Running with the Bulls

I had just attended a lovely Rwandan wedding. Jeanne, Edison, Anna and I were traveling back to my site. We were in downtown Kigali looking for a bus to get back to Nybugogo to make the hour ride back. The bus area is semi-organized chaos. Lines of buses file in and you basically have to ask a few times to get to the bus with the end destination you are looking for. There are tons of people milling around. We were all tired and trying to get home quickly when suddenly the crowd in front of me abruptly turned around to face me and started running. Not one to be left behind I followed suit. There was terror in their faces so whatever they were running from seemed legitimate enough for me to run to. I make a few huge strides in the opposite direction when I hear my friends laughing hysterically. What could possibly be funny about this situation?! I'm getting the hell out if that's what the situation calls for. And my response time was excellent! Well it turns out my survival instincts were triggered for no reason. All the people running happened to be street vendors who were selling things, which I just at that moment learned was illegal. People are not supposed to be selling items on the street, which you would never guess because there are a million street vendors. Apparently the cops were walking by and the vendors were scampering away so they didn't get caught. No wonder the look of terror. My travel companions proceeded to laugh at me for the next few hours/days about this and forced me to write this embarrassing story for my blog so you could all laugh at me too.