Driving in Kenya

On Friday we were given a new 2009 Nissan 4 door pickup and told to follow Elder and Sister Elam home. Mind you, they drive on the left with the steering on the right. It’s a stick shift and so Tom has to learn a new shift pattern and do it with his left hand. Also, left side driving means a whole new set of reference points in the truck. If you forget and go back to the common street guide lines, you are half way into the left lane—a problem if there is no left lane and a drop off on the shoulder. Now, throw in the craziest driving this side of Taiwan—no rules, the biggest and fastest gets the right of way, everyone is crowding in to drive, cutting others off, etc. And we are to just jump in and do this.

Elder Fox did amazingly well! Sure we clipped mirrors with a Matatu—one of the thousands of local van-taxis, successfully avoided a truck stopped with a breakdown in the middle of the road, and avoided either losing Elder Elam by having dozens of cars merge in front of us (because there was 6 inches to spare) or to run into the back of Elder Elam’s truck.
All and all, it was a successful trip.

Saturday we made the journey to Kisumu. Elder and Sister Littlefield lead us there. The only problem was, they had never traveled there from this direction. One time we took a road that got narrower, then suddenly turned into a rutted, dirt track with village venders on either side. We crept past a truck loaded with sheep. Elder Littlefield asked directions and we returned the 40 Kilometers to the last traffic circle, where we had not circled to the correct road. Here are some of the hazards of Kenyan driving:
No shoulders with a drop off of 6-18 inches.
Potholes 6-10 inches deep anywhere on the road.
Narrow roads, no striping—center or side lines.
Trucks broken down right on the road. They put out branches or rocks as their “flares’ to let you know they are stopped.
22 wheeled trucks that go 10-15 mph up hills.
Cars and vans that pass said trucks… and each other at the same time. You can have 3 cars abreast across the road. This can be done on a blind curve. It is the Ultimate Chicken. We saw several motorcycles run off the road this way.
Motorcycles, bicycles, donkey carts loaded with jugs, sugar canes 10 feet long (sideways), sacks of potatoes or carrots, etc. going down the side of the road that you have to pass as well.
In the cities, pedestrians throng roadsides. They do not have the right of way, and are very quick to get out of the way. (Good thing, one time I said, “Wow, that pedestrian got out of the way fast.” Tom said, “What pedestrian? I was looking at the white car coming in from the right.”)

We were preserved! Eight hours later, we arrived in Kisumu. Safe, sound, and tired.