I was so lucky to see this advertisement today as I was walking down Wayaki Way after work. At first it was the “Core i3” that caught my eye, and then the words “FREE DOS” leapt out at me. Holy cow, each new Dell Inspiron comes with a complimentary copy of DOS! How Dell limited themselves to only using capital letters, I don’t know. If I had an opportunity like that I would pay some guy to stand on top of the billboard, shouting, “FREE DOS!!!” at the top of his lungs!
Matatus are the primary form of transportation in Kenya. A “matatu” can be anything from a fourteen-seat Nissan minivan shuttling people around town, to a full-size bus ferrying dozens of people across the country. For those of you who’ve never been to Kenya: if you’ve ever ridden BART in California, a dalla dalla in Tanzania, or a tuk tuk in India, it’s more or less the same concept—you pay money and they take you places!
Unlike the tame, old buses in Malawi, or the polite motorcycle taxis in Rwanda that provide helmets for their passengers, though, Kenyan transportation is driven by greed and is full of attitude. It’s just the Kenyan—or at least Nairobian—way I guess, but matatus are loud, obnoxious, break all the rules, drive like they own the road, and piss off everyone around them… but I like them!
What’s up with Kenyan dudes and long finger nails? I first noticed it a few years ago on a high-school aged kid in Kitui. I was a bit weirded out when I saw that both of his pinky finger nails were strangely long and manicured, as if they hadn’t been cut in two months or so. I thought it was just this one weird guy, but since then I’ve seen it on all sorts of other guys (never women), including a few guys at ILRI where I work.
I’ve heard of people having a long thumb nail for playing the guitar, but this is just bizarre. My imagination runs wild with what it must signify.