and daniel stopped and turned around. once we assured him we were all okay, all four of us started gushing about how cool it was that we'd just experienced that.

once in a lifetime, people... once in a lifetime.

that night we ate dinner at a restaurant a block away from the fire that they had just put out, and the news was nothing but the fire. at one point, they showed a clip of when the fire truck first pulled up and the street was blocked by cars. the kenyan men literally were like bricks of muscle... four guys lifted a car multiple times, each time moving it further out of the way for the fire truck to go by.

within a minute, the entire street was filled with adrenaline-filled men lifting and dropping cars out of the way. there was MORE than enough room for the truck to get by at that point. daniel was sad he wasnt a part of the muscle men lifting the cars.

lauren and i and michele just started at the screen. it was THAT impressive. men + massive amounts of adrenaline feeding off of an intense circumstance? oh please... dont even get me started. they can do anything, i'm sure of it.

then we heard a huge commotion. the security guard at the front of our restaurant reacted quickly, pulling a huge iron gate down from the door of the restaurant just as hundreds of kenyans started dashing past us.

the police were breaking up the mob of onlookers.

they would break up the mob, and then we'd all watch out the windows from our seats in the gated restaurant as the bored young kenyan guys would go looking for trouble a minute after the police had chased them with batons, and they'd go running back to where the fire was only to be chased back again.

we laughed real hard when the police got on horses and the cavalry chased them past our restaurant.

they still went back for more... and then they deserved what they got.

tear gas.

seriously, we had no idea it'd been sprayed until i started plugging my nose because it burned. everyone was looking at me weird as i swore that something was wrong... and then it hit michele too... and lauren... and the whole restaurant.

we were all plugging out noses and closing our eyes. it wasnt really bad... just enough residue from outside where they'd sprayed it, that it was uncomfortable.

fire... mobs... police... cavalry... tear gas.

how much adventure can you have in one day?

never enough, that's for sure.