Scary looking mzungus

Most of the kids in Zanzibar think we're amusing; however, we've had a couple incidents coming back from Mahonda where the children were absolutely petrified of us to the point where they broke into tears!

Catherine and I were taking the dala dala back from Mahonda and a mother with her son (about 2-3 years old) came and sat down beside us. The mother put her son on the seat beside Catherine when all of a sudden he starts wailing! He refused to sit down let alone even look at her, so he sat on the either side of his mom closer to me. Luckily he was barricaded from my presence by another women was sitting in between us. He would peek over at me or Catherine every so often, but he would get so scared that he would only stare ahead and refused to look over to the right or left. Then when they were getting off the dala dala, he was too scared to walk past Catherine. The locals on the dala dala were very amused.

The other day that we were coming back from Mahonda, I sat down beside another little boy who stared up at me with wide, fearful eyes. In my mind I was picturing the last scenario. This boy didn't cry, but he was clearly uncomfortable sitting beside me. Whenever the bus would make a sudden stop and sway, the little kid would grab onto his dad's leg for dear life so that he wouldn't bump into me. His dad kept asking him what was wrong and eventually the boy had to be moved on the other side of his dad to be further away from me. I wonder what we look like to these kids...big fangs, bulging eyes, huge foreheads, long pointy nose...I would be scared too!