Around Town

Just to keep you in the loop of Kakamega and my life here, I want to share with you some of my most and least profound observations about life and the people here. I hope that you will get more of an insight into how things are....

OSHA does not live anywhere near here! As I rode my first picky-picky ( a motorcycle ), I thought I should invest in a helmet for future rides. Then I jumped off the picky-picky and saw that there was a helmet on the gas tank! Guess it is just for looks or possibly a law requiring it, but very few sport them on top of their heads. Also the sidewalks in town are a piece of work; you cannot walk far without the sidewalk simply dropping off. If you do not pay attention, you could take a flying header! But alas in front of the Provisional Government Offices, there is a flat sidewalk with a curb...it runs about 1 block. I have not yet seen a ramp, except at the Salvation Army headquarters which is 6 months old.

There is a certain redundancy to my way of thinking to putting in lots of speed bumps in the main highway that is so full of potholes.

Business-wise, there is no future for an orthodontist in Kakamega. The people have the most beautiful teeth you have ever seen. There are a few gap-toothed people, but teeth seem to be big, straight, and look whiter than white. Possibly the teeth enhance their eye color, which the kids refer to as Black and White. But the biggest business in town is the hair salon, the kinyozi. There is one about every 50 feet and they do a brisk business. The ladies spend lots of time and energy having fake hair woven in, braided in, or simply plopped on top of one's head. There is no fooling anyone that the hair is fake, but they love to update their coif often. It is in stark contrast to the girls who attend primary school, who come to school with perfectly plain shaved heads. After calling too many girls, boys, I now make no distinction anymore...I am learning to be sure to look for a dress or trousers.

If you want to get into a growth business, you might try shock absorbers. I rode my first couple of matatus (vans of various sizes jammed with people, with one guy who hangs out the sliding door drumming up business) and felt every pothole that stretches between town and home, about 1 mile. The vans are in various states of disrepair; Shanon ripped her pants on a jagged seat edge as she got out of the back seat. The only problem with the shock absorber business is that no one has any money, thus the problem in the first place.....

My most profoundly stupid observation regards recycling. It pains me to throw away the plastic water bottles, though we use many of them over and over for our boiled rain water. But the garbage heap is littered with the bottles and there are no recycle bins. Having observed this, Shanon just looked at me and noted that we have yet to see a dustbin (wastebasket) at a school of 900 kids. Yes trash is not an issue here, and each day I bring home whatever trash turns up in the classroom; it is the least I can do.

Have seen my third person smoking a cigarette.

You will be certainly interested to know that I was in town and observed a rumble at City Hall last week. A night fire in the Kakamega Municipal Market did lots of damage to the very basic market where almost anything is sold. The people hold the city responsible for some bad wiring that may/may not have caused the fire. I briefly thought I better look for a UN truck to evacuate me, but alas the market was open and seems to be still on its feet.