A Linear Life? My One Full Circle.

Many of us have a linear perception of time/life. It is only logical; years pass, one after another. We celebrate our 1st birthday, 5th, 10th, 21st and so on... Every second ticks by, and there is no slowing down, stopping it or rewinding.

But during my time spent in Kenya, some incidences bring me back in time, as if challenging this linear concept of time. Surely, Kenya has brought me back in time, to my childhood, but today, there was another [surreal/unbelievable] event, that left me feel as if I kinda travel back through time.

I was back at the Kenya Cinema again; the place where I had met Fred a.k.a. Deborah last Wednesday. Like the last time, I spoke with a Kenyan on the phone, describing what I was wearing, and waited for him to show up. IT was a different ending though. Last time, I left storming and frowning, but this time, I went home smiling...
This is why:

You can never expect to find a phone or a wallet, when you "lost" one in Kenya. (Most of the time, it would be pickpocketed, without you even realizing). In Mombasa, a friend of my lost a phone in a club. When he called the number up, someone answered to say he would meet us in 10 minutes to return the phone. But the Kenyan 10-minute (a.k.a real time 20 minutes) passed. We waited for about 40 minutes and no one showed up. Two days ago, a similar thing happened to a lady in a matatu (mini-bus) in Nairobi. I got to know of this because she borrowed my phone to call the person who was "coming" to return the phone, only to find out that the phone had been switched off.

So last night, when I lost my wallet, I wasn't expecting to get it back at all. I can't remember the last time I lost my wallet, and it was frustrating. There wasn't much money in it, but loosing it, made me feel incompetent; I can't even look after a wallet. And I wasn't sure how to tell my host-mother that I had lost the house key as well. But I went to sleep, hoping there won't be much of a problem, since she might have a spare key.

It turns out that she didn't. She had told me to go to the Yaya Center (a poshe shopping center), and find a locksmith who could change the whole lock and key set. It would have costed about 1000 Kenyan shilings (USD 15). I thought I could get a cheaper deal somewhere else. (Yes, thrift is in my genes.) I called Mama Mary, a mother figure to us, in the program. In stead of answering my question on where to get a cheap locksmith service, she mentioned something about a document. I wasn't sure if I heard it right over the phone. When we met, she told me someone has called her, late last night, to say that he has my document, and asked how to return it. It could have been my wallet, with the housekey.

He said he would be at Kenya Cinema that morning, and asked if I could pick it up there. I tried my luck, and made my way there. I was hoping it would be my wallet, but I was also skeptical, tainted by my last encounter at the same place. And there I was again, one full circle. Meeting, for the second time, a person I have no idea how he looked like or what the outcome of the meeting would be.

"I am wearing shorts and a blue shirt"

Fortunately/Luckily, that meeting neutralized my previous experience at Kenya Cinema. The money in my wallet was gone, but the Key, my student card and my bandaid/haniplast was there.

This afternoon, I left Kenya cinema for the second time again, smiling.

Thankful that there are people like Kelvin, who would go all out to help someone else. I am sure his kind heart will bring him a good future. He is now a 22 year old, matatu conductor who is working for a wage of 300 Shilings (USD 4) a day, to support his parents and his sister who was pragnated after her high school. He never got a chance to attend highschool but said he would be saving up to learn to be an electrician or an engineer.

I asked him what he was thinking when he found my wallet and he said, "I found the keys and I thought, poor girl, she would be sleeping on the roads tonight, so I wanted to return it and called the number three times. My friends were telling me I shouldn't. What if she reported you to the police, and say you stole the wallet? I don't know why but I had to return it."

Whatever the reason, I am awed by the extent he went to return my wallet. It would have been easy to ignore it, and go on with his own life, but he chose otherwise.

It's amazing how small acts of kindness can make such a difference.