Keep on Keeping on

It happens sometime  you meet very special people. You know, the kind of people that make you forget yourself for a minute, well not a minute literally. This person makes you forget about 9GAG, Buzzfeed for me. You text them all the time, you just want to talk to them because they are the most awesome and greatest humans created in their time.

Then after a while you are left. The person who made you abandon Buzzfeed goes cold, goes MIA. They stop texting, and you stop calling because honestly, you were the only one calling unless they were returning your missed call.  A day later.

Then it hits you that probably you should have never dumped Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed is like your partner in crime. Buzzfeed is like the desperate girl who had a crush on you and since primary school, say class four? She will never move on , she will always wait for you to come to her. It is sticky when you do not come back, or she moves on by the time you are back. In this case Buzzfeed doesn`t have funds to run or it has been hacked, which is still very unlikely because some PE just pumped in money.
You now camp there day in day out. You take the Buzzfeed quizzes religiously and share in every social media platform you have signed up.

You even take the screenshots of the results and put them as your display picture on WhatsApp. Because of why? You are trying to make up carefully and tactfully so she does not crash and you have to reinstall again. Unfortunately, she is mad. Your bundles are on fire, unless of course you have WiFi at home and use R.O.G Matatus to town.
Is it true though that R.O.G Matatus are the only ones in Nairobi with free WiFi?

Then one of those days on Buzzfeed you remember you had a blog that you used to write about girls (giggles). Then there you are. You want to write how you are a horrible person. How you turn off people (Is it not  funny though, they turn you on and you turn them off?- such an unfair universe). You tell this to your friends quite often  and they try to convince you that you are not but deep inside you know better, you know best. You are a socially awkward person and cannot keep a good moment going on for five seconds.

Because lets face it,  why would a girl you have been chasing for a year be your girlfriend on Saturday and dump you on Sunday? Hehe!! Aki this life man.
But then you are a grown man. You know this because why else would your brother be asking you for pocket money every Friday? And bundles everyday? This is so scary but what can a man do? You are grown.

You cannot ask your mum for money. Unless your brother has asked for some bailing out and you need bailing too. So you ask for a bailout from your mother and this is how it goes.

"Mum I need some cash for bro and I juu sijalipwa bado"

"Nitatumia ndugu yako wewe utangoja kiasi"

"Mum I need money juu ata kesho naenda church."

"Na hua unatoa tithe?"

"Bado, but nitaanza. Mum sasa nitasurvive aje?"

"Mimi sijui, mungu ndio anajua."

You know this is funny and you laugh and forget you are broke for a minute but she does not berge, she is as serious as Sossion, you can read from her lips. You leave for Saturday errands because God knows and God never lets you down.

Image Courtesy

You go to class and you really enjoy the classes because nothing really turns you on like new knowledge. In class people  say you have changed because you don`t hang out with them. Hehe! This is funny because it`s not that you don`t want to, you just do not have money, that money is someone`s upkeep these days.

You go home to finish some series you were watching and Alas! You find mum has left you some cash, because she is who she is, she is mum.

So this post goes out to you out there. You find yourself alone most of the time. You think you do not have a social life. Everyone has opinions about you. Do they matter? Is that your identity? I don`t know man.
You may not have discovered yourself yet, you are learning and observing. It feels like you are trying to balance life on a plate but you have
shaky hands. Do not be afraid because at some point time it will fall. You just have to kneel down put the pieces together and carry on.

You have to keep on keeping on.

MATATU REVOLUTION

It's on a Thursday, classes are in the afternoon, what should I do? I check my blog, there is a story I have been wanting to write, but I keep on postponing,and as they say,procrastination is the thief of time,I waste no time,
I have to write you a story my friend.

It is a diverse, dynamic, complex, topic, I have to confess it is a subject I knew little about before I came to this vast metropolis,"Nairoba"
Matatu culture, Most of us from up country only heard of stories from the Nairobians while in high school. However, Nairobians would tell the story with too much ego such that at the end, there would be no story told at all. They pulled crowds with their lame swag,and there was no way you could resist their stories, their voice, full of sheng, patronising attitude,and there is a special way they pronounced words.
This was like a kamkunji,the top chops and the dunderheads would sit together and listen,by the way most of the Nairobians weren't top chops as such.

I had seen matatus even before I came to the city, at least when I went to school i used to board one. But I am not talking about those matatus, am talking about the matatus in Nairobi, where the real culture was born , and where the revolution is taking place.
Matatu culture has grown and evolved over the years but not much. Some characteristics like breaking traffic rules are very alive, and they don't look like they will die soon.

So I decide to move around town, and find something to write about this topic that I want to know a lot about.
I actually board a Matatu to town, let me not give the details of the journey,a story for another day, I alight at Tom Mboya street, this is where you will find matatus for every route. I feel awkward when
I see matatus for route 9,old and unroadworthy,not what
I had in mind about matatus,route 9 leads you to Eastleigh.
I move on,
I am just about to cross the road, a bus, passes. I just can't help admiring the creative graphics. I can't really make out what it is, but it looks really good and cranky. As it passes, at the back I see a quote, " you have slapped me kidero?"
Most of the time, in the heavy graphics, catchy phrases will stand out, mostly which are the trending and most of the time, they are naughty.
I see another approaching the heavy traffic,  like a fuming bull it stops, just almost ramming the sedan in front.
The bus is anxious, it won't stop, the driver is restless, without even looking through the side mirror and peeping out through the window every 5 seconds. The driver overlaps and moves on like nothing has happened.
Traffic rules don't apply in the Matatu culture. I was even amused by airtel's initiative for rewarding the well driven PSVs.
A good initiative, but it's just a handful of PSVs that ever obey traffic lights,if there is any.
I notice that nearly all matatus have scratched(if not crushed)fronts,you can tell why.
Loud music hardly misses in any modern Matatu, in fact if it does misses, very few or none commuters will board the Matatu.
The most common music genres in matatus are riddims and crank music.
I forgot to mention that matatus are mostly used by the young, wild and free! Who have to go to school everyday or to work.
The Matatu sector is a big employer. It pays. Sources say that a Matatu could earn one (the owner) about 15000 shillings a day, the driver can take home about 3000, while the conductor am told, he takes home whatever amount he needs, I mean, he manages the accounts.
The heavy mercury graphics are also very expensive, depending on the design, and the size of the vehicle. The graphics could take 3 to 4 days to be completed.
My sources tell me, cheapest graphics are about 20000 for a14 seater. Actually, Most of the time it's something that can be negotiated, to 20000, it would cost up to about
60000 for a 42 seater bus. So it's a good business.
Matatu culture is art, the graphics explain it all. My definition of art is something that is created to preserve and imitate real life phenomenon, tell me, what comes to your mind when you see a Matatu, full of graphics?
I will tell you what comes to my mind, I see Nairobi, I see genge, a music genre that grew up in Nairobi, and the artists themselves would use these Matatus, in their videos, the most outstanding being juacali.
Mutua Matheka(of wallpaper Monday app), an artist, architecture, photographer, he is many things but that is a story for next week. In a work of art he depicts the real Matatu culture,
Heavily pimped vehicles, colourful,cranky graphics, drivers; they think they own the roads,but in real sense they own the roads,they are rogue,ignorant of any traffic rules,but careful enough not to cause any problem, shouting touts, full of sike, rude enough to call you names, their noise competing with the loud music inside the bus, what is the shouting for? It won't be a culture without all that, it wouldn't be a revolution.