Panic Alarms and Electric Fences

As many of you may remember from a previous email, we set off our panic alarm in the house the 1^st week we were here. The alarm for our house was very loud and our dogs went absolutely crazy with ferocious barking and growling. Well, last night we had a new experience with an alarm. It was around 4:30 am when our whole house was awakened by an alarm…granted once we were all awake and oriented we realized it was not our own alarm, but it was loud enough that it woke us all up from a deep sleep. Here in Kenya, neighbor’s houses are not close together so you know this was a loud alarm. Once we were all awake enough to realize it was not our alarm, we noticed another unusual noise…a loud clicking somewhere right outside my bedroom window. Now mind you the alarm is still blaring, our dogs are quiet as can be, and there is a strange loud clicking noise happening right outside the window in Africa at 4:30 in the morning. First of all, for those of you who don’t know, I am not a brave person…more of a scaredy cat to be honest! So when a panic alarm goes off at 4:30 in the morning at our neighbor’s house, let’s just say my blood is pumping. First of all, who is up at 4:30 in the morning?!? Second of all, who accidentally trips a panic button at 4:30 in the morning…Therefore, my only logical thought at 4:30 in the morning is that something made our neighbors panic and push that panic button…not a very comforting thought at 4:30 in the morning when you are a house full of young American girls. Now back to the clicking noise. We finally get up the nerve to look out my curtains only to see that our electric fence is going a little nutty. Why in the world is it sparking and making a loud noise? Our electric fence is within 15-20 feet of our house so for it to be “going off” at 4:30 in the morning while the neighbor’s alarm is screeching gave us no warm and fuzzy feelings. J Right past the fence is where our guard, Alfred, lives and we notice his light is on so Stephanie tries to call him…several times…no answer. We all know what this means…good ole Alfred is searching our property. So we stand at the window for a few more minutes (I know not the smartest decision ever, but by this time the alarm is off which meant the neighbors had to physically turn it off with a code) and wouldn’t you know we see Alfred return to his house. Poor guys looks at the house to see all us girls standing at the window looking at him. Now I don’t mean this in a rude way, but it is still dark outside and well, Alfred is African…therefore, his skin is really black and the next thing we know all we can see is those pearly white teeth. Alfred could not stop smiling/laughing at us…I’m sure we were quite the sight. One of the girls hollered to see if everything was okay and he responded with, “It is okay…everything is okay… okay…everything is okay.” He really is precious and he is quickly becoming one of my favorite people here in Kenya.

This morning I woke up and went to open the back door so our house girl, Ruth, could get in. Wouldn’t you know there was Alfred turning off the electric fence…he asked me if we were all okay and if it scared us last night. I said yes, and he said one of the dogs touched the electric fence. Thus the overly active fence…poor dog…they all seemed okay this morning though. He also apologized for not answering his phone last night, but in his haste to look around our property to make sure we were secure he left it in his house…still this morning he had laughter in his voice and a HUGE smile on his face...we must have made one funny sight last night!

Fun times in Africa…fun times indeed!

CORRECTION: Later today while talking to Alfred, we asked him if everything was okay at the neighbor’s house. He looked so confused…we said you know the alarm that went off last night at the neighbor’s house. No, he said…the alarm went off at our house!! What?!? Remember that dogfight I wrote about on the 4^th of July? Well, because the head dog, Elo (the meanest and most fierce of the bunch) is so mean to our sweet German Shepard, Jedi, Alfred has been having to keep Jedi outside the electric fence with him at night. Apparently, the electric fence wasn’t going to stop Elo from getting at Jedi and Elo tried to attack Jedi through the fence!! Crazy I know…that dog is vicious! So we are safe, but it was our fence alarm…at least know we know what it sounds like!