Punch Bug Theory

I’ve figured it out! Took me a while but I finally cracked the code! I figured out whom I feel like a lot of times when I’m wandering around Sipili or other smaller towns in Kenya. Guess who? Punch bugs! Didja get the light bulb action like I did? If not, let me explain a little.

Punch bugs in small towns in America are like mizungus in small towns in Kenya for the following reasons:

• Children get excited to see you and hit whoever is next to them to point you out while simultaneously yelling out ‘mizungu/punch bug’.
• They both get stared at often by whomever they happen to be passing at the time
• There are usually only a few in each town-if they have them at all-so though people know you’re there and have seen you many times- they still stare a little when you pass
• Parents also can get excited and point/yell them out to their children so the children-if they were about to miss the opportunity-can yell at the moving punch bug/mizungu and then follow that up with hitting/punching their friend/sibling yelling out what they saw
• Parents also sometimes get into the game of seeing them first and it can become a competition between parent and child as well. They both come in multiple colors, different shapes and sizes, and may have been around for a while but they’ll always be part of the punch bug/mizungu game to the majority of people living there.
• Some people dream of owning them or marrying them even if they don’t know how to drive stick or if the only conversation they’ve had is ‘Hi, my name is ______. Will you marry me?’ because they look cool/different.
• The name ‘mizungu or punch bug’ is always called out to identify said thing to all surrounding people to let them know there has been a spotting
• If you go on vacation or travel a little bit and people don’t see you for a while-when you do come back-the excitement rises substantially. Same thing when children are on school break and playing outside and they see one-it becomes the most exciting thing in the world for a short while and that much more attention is thrown onto said thing.
• Lastly, and I’m only hypothesizing here since I cant read a VW Bugs mind, but I bet they also kinda play the game when they see foreign punch bugs in town the same way mizungus hit their friend to point out the new mizungu in town if they don’t recognize them and are intrigued J

That’s all I got but I think it’s a pretty substantial list and I’m sticking to my theory J  Hahaha just think about this next time you see a VW Bug driving around your town. Now you know how they might be feeling.