#AdamActs

A brief departure from my online scrapbooking to participate in a lovely internet phenomenon titled AdamActs in honor of a high school classmate and friend - an amazing kid whose life was senselessly cut short in 1992.   See: http://iquitwhenitscold.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-hardest-story-i-never-told-adamsacts.html.

Anyways, the idea of doing acts of kindness in October is great but harder for me to put into practice than one might think here in Nairobi.  I try to tip well, give away stuff all the time, and treat people decently in general, but it's all a bit more complicated to do something special without either feeling like I've painted a target on my back for theft/abduction or looking like some silly white woman on a mission to save the day with muffins too moist for the typical Kenyan pallet.

So, today my brilliant plan was to talk with the veiled woman at school.  School drop-off/pick-up is my social time of the day and I chat with my friends, complain about my kids, etc..  For awhile I've noticed this veiled woman sort of stands alone like an island waiting for her kid and not talking to anyone.  It's an international school with plenty of Muslim kids, but not a lot of veiled ladies and I've always found this look intimidating:

note: not actual woman i spoke with.

I've noticed her daughter is adorable.  I've noticed she wears white sandals with blue hosiery sometimes.  But I've never spoken with her; too busy gabbing away with my friends or chasing after Michael. Well, that's my official excuse but honestly it's more because it's difficult to talk with someone who seems so very "other".  This morning, though, I marched up there and started talking -- she experienced the fully caffeinated Nicole, which means a lot of words spoken quickly with frequent changes of topic, etc...  Others joined in too -- maybe to save this poor woman from dealing with Fully Caffeinated Nicole by herself, but still, she was no island this morning.  

So, I will not win the prize for the best AdamsActs of all times, but it's an attempt. I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that this woman's Facebook status currently reads: "Let a white lady yammer at me for 20 minutes and I didn't tell her to stop. #AdamActs".

UPDATE: I've stopped conversation assaulting this woman, but now when I see her, I smile and wave.  She waves back and I think she smiles back too.  Hard to tell since I can't see her actual mouth, but the eyes sort of lift and I'm taking it as a smile. When in doubt, it's always better to assume people are smiling at you, anyways.