first impressions

The first thing we noticed when we got off the plane was the smell.  What you find is that the vast majority of 'kitchens' are not attached to the living area and use wood and charcoal as the fuel.  The smoke simply enjoys the same air which you breathe...every breath...all day.  Then there is the trash that is just burning, unattended, over on the side of the road.

Then there are the streets.  We did not see anyone die on the streets while we were there but, seriously...people!  Oh my goodness!  There are people everywhere.  Buses, cars, motorcycles (piki piki), three wheeled taxi thing (tuk tuk), bicycles and bicycle taxis (boda boda) - notice the double word thing goin here - and then people pulling and pushing carts with all kinds of whatever on them, people walking, kids walking, dogs, goats and cows, to name a few things, were all over the road.

Amazing.

 

Don't remember seeing much in the way of traffic signals.  Everyone just goes where they need to go.  All together.  All at the same time.

Amazing.

 

After a several days of almost awkward absence of horns and shouting, I asked James, one of our hosts, if anyone gets angry.  He said they did not. 

Amazing.

 

Apparently, everyone gets that everyone else needs to go there, too.  Just happens.  All together.  All at the same time.

Oh, and did I mention the roads?  Uh, they need just the tiniest bit of attention...

Bicycle repair shops just over there, along the side of the road.  With all the bikes on the streets this makes all kinds of sense.  Anywhere and everywhere, there are misc. little stands along the way, selling their wares.  This includes everything from fruit to minutes for your phone, to clothes, to maze (look it up if you need to) - they just set up shop and try selling whatever they have to sell.

All of this is very new to the eyes.  Most of these are as seen through the windshield of a moving vehicle. This world is so diverse.  This is not a surprise.  Even so, it is very interesting to me.