Wednesday 20 July 2011

“…it’s a tourists van”


“The first five passengers pay 200/- all others will pay 250/-”
“Yes, Friday morning offer”
“Three are in already. You are fourth, one more and the deal expires”
“And lastly, oh these ones are two so the sixth one is lucky”.
The success of your work will depend largely on how much love you attach to it. Even when the pressure is too much, having the task at heart takes away all the anxiety or rather, your energy will not be siphoned off by the force compelling you to deliver.
Early in the morning, in a town where few people travel upcountry mid week, it calls for tactics or to refer to it in a better term; improvised means to get passengers board one matatu and not the other. On this particular day, the above quoted sentences were from a tout drawing travelers to his vehicle. His method really worked and the journey seemed to be almost starting. The fourteen sitter matatu would start earning the owner the first coins of the day.
I had imagined the times had passed when wooden pieces were placed between two seats in order to create additional sitting space for extra passengers. Three of these were carefully put in place and that meant seventeen passengers, no, eighteen; the tout’s seat too had been occupied and he (tout) had to half seat and half hung on the seat nearer to the door.
It is easier for a passenger to board a vehicle that already has a number of others than one without, this must have been the point the tout was taking into consideration when calling in passengers for an early morning discount. How would you convince the last passenger who boarded the vehicle to pay 20% more than the others? No notice, not even an offer given to them since after the first six passengers nothing of the sort was mentioned.
Wee ni polisi ya wapi?”-you call yourself a policeman?  the tout responding to a by stander who noticed the state of the vehicle and attempted to stop it.
200/- is the amount each one on board gave out in payment for the two hours journey.
I wasn’t enjoying the situation, being my first time to use this particular route; I wondered how people managed the travel hassle. One hour into the journey, by which time we were already out of urban settlement, the vehicle now had twenty two passengers and the tout at some point signaled the driver to take up extra persons.
His reply to a surprised passenger: “Usijali, hii ni gari ya tourists. Bado kujaa”-don’t you worry, it’s a tourists van. It’s not yet full.
This triggered my memory to go back to an episode that had occurred almost two weeks earlier; a man who had seemed to have taken quite a good deal of substance, also the tout had proudly told three passengers at the back seat to create space for a fourth person, a request they never obliged to. Then he had spoken out loudly; “Ai bwana, hii gari ni ya utalii. Haiwes jaa hifyo tu. Tafadhali songea mtu mmoja. Ni ya tourists”-hey sir, this is a tourism van. it doesn't fill up that easily. Please create place for one person. it's a tourists van.
Our journey would continue with the vehicle picking and dropping passengers several times. The surrounding dry vegetation characterized by grey trees was what I resulted to watching, thinking of how it would be put into meaningful use, just to avoid seeing the drama that was happening in the ‘tourists van’.
So is this love for ones job? Now that the one way journey had earned the vehicle operator quite a good sum of extra coins!

Monday 11 July 2011

Obey the weather

Seasons are there for a reason, and if you read the bible, the preacher clearly states that there is a time for everything. The seasons; autumn, spring, winter and summer though not utterly distinctive in sub-Saharan Africa are some of the times to move with.
The cold and the hot weather alternate notably and so should the clothes that people wear.
A friend of mine was once lamenting after seeing a lady in really tiny clothes very early in the morning and to worsen the matter it was not a normal morning but a chilly one! Holding onto herself, it was evident that the cold was really 'eating' her up but this notwithstanding she headed for her day's activitity; class. You can never concentrate in class when the prevailing condition is not favourable; this fact is not necessarilly climatic conditions only. 
The kind of dressing also depends on the geographical location; Nyeri, Eldoret, Machakos, Kisumu, just to mention a few are all towns in one country;Kenya but the geographical orientation is quite different. Consequentially, the prevailing weather conditions are varied.
Yvonne, a pal, travelled to Kakamega from Nairobi in the month of June during which Nairobi was comfortably warm, only to find a cold 'Kach' as Kakamega is beautifully referred to as. The journey involved traversing a pretty cold Eldoret. A frequent traveller, as I am aspiring to be, should be well conversant with such differences between geographical divides. 
For light clothing; the warm and hot weather is usually long, and they should be a preserve of such.
It also involves an aspect of caring for one's health when the right clothes are worn during the right climatic conditions.
Too heavy clothes during hot weather are not comfortable at all, in addition to preventing a person from working/moving around freely. 
Ladies are more often accused of missing the point in dressing as compared to men and this one I overheard; 'some are either overdressed or underdressed'.
Just like every comment should be used at the right moment, every piece of clothe should be placed on at the time it is really needed; office wear to where it is required, casual wear where the situation allows, recreational wear when its time and bed time attire as is.
Doing the contary would be tantamount to ashaming Clothes designers who have reasons for coming up with the cuts they give each clothe. Let us take care of our health and general well being by obeying the weather.
Don't freeze when you can be comfortable in available and easily accessible warm clothes neither melt in huge/heavy unnecessary clothes when you can move around freely in climatically befitting light clothes. 
The cold season is here with us, have it smooth!

Thursday 7 July 2011

Got stuck in traffic?

Waiting is to me one of the most tiresome situations (without mentioning others) one can find themselves in; waiting for whatever thing especially when the waiting entails ‘eating up’ another activity’s time. 
Commuting in Nairobi is one of those tiresome moments that I have experienced and the consequences are worth noting, it is more discouraging when you find yourself caught in traffic in the morning; the other day I was in a Matatu at 6.55 am and noted that only two people out of 15 were awake (the driver and I). The others having got tired of staring at vehicles literally packed on the road for close to 30 minutes, the time it should have taken them from their homes to work but now it all lapsed while seated in vehicles that weren’t moving. Reason; traffic jam.
One thing, you get so tired that when you get to work you got to take a rest before starting the day’s work.
Two, it makes your morning a dull one and yet it takes energy to rejuvenate a dull spirit especially in the morning.
Three, the body system is strained since there is too much emission of carbon dioxide therefore its concentration inside vehicles as well as heat coming from the ignited motor vehicles. It is worse if you sit close to a person who insists on having the vehicle’s window being closed.
Four, you get late for the activity that you were up to. Lateness and anxiety are twins and so you may end up messing up things.
I have noted that there is a particular time of the month when private cars are very few on the roads and during such, travelling gets interesting. Or travelling is less hectic.
The last week of June and the first week of July 2011 are perfect examples of the other side of the travel experience; commuters had it rough. Every private car in homes in Nairobi and its environs must have been released into the road. Calling the roads leading to the CBD a parking as was fondly referred to at that time is a lesser term.
'The temporary parking'












At such time, Commuters in PSVs resulted to walking and the Slogan ‘city walk, walk with style’ would perfectly fit them, too unfortunate to motorists on private cars because they couldn’t leave their cars and walk to their destinations.
What would you do if you were the minister for transport in Kenya?
 The more the expansion of roads, the more new cars are getting into the roads. So traffic jam is here to stay?
Headed for the CBD












If I were to become the name in Charge of transport, only Public Service Vehicles would gain access to the Central Business District.
The capital city should not be the name in people’s mouths for the wrong reason.