What is my name?

I do sometimes get funny questions, like "What is my name?" or "Where is my money?" There are easy answers to those ("Freddy" and "In the bank") People often don't seem to understand the replies, but don't seem to care much, either. "Money," "Give me money" or "Give me my money" is also often asked by kids. A few grown-ups have asked the question also – the poorer the region the more frequent the question.

I also get often greeted with a friendly "Good Morning, sir", no matter if it's breakfast time or a quarter till dusk...

Today I was walking around some in an area where I hadn't been before. Frankly, I was trying to find that shortcut to go to KIDT and got lost. I thought I could just kinda follow those railroad tracks, since I know I have to cross them at a certain point. However, I didn't realize there were a few different lines, going in all sorts of directions. I ended up choosing the wrong one and ended in a poor people's area, where curious kids yelled "Mzungu" and waved at every street corner. There was quite a bit of activity and some people loads of stuff on their bicycles. One kid kicked his self made football (made out of plastic bags) to me. I tried to imitate as best as I could some African football juggling move and passed it back.

Eventually I ran into an argument of two women. Of course I had no idea what the matter of the controversy was, but it was hilarious as they kept yelling at each other, with no one giving in. Eventually the one lady left (more or less dragged by another bystander), but they kept yelling at each other. Since one woman kept stepping away further and further they had to yell louder and louder. They were also still making hand gestures. Eventually, they must have been almost 100 metres apart, still yelling at each other. I think all the rest of the onlookers were as amused as I was.

Then I ran into Hasimi. He coordinated a picture (see next blog entry, "Hey, where is your bicycle?") with some kids that desperately wanted their photographs taken. I have no problem doing that and can show the result right away. But I can't give them a copy, which is a shame. It is easier for me that way. Photographing seems a touchy subject and the on time I took intensive pictures from Moshi was during the city walk. Even then, a guy got mad and me (and yelled at the guide) when I took a picture of a toilet. I read somewhere that East Africans believe that by taking picture the photographer gets power over their souls. However, no fear that a little money could overcome, which makes me question this a little bit. I did this only one time, but after that decided to just leave it at the fact that they don't want to be photographed. Period. It does mean I have a lot of boring pictures, but at least I have a lot of interesting memories.