Matatus

The main form of public transportation in Kenya is the matatu, a van with four rows of seats. I have travelled by matatu thrice and each time was quite the experience.

The first time was while in Nairobi. Kay and I were going to head downtown for the day. This was on my first day in Kenya. In Nairobi, they have certain routes and stops. The goal is to always have a full matatu, to maximize profit, so the money collector would lean out the window at each stop and try to convince people to come on. There was traffic, so the matatu went off the official route. This is illegal though, so whenever a police officer appeared, we'd quickly turn on to a side street to avoid being spotted. I felt like an outlaw. It was fun.

I couldn't see out the front window because a giant screen with giant speakers was in the way. From the screen came a music video channel called Black Supremacy and from the speakers came bass-heavy rap and reggae. LOUD rap and reggae. If you had asked me that day if I found the vehicle crowded, I would have answered in the affirmative without hesitation. But now, looking back, that ride seems casual and relaxed. Because now I know better. Now I have been on a rural matatu.

Janet is the school secretary. She kindly offered to accompany me to the market last Thursday. The market is about an hour away but let's be real here, I think next time I will walk.

Nearby the school are some shops, like a few fruit stands and a butchery. This is where the matatu picks people up to drive them to the market. We got seats in the third row. Let me describe the rows.
Row 0: the driver and a passenger bench.
Row 1: a three seater bench accessible from the sliding door.
Row 2: a two and a half seater also by the door with room to side shimmy to further rows.
Row 3: one seat on the left by the door, and a two seater bench on the other side with an aisle to get further back.
Row 4: another three seater. Also, I feel it would be remiss not to mention that there were pictures of Ashanti all over the outside.

Alright, now that the scene is sufficiently set, let me tell you about how many people fit in. There were 2/3/3/3/3 people in the respective rows. I asked Janet why we hadn't left, and she said we were waiting to fill up. What? This wasn't considered full? Oh, how naive I once was. More people came. Bundles were tied to the roof. We were now 3/4/3/3/4. Then a wooden plank came out to bridge the aisle gap in row three. Then a woman and a baby joinen row two. And then the fee collector- for I had forgotten that he needs a seat too- jumped in. That's 21 people you guys.

Then we SPED through bumpy roads. We careened around hair pins with sharp drop-offs on one side of the road. Also, music was still blasting at unbelievable levels. I felt pretty certain that death map imminent. However we arrived alive.

My third matatu encounter was the same day, on the way home from the market. It was old hat. We had snagged the front seats so I took a movie that I will upload when I return. You'll think I must have been moving my hands but I promise, that's just how bumpy it was. Out of curiousity, I looked at the spedometer. It was broken. Oh, matatus.