Introducing my team...Especially Claude

My team arrived on Saturday last week. This meant that I had a 11 hour round trip in the minibus to pick them up – not the best of days, but it was nice to meet them all. They seem a pretty cool lot. The quality that stands out more than anything is the diversity. One guy is from UK, Thailand and New Zealand. So between the 11 of us we can count 7 nationalities (despite having several bland people like me that only claim one).

While in the most part everyone is well travelled and/or street wise we have one notable exception: Claude. Claude is very posh, French, and turned 19 yesterday. Regardless of what he probably ought to be doing, he can usually be found without his shirt outside the classroom reading a book. His possessions can be found anywhere within a 2 mile radius because he has no idea how valuable they are in this country. So far he sounds a bit lovable and scatty. That was my first impression too. He was a bit of a liability because he kept taking his shirt off at inappropriate times (something shocking to the locals), but otherwise ok. Then, on the second day, the shirt that he chose to put on featured a large photograph of some full frontal female nudity. Plural. There were many nudes on the tshirt. We couldn't believe it! This is a culture in which I can't even wear shorts in order to be socially presentable.

On the third day we briefed the whole team on catching moped taxis but Claude didn’t want to practice. Upon being asked why, he told us wouldn’t feel safe unless he could take the wheel himself. Clearly taxi-ing was going to be a problem.

On the fourth day Claude decided to go for a run first thing in the morning by himself (as he keeps telling us, he likes to “explore Africa alone”). He inevitably got lost and then ended up paying a motorbike driver to bring him back to the hotel. He was so pleased to be back that he didn’t ask the price, but spontaneously gave the driver 10,000 shillings, which incidentally is 10x the going rate here.

Yesterday was Claude's birthday. He had gone to town with the group and they lost him (not surprisingly, as mentioned, he likes to "explore Africa alone" and so gets lost on purpose). To everyone’s surprise he resurfaced having been invited to the ‘stage’ (think roped off square) in a dance pop-up. Turns out Claude has talent and it is dancing. Sensing his opportunity, he immediately took off his shirt (because he had seen someone else in tribal dress without a shirt) and proceeded to amaze everyone. He tells me that he's had the best birthday ever and he has the video to prove it.