Shotgun!

There are about 6 or 7 of us LA staff staying here at the Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi, a point that will come into play a little later in my story, but . . . .

To get from the hotel to our office we ride in the company van, an 11 passenger vehicle similar to the ubiquitous matatu taxis you see all around town, except that ours does not have the yellow stripe that identifies a matatu. I've never been a big fan of riding in the back of a crowded vehicle, so when the oppotunity presents itself I like to sit in the passenger seat next to our driver, Jasan. That way I have a nice window I can roll down and let my arm rest on the door jamb as I take in all the sites of this busy city through the wide windshield.

Well, apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way. When it was time to leave Mary's house last night after the party I was the first one to wander out to the van and I took my accustomed seat. As the rest of the staff trickled out after me, Jonathan Evans, one of our LA staff tried very hard to convince me that I was sitting in his seat. After trying to convince me with logic, he turned to insults and threats of physical violence, but finally he admitted defeat and climbed into the back with the rest of the group. He good-naturedly complained about the injustice of it all the way back to our hotel.

Fast forward 11 hours to 9:30 this morning. Once again it was time for us to load up in the van, this time for the ride to the office. Once again I was the first one out to the van, so of course I headed for my favorite seat. As I was steps away from the van door, from behind me I heard the loud shout of "SHOTGUN!" from Jonathan.

Now, everywhere you go in Africa there are guards, some of them armed and some not. Hotels where Americans stay are protected very diligently, so maybe yelling out "Shotgun!" wasn't the best idea. I'd like to report that a crew of seven heavily-armed Kenyan Police descended upon him and pinned him to the ground, but that's not what happened. He did get a few puzzled looks, though.

In all the excitement over the boarding procedures for the van, no one noticed that one of our numbers was missing. It seems that there are indeed 7 of us in our group, but only 6 made it onto the van before it left. Not one of us noticed that David Tuttle, my travelling companion all the way from LA was not on the van, and indeed, no one noticed him missing until he emailed everyone in the office an hour later wondering where we had all gone.