Observations | SLT (Last?), "boredom couples," and seeing the election firsthand.

MY APARTMENT – After working the better part of 168 hours worth of deaning, I can finally say it: Finally, off duty!

Like I’ve said before, I enjoy being on duty. Guys will come in and talk to me, and often times, it’ll be the only/first time we’ve talked in a while. If no one’s around I mess around on the net or write blogposts or read a book (like April Blood, which I’ve finally started on). I’ve even brought over my laptop to the office and talked to the family over Skype. I keep myself busy.

But the freedom of being off duty – not having to sit in the office – is a very welcomed event. So the fact that my time off was approaching was very welcomed to me. Even the canceling of school on Monday, because of the declared “Election Day” national holiday, didn’t dull my excitement at all. As the hands on the clock eked forward, my heart began to sing with the thoughts of naps, free time, and scratching. Ah yes, scratching.

Three Long Weekend Observations:

1. SLT’s last stand. The Social-Life Terminator was faced with one of his hardest challenges on Wednesday, when Luke*, the demon-seed that’s been causing the man/machine problems from the get-go, left the SLT in a puddle of anger and rage.

After wasting all of rec time on the phone with his new little girlfriend, Luke* joined rest of the guys over at joint worship, only to come back and call the lady again. Other people needed to use the phone, so SLT stepped up and informed the delinquent to “get the crap off the phone.”

“Why?” was the response.

“Because you were on the phone throughout all of rec and now other people need to talk, too, k?” Taken care of, end of the matter. Next…

Oh no, but the party was just getting started. Luke* stormed into the office, accusing SLT of embarrassing him in front of the other guys in the dorm. (“Embarrasing” him by answering his “Why” question, I can only presume.) While the nightly dorm business was going on, Luke* felt that his complaints and grievances must be dealt with right now.

Long story short, SLT and Luke* ended up standing at opposite ends of the desk in the office, yelling at eachother. While SLT didn’t feel he was out of line in expressing his outright anger towards the student, he did begin to feel the stirrings of upset-ness in the situation. SLT picked up the phone and called in the original SLT, Mr. VerSteeg, and asked him for advice in the situation. After being calmed down, SLT realized he’d played it all as well as he could – but, just to be sure, he’d take some time for a hardware reconfiguring.

SLT is not dead. He is just napping. Beware: it’s not over.

2. “So seeing how there’s no one else on campus to hang out with, and you’re a girl, and I’m a boy, let’s hook up!” The thing I learned from being on duty this long break was how boredom can be a huge motivator for love. Go figure.

It became a joke among the staff how many “boredom couples” were popping up all over the place. Guys and girls who’d never get along in a normal situation were suddenly hooking up, spending all their time together, and giving the supervision staff headaches. Ah, wuv, twue wuv.

Funny, once people started showing back up from long break on Monday, the “boredom couples” evaporated right out of existence. I cannot explain this phenomenon. More to come...

3. The election, up close. As I said earlier, the Kenyan government decided to make Monday (and Tuesday) national holidays, canceling work (and school, except not on Tuesday for us) in observance of the day’s referendum election. Only Kenyan citizens, like some of the campus’ native workers, could vote today, slightly disappointing to me, an avid follower of the political scene here for the past few months. But I was invited by John, one of the head cooks in the cafeteria, to go with him to his polling station to check out what was going on. Since I was off this afternoon, I figured “Why not?” and followed him down the road.

We walked for about 20 minutes down the road to the next town, called Kiserian. After a quick excursion for John’s national ID card, we walked in the Arap Moi School, the closest site for voting. We walked about 150 feet from the road to a room where voting took place. While John went in (to vote Orange – No to the referendum), I stood outside and talked to the lady who was directing people into the room. She told me that even though the polls opened at 7am that morning, at 6:40 there were 4 lines of people from the room I was standing outside to the street; at her estimate, probably 1,200 people waiting to vote! No one could say Kenyans were uninterested in their government.

The woman also speculated with me that she thought that Banana (Yes) had taken most of the vote in that polling station, a relatively troubling thought for me. From all pre-polls, it looked as if Orange (No) had more of the country’s support. If the referendum was to be passed, it would look as though the election was rigged, and the country would undoubtedly be faced with a tumultuous situation. In all reality, a No victory was favored by the non-Kenyans on campus, because a Yes vote could lead to enough unrest that we might need to be pulled out. That this polling station was leaning towards Banana didn’t sit too well with me. I was about to ask the woman more questions when John came out, ballot completed, ready to go.

As we walked back to MAA, I told John what the lady at the polling place had said and asked him his thoughts. It didn’t even seem to phase him: “Oh no, Orange still will win, I think.” He told me some of the ridiculous rules and items put into the constitution (like having to buy a permit to bury your own dog on your own property). He was convinced that the election would go the way of the “no”. Ok…

Allright, I’m gonna take some time to nap! Will write more soon!

-cw