Near Death by Fruit

Yesterday I was a victim of a run-by-fruiting. No joke. I wasn't the only victim, nor was I the victim who coined the phrase. In fact, I think he "borrowed" it from this movie. The same person gave me the idea for the title of this post when he viewed an earlier post that had a similar title.

It started out as a perfectly normal day. I got out of the bed, took longer than I should have, and rushed (what else is new?) to be ready for our trip to the capitol. David, Mary, Amber, Tasha and I got a ride into the city and were glad to see that the train was fifteen minutes late. We purchased tickets, boarded the train, and headed to the capitol to celebrate Mary's birthday.

We found our way to a French restaurant that was still open for lunch during Ramadan. A rarity in and of itself. For a time, we were the only patrons at the restaurant. I suppose that's why our attacker chose to ambush when he did. I don't know much, but what I DO know is the look of horror I saw on Mary's face as she screamed, "Look out!" and pointed towards the street. Milliseconds later I heard a crash, felt water spill, and saw a plant that looked something like this (minus the warts) fly through the air and crash onto our table. Yes, we had been victims of a run-by fruiting (gourding?). A child of about eight or nine lobbed with near-perfect aim at our table, hit Tasha's hand, and almost knocked out David. Fortunately, it was a gourd and not a rock. We're unsure of the motive, but it did shake us up a little.

Upon leaving we heard a choir practicing at a churh on the next corner. We were so surprised to see a real-live church and hear a real-live choir that we all got out our cameras.

Apparently the church guard saw us smiling and taking pictures, and judging the color of our skins, decided we were not locals. He came over and invited us inside the church where we saw this:

It brought tears in my eyes to actually be in a place where the Savior was worshipped and acknowledged. After leaving the church we headed to the old city and the gardens there. They were beautiful! We didn't get to spend much time, but we did get to take some pictures.

And off we were to the blue part of the city. A guide wanted to take us around, but the girls decided that they knew their way around enough. We didn't need to pay money for some man to walk us around. He was just a little bit ticked that he was blown off, and proceeded to pull David aside and tell him that he would no longer talk to us because "they are stupid. Women are stupid. But you're not stupid. Only they are stupid." Fortunately, David defended us and said that we were not stupid. But the guy was not easily won over. I stewed over this for a while. Not about the fact that some random man called me stupid because I'm a woman, but for the fact that he would voice it to someone in our presence!

And here he is. The man who called us stupid. Of course, when I was taking this picture I didn't know he was calling us stupid. Can you see the looks on my comrades' faces? Do you see the accusatory pointing by the man? (In reality, this is not the time of the name-calling, but just prior to it.)

We missed the first train back into town and had to wait for the next train. And if this wasn't enough, the night had just begun. I'll let someone else take it from here...