Some Impressions

Evan and I have ridden on a matatu now the last two Saturdays to town, and we have some basic impressions.  We spend a lot of time talking about Africa.  We don't have a tv, so we have time to talk.

Eldoret kind of reminds me of Alexandria, Louisiana.  The skyline is similar, with a few fairly tall buildings.  So, think of Alexandria, take away sidewalks, traffic lights, add sheep and cattle, and thousands of people walking all over the place, and you have Eldoret.

Something that seems prevalent is that in Africa, people seem to have trouble finishing things and maintaining things.  The built environment is always under construction.  For instance, we were driving to Eldoret and off the side of the road, a good ways actually, was a two story block building that is under construction.  It looked kind of like it was meant to be apartments, very small apartments, about six across.  So this was not a small building.  Obviously someone had worked very hard to build this, but it wasn't nearly finished.  In front of it was one man, working to do something, it wasn't clear what, but it was obvious that with one guy working on this structure it will take a very long time to finish whatever it is they started.  Multiply that one building by tens, maybe a hundred, on this one small stretch of Kenya, and you have some idea of what this will look like.  And then, once they have finished it, maintenance seems to pass away.  What a coat of paint could do for this place!

Another word that Evan and I have adopted is "random", in that people are constantly on the move, but their movements seem random.  Evan saw someone walking down the road with a suitcase on his shoulder, suddenly stop and put down the case and sit on it.  Nothing around, nothing even close.  But the movement is constant.  There is never someone not walking down our street.

But they can party here!  Friday night there was a party on "the decks", a very nice part of campus that we walk through daily.  There was a party there from 7:00 PM until dawn, and they went until dawn!  We heard them all night long.  Quite a bash, based on the noise!  Next time we are going, just to see what it's all about.