Nothing too unusual about today but I thought I’d give you a small glimpse into a couple of typical situations we run into almost daily and today was no exception.
We were at C4KK yesterday (Monday) and planned on meeting Ann and Nancy (house mom and her daughter) in Tala today at 10am. It’s time for the secondary students to head back to school and Nancy, plus a few other secondary students, needed a few items which couldn’t be purchased in Joska (where C4KK is located). 10am came and we waited for the call from Ann saying they were in Tala. Instead of starting something at home we waited and waited and waited. Finally at 11 Ann called and said she had arrived. By this time we had decided to begin other projects at home and told her she would either have to wait for us to finish (approximately an hour) or go ahead and get the items. She opted to get the items, drop Nancy off at school then head back to C4KK. Oh and the reason she was late, Nancy needed to get her hair done before going to school. I know, I know a phone call would have been nice, right!?
Yes, that is a typical event here for us. You set up a time to meet someone and it’s like my time doesn’t mean anything. Plus, I’m made to feel like the bad guy when I don’t cave in to their time schedule, which they interrupted my schedule with their tardiness. Now in this particular situation Ann did not try to push us into anything, I’m just saying what typically happens.
Then I needed to go into Tala for a few items. One was to pay for the items Ann had purchased earlier. Thankfully we are good friends with the shop owner at Sunny Lucky and he gave her the items and we could pay later…thank you Sumil! Before paying, though, I had to get cash. I went into the 1 of 2 ATM’s our bank has and found it was not operating. I looked towards the next ATM and found a very long line. I am not very good with standing in Kenyan lines….no personal space is given. But I needed to get cash in order to do my thing so I stood in line, in the hot sun, baking my skin off. Why, you ask would it take so long? The gentleman behind me in line, who by the way was very courteous and did not stand on top of me in line, gave me some insight into this very question. He said many people go into the ATM with no idea of what to do. Then, even if they know their bank balance they check the balance and get a receipt, take out cash and get a receipt, view the menu items and get a receipt. He seemed just as frustrated with the long wait as I was!
Finally I was able to get into the ATM and finish my business, rather quickly I might add too, take care of errands and head home. A simple errand of running into town turned into a 2 hour ordeal, with 40 minutes of that standing in the ATM line!