As you drive around Nairobi, there are a lot of things you can chose to site see, not that you would like to but at times the traffic is just too much and keep yourself busy, you could either be updating your Facebook Status of how frustrated you are because you have been moving a distance of 5cm per half hour or how a certain crazy Matatu has decided to pull a double overlapping stunt! Double because at that particular time, they would be already overlapping and this particular one would just be adding to chaotic nature of the so called normal traffic hours.Or at times, this would be the best time to tune into your favorite station so as to listen to busted or at times even be tempted to call in and pause as the lady or guy being played by your spouse so as to generate a discussion. That is just how crazy traffic can generate and create innovative people.
Personally, I always choose to do one very interesting thing, look around me.....and trust me, there ae a lot of interesting things I get to see! Some interesting some very sad...some a pity to look at, really a true pity. Ideally, I should be using Thika road when heading to the Ruaraka office but at times one would like to just cut traffic by using the joining estate roads and this is where the trouble or entertainment begins. Take for example the section between Pangani's Juja road and the Outering Junction...this is one section that passes through 3 sets of lifestyle, the extremely rich to the extremely poor in a spun of 5 mins when the road is clear and 2 hours when there is a bad traffic. Of interest was this lady, who had a little baby tied to her back. When I first looked in her direction she looked like a drunk mama, trying to carry her child and I immediately though to myself, how a mother could carry her child around while going to her drinking sprees. In my head, I imagined all sorts of bad things about her...while she walked towards my direction, I realised that I had not only judged her wrongly but she was actually from the special talented group of people. Automatically, my heart melted with pity, thinking of how in her condition she still carried her child around, a child of breastfeeding age and she confidently did it. It is amazing how motherly love and instincts are the same for everyone, whether specially talented, a street child, you or I. It made me think twice at how many opportunities we miss out as parents by not being there for our children.
I have witnessed another of the same group being hit by a matatu,those who want to just drive and not even give way to students just around St. Teresa's girls...and they never burt an eyelid when they do these, a great shame in deed! I have learnt to look around me, since one never knows and the comparison you get when you drive aroung Nairobi. Each area has a juxaposition of its own, set in the same environment and using the same resource only perhaps others would have exploited it e.g tapping of electricity for the simple reason that they cannot afford it hence have to get it anyway. Life teaches you a few things when you look around you. It is not necessariry that one has to be taken to a classroom to be able to learn what is going on around us, but by seeing, we learn and by learning we gain experience and wisdom and by these we appreciate each other and learn to live and accomodate one another.
Anyway, on a lighter note, I have also watched the Naivasha baboons opening up those yoghurt packets and actually drinking the remnants or using their fingers to lick out the remnants in the pack! They behave like human being sometimes I tend to believe the scientists who decided that man evolved from Monkeys...lol..
I have seen Zebra crossing the highway, and now I understand why the pedestrarian crossing points are called Zebra crossing. These are some of the brighest animals I have seen.It is on a rare occasion that you will get a Zebra has been hit by a vehicle? Reason: In a pack, they always have a leader, the leader will always head to the road and stand close to it but far enough to avoid being hit...the rest of the pack will join her/ him and will not cross until s/he signals them to do sO. If there are any on coming vehicles, the leader Zebra will block its pack from cross by moving up and down where there have stopped to cross the road...
My advice....lets learn from our environment, we learn by looking...God gave us a pair of eyes and ears so that we can see and listen twice at any one time :-)
Any comments? Post them here... I will glad if you shared your experiences too..
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