Made out of people

URGENT GREETINGS

DEAR SIR,

I AM SENDING THIS BLOG ENTRY BECAUSE I KNOW THAT YOU AS A READER OF MAID OUT OF PEOPLE ARE AN INTELLIGENT AND RELIABLE PERSON. I AM A RESEARCHER FOR THE MICKROWSWIFT CORPORATION, FOUNDED BY MR GILL BATES HERE IN NAIROBI. AS YOU MAY KNOW, THE MICKROWSWIFT CORPORATION HAS BEEN SUED BY UNFAIR AND BRUTAL LAWSUITS RECENTLY, AND SO HAS HAD TO PUT AWAY 1 BILLION DOLLARS ($10000000) US IN SECURE PLACES. I HAVE BEEN ENTRUSTED WITH STORING THIS MONEY IN A SWISS BANK ACCOUNT WHICH WILL BE TIED TO AN AMERICAN BANK ACCOUNT IN THE FORM OF PATENTS AND PUBLISHED PAPERS.

I TURN TO YOU, READER OF MAID OUT OF PEOPLE, TO HELP ME STORE THIS IMPORTANT MONEY. IF YOU CAN HELP ME, I WILL BE HAPPY WITH FORWARD YOU A PURELY NOMINAL FEE OF 30% OF THE SAVINGS.

PLEASE SEE EXTENDED ENTRY FOR MORE INFORMATION, AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND HELP.

... because if it's Friday, it must be Africa. Or, perhaps, vice versa. (Ok, that's tehcnically Nigerian spam, but I am not going to Nigeria. So you'll have to accept that it's Nairobi spam instead.)

Yesterday afternoon, I left Madrid at four in the afternoon. I had three hours in Heathrow -- enough time to go through customs and passport control, hike through Terminals 1 and 2, get to the Heathrow Express Train, take it to Terminal 4, and check in for my flight. I was on the plane shortly before the doors closed.

Now I'm in Kenya for a day. The air smells different here -- in the city, to be sure, from pollution -- a mix of spices and trees that I don't know and don't see. The birds hanging on the trees are large scavengers looking down at the floods of cars and shared-ride vehicles making their way around traffic circles. Baboons wander on the side of the road, and herders drive their goats and cows along the shoulder. Boys drag carts on their shoulders on the slow lane of highways.

Prices are all listed twice--for residents and for travellers.

And I stand out for a mile. As I walk around, my skin is a beacon for everyone to offer me guide services, directions, rides, food, or photographs. Merely keeping my mouth shut (as in Spain) doesn't cut it -- I am the embodiment of tourist. (There is a very very small local white population.) It's a very startling experience.

Tomorrow, early, I'm on a bus to Arusha (Tanzania).