a normal day at the office in nigeria

gun shots rang out in the sticky african air. sitting in a second story, corner office, over looking the intersection of a busy street... i looked out my window and nothing. again, gun shots and again nothing. i must’a heard wrong... it was a car backfiring.

a few minutes later, a coworker came into my office and looked out the window. “did you see it?”
“see what” i said.
“the people shooting” he replied.
“no, i thought it was gun shots, but i figured it was a car.”
“no, those were gun shots. it happens a lot.”

before today, i was told stories of people driving down the street and shooting at buildings and people. today i heard it first hand.