Fun with public transport

Susan and I had our very first excursion to the Nakumatt on Valentine's Day. Nakumatt is the big Kenyan version of Wal-Mart (you may have heard in the news about the one in Nairobi that burned down a few weeks ago). The nearest one is the north side of Mombasa, so we had to take a mutatu (small bus/passenger van) from Kilifi. The Nakumatt is in a little shopping center with a cafe where we had Kenyan/Mexican (Keny-exican? Ken-Mex?) veggie quesadillas and Susan ordered an iced coffee which was very tasty! The Nakumatt was a nice little piece of civilization and we were able to buy exciting things like sheets and Zip-loc bags and other assorted household items. However, the trip to and from the Nakumatt in the mutatus was rather frightening. Generally, the mutatus are in varying states of disrepair and they drive about 100 miles an hour and try to pass every vehicle they encounter on a 2-lane (one lane each way, without the actual "lanes") so they are constantly speeding up and then braking to dodge oncoming traffic, etc. Of course, they also cram more people than they need to into the mutatus, so it is very cramped as well. Overall, they drive the vehicles VERY hard, which just puts them in a greater state of disrepair which makes them that much more unsafe, not to mention the reckless driving habits. I discovered that looking ahead or behind as we were traveling was not an option for me because it was simply too scary, so I had to force myself to look out the side (which was a better view anyway). It's a good thing I don't get motion sickness... actually, as we were riding, I felt that I might have the potential to GET motion sickness, but I didn't and we survived! Anyway, we've been discussing the possibility of buying a car here, but we want to wait until Susan actually gets PAID (which is a problem, considering that Susan's efforts at getting an overseas UK bank account has been in limbo for months). After the mutatu experiences, I found myself wanting our own car much more urgently...