Surreal

So today was an interesting day. I headed into town to get some lunch and on my way there was a huge gathering of people in front of some shops on the main road. I asked someone what was going on and they informed me that some people had stolen from a shop, and that the shop owner had enlisted a medicine man to help deal with the situation. The medicine man was going to essentially put a spell on the thief (who admitted to stealing) forcing him to eat grass like a cow. Like the crowd, I was intrigued to see this play out, so after I ate my lunch I returned to the scene. In the 30 minutes since I had been gone the crowd had doubled and things had a much more hostile feel. By the time I got up to where I could see anything the medicine man, the shop owner and some others were in the process of deciding whether or not the man should be publicly killed, in what would amount to a lynching. The accused was sitting on the ground with his hands tied, and the men were discussing his fate openly and publicly, taking suggestions from the crowd. By this time the crowd was getting antsy and agitated, and so I figured that would be a good time to leave. About two seconds later a man in the crowd walked up holding an enormous rock on his shoulder with the clear intention of dropping it on the head of the accused. At the last possible second someone else grabbed the stone from behind and knocked it to the floor, prompting the medicine man and others to grab the accused and safely stash him in the shop. The entire situation was really eye opening, especially because it happened in my town, where I would never have guessed something like this could happen. More alarming was the manner in which people in the crowd were talking, often cracking jokes about killing the thief, who was no more than 20-21 years old. The most surreal part about this entire fiasco was that it took place directly across the street from a secondary school, resulting in at least half the crowd being children aged 10-16. This story had a seemingly happy (relatively) ending, but throughout the developing world, Kenya included, these stories more often than not end badly. Anyways, I realize this is a bit of a downer, but I felt it was worth sharing.