Saying Goodbye

This morning I said goodbye to someone who's been very helpful during my time here. I actually didn't have the highest opinion of him at first. I thought he was a bit too in his own world, I didn't love the way he pretended to ignore most of what I said to him. Wasn't sure if he was playing dumb, ignoring me, wasn't that great at English, or what. But that's irrelevant now, because it turns out that first impression of him was wrong. He turned out to be helpful, outgoing, friendly and really funny. Plus he has big plans (good plans, financially smart and reasonably ambitious ones) for his future, which I really respect. Anyway, I'm glad I was wrong about this dude.

We had kind of said goodbye awhile back, but I'd promised him a gift before we parted ways for good, so there was a complicated arrangement to meet up in Nairobi to give him my thank you gift. He managed to catch a ride to my hotel at 6am my last day in Nairobi, and I stumbled outside with eyes half-opened. I handed him a "paper" bag containing a flask of brandy, half a bottle of Scotch, new books for his four-year-old son, clothes for his wife and some cash. Without even looking in the bag, he gave me a huge hug, saying goodbye and that he was really going to miss me. He even called and texted later that day after he’d opened the bag to again express his gratitude. It was nice to hear that, and an excellent final note to leave on.