Elangata Wuas - The Boma Stay - Part 3: "Sleeping" in the Boma

Soooo our accomidation for the three of us, plus our youth guide was a wide but very short “bed”, aka, a raised stick platform with cow hide over it and our sleeping bags on top. All four of us lay squished in the heat of the boma with our legs hanging off the end.

Our sleeping accommodations

SO… my malaria pills have been giving me vivid dreams once in a while (Don’t worry, it’s a common side effect. And they aren’t bad, just really vivid.) So some nights I get really disoriented while I am sleeping. Meaning, I go to sleep in one direction, but when I wake up, I feel like my body is in the other direction, or I don’t know where I am.  So, I went to sleep in the boma but right before that, I saw A LOT of bugs that looked like earwigs, crawling up and down the walls. I guess they come out when food comes out. I was a little grossed out. In the middle of the night, I woke up because I thought my HEAD was basically at the ceiling of the boma and I saw all these bugs crawling around it (although this was a dream). Now I will replay the dialogue between Shelby and myself:

Sheena: Shelby, Shelby! Where is my head?
Shelby: Sheena, you’re in a BOMA.
Sheena: BUT where is my head??
Shelby: How do I know? You know better than I do!

And then Shelby broke out in giggles while I freaked out and tried to shuffle my head away from the “ceiling”. It was absolutely pitch black in the boma. I couldn’t even see my own hand in front of my face .

So I shuffled my head up to align myself with everyone else. Then I bent my knees so that they wouldn’t be hanging off.

Shelby: Sheena, whats that touching my leg?
Sheena: Its my knee Shelby, its my knee.
Shelby: No Sheena it’s a goats head! There is a goat in the boma. There’s a goat touching me!
Sheena: NO ITS MY KNEE. *Takes shelby’s hand and places it on knee*.

Finally Shelby stops.

LITTERALLY Ten seconds later, Shelby is groping for her shorts to put them on and accidentally brushes my bum.

Sheena: SHELBY WHATS THAT?
Shelby: Whats what?
Sheena: Whats stroking me? WHO is in the boma there is a random person in the BOMA! There is a random hand touching me
Shelby: NO SHEENA ITS MY HAND.
Sheena: Are u sure?
Shelby: YES. 

This all happened within 5 mins. Then Shelby couldn’t stop laughing so I couldn’t stop laughing and so we woke up both Miranda and Peru  who really just wanted to sleep… and so we went back to “sleep”. The end.

I hope you thought this situation was funny. I thought it was flippin hilarious… the next day. I'm not sure if this story really translates to text. Or to anyone that didn’t spend a night in a boma. But it's okay because you can bet I'm going to tell this story again and again when I'm back.