On Tuesday I had my second visit to the field, this time a town
northeast of here, which is quite a distance from where we live. It was fun,
but it was long. We started out at 6:45
a.m. and walked to the matatu station. We boarded the first matatu, and rode
that one for about an hour or more, and then it broke down. So we got on a
second matatu. The available seat I was directed to was the far back right seat by the window (row 4 in the crowded bus). It was very
cramped, and the seat was too high for the ceiling, so I spent the next hour or
so unable to straighten up all the way, with my head bent forward in a
semi-crouched position. As if that wasn’t challenging enough, the seat was
damp, and I decided to assume it was due to prior rain leaking in the window or
a spilled soda, rather than what I’ve heard about children wetting themselves
on the matatus... To make matters worse, there was heavy road construction along
that length of road, with many diversions off-road, so I had to keep my arm cradled
over my head to cushion it as it banged on the ceiling and against the window. Let’s
just say I was not enjoying the “Kenyan back massage” on this ride. On the up
side though, the matatu had good music. :)
We then got off at a major junction, where we had to change
matatus, and while waiting, we decided to take some photos (though it was not
exactly a scenic area). I was doing most of the taking, until a group of ladies
said they wanted a photo with the mzungu. Unfortunately, I forgot my sunglasses at home,
so was squinting quite badly in most photos. We then boarded the final matatu
to destination. We made it after 3 and a
half hours of travel.
When we arrived, we visited business groups that were
practicing conversation by planting trees as a part of their business. They were very excited to have their photos
taken. It was a great group, and large,
as you can see from the group photo. Then, to my surprise, I learned each business owner wanted their own
individual picture, and yours truly would be the photographer. It was a lot of fun, and definitely a work
out for the quads as I squatted down to take about 75 individual portraits.
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Afterwards we quickly stopped for tea and chapatti, which
was lovely. I then served as note-taker for a meeting that took place in a
local chief’s office and lasted a few hours.
Afterwards we had lunch, and then began the journey home.
However, we
didn’t board the first matatu right away because they wanted to charge us 30%
more than the regular price. It was the
mzungu price. Because I was there with my colleague, they wanted to charge us
extra. So we waited, and said we’d take
another bus, and they eventually let us on for the correct fare. During the ride on the first matatu, it started
raining, and rain was leaking in the window on my colleague. On the second one,
my knees were jammed into a bar in the back of the seat in front of me (again
in the less than favorable back row), and unfortunately, I only had a large
bill to pay for the ride (by large, I mean 1,000 Kenyan shillings, or around 12
dollars). The conductor then decided to
charge me a mzungu price by not giving all of my change back. I think they
finally got tired of my colleague complaining about the overcharging and trying
to get the balance of my money back, that we were then asked to get off this
matatu, and board a 3rd one to get home.
We finally ended our 4 hour journey back in Kakamega at 7 p.m. Quite a day! I'm glad I went, but I'm not sure I want to make this journey by matatu again anytime soon! However, I now have an even better appreciation for what a lot of people here (including my colleague) go through to get to where they need to go. And despite the distance and the number of different vehicles I was on, I
was the only mzungu I saw all day until I got home.
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