People here are so clever and life is certainly more
practical in some ways and extremely unpractical in others.
However, currently in mind is a scene we
witnessed while on the way to Kijabe.
Since bicycles are wonderfully efficient and fairly affordable, many
people ride them here.
Some are so
talented that they can ride the things with tremendous loads of wood, eggs,
construction materials, chickens, rocks, etc etc…pretty much anything you may
imagine.
Anyhow, based on their pervasive presence, it is not at all
strange to see a bicycle heading down any of the highways here.
The problem comes when going up a hill with a
large load on the back of this two-wheeled mode of transportation.
As we were driving to Kijabe, going up a hill
of course, we looked to see a large bus truck with a new era of hitchhiker on
the back.
A fellow was on his bicycle and
holding onto the back bumper of a bus.
The bus was awfully smoky, no doubt causing unpleasant breathing and
near asphyxiation, but he seemed to be enjoying his effortless ride up the long
hills of the
Great Rift Valley.
The cleverest notion of it all is the simple fact that
people do whatever is necessary to get around.
If that means holding onto the bumper of a bus, being pulled by a donkey
or riding a top a load of pineapples, so be it.
I fear that laws prevent this sort of novelty in the states but with any
luck one day we will see the rise of bicycles in the
US once again.
