road crews

eldoret is a town that's about a 45 minute ride from where i'm staying... and on the worst roads you've ever seen.

seriously, they will be in my nightmares someday - i know it! the roads we travel on are filled with holes at least a foot wide, and sometimes 3-6 inches deep. they are so fun to drive on... SO fun.

but get this... according to the kenyan people, if you check with their government that stretch of horrid road is "new".

the government put a ridiculous amount of money aside to pave the road between kitale and eldoret, and their books say it is "new", huh? not so much... only 20 miles of road were paved and the rest still remain untouched. THAT is how corrupt the government here is. its ridiculous.

once we get on the road, we see an interesting sight. since certain corrupt people have pilfered the money for the road to be fixed, the kenyan people still have to do something about being able to travel them... so the kenyan kids get a bit creative.

yep... you heard me. the teenagers. young boys transport dirt from holes on the side of the road and fill up the potholes in the road. then they put sticks with pieces of clothing on the holes (kinda like a flag) to show that they just worked to fill them up.

when you drive by these boys, they jump up from where they're sitting on the side of the road and rush as close as they can get to the vehicles driving by, and they shout and point to the holes so the drivers of the vehicles will pay them money for filling them.

sometimes they receive a few shillings from passing vehicles, but not much. we get so close to hitting them when we're driving by, that sometimes i have to close my eyes and hope we dont run them over.

the interesting thing is that those kenyan boys probably make up a good portion of the men here that actually arent lazy and take some initiative.