Riot

Yesterday I was walking back to class from an Ethiopian restaurant when I saw a large group of people blocking the intersection near our school which is the largest intersection in Nairobi. We were told they were university students angry because they thought one of their classmates had been taken by the government. They were just standing around and there were a bunch of police there standing at ease. We returned to our school and watched from just outside.
I was looking over a 5-foot tall concrete wall about 100 yards from the intersection. The students would not let any cars pass unless they had children in them. Every once in a while they began to chant, but it never lasted long. At about 2:00 a large group of people left the intersection, and we thought the protest was over. At about 2:30 we saw everyone who was still there (probably about 100 people) run to one side of the intersection and start whooping hysterically. A few seconds later we heard what sounded like gunshots. Everyone in the intersection started running. We ducked down behind the concrete wall so only our eyes and up were exposed, and I saw a police truck fly into the intersection at 30 mph with a large mortar on top shooting tear gas. A few students tried throwing rocks at the car but they were already running away. The police turned the corner and started coming towards us. We decided that was a good time to run and started sprinting back to our school and ducked inside just as they were closing the gate. Two canisters of tear gas exploded in the school's parking lot and seeped into the classroom we were all staying in.
So we were stuck in our school building which does have a security guard, but its fences are 3 foot tall hedges. Or building is enclosed by the street where the riots were happening and the university on three sides. Some kids who were upstairs watching got rocks thrown at them. We spent the rest of the day on the school grounds listening to sporadic gunshots before we were given clearance to leave at around 10:00 pm at night. We were told this happens twice a year.
Otherwise, I don't have very much perspective on the riot. It looked like a very peaceful protest which was broken up with excessive violence, but the protestors were blocking the busiest street in the most economically important city. It also appeared that most of the protestors went home before the police arrived and the people who really started rioting were violent and excited the whole time. I'm mostly just writing this to let mommy and daddy know I'm okay because I know St. Lawrence sent you an email about the riot. We also had a riot day from school today.
On a different note I touched a baby elephant today which was cool but I was expecting them to be softer.

Aaron