arriving into jachie

i keep seeing smoke rising on the side of the road. a lot of stuff is being burned, from vegetation to garbage. you can literally see the fine dust pollution, it is generally hazy, hot and humid.

during the 4 ½ hour drive to jachie i managed to get a word or two out of george. he has a family with four children between the ages of 1½ and 13 years, two girls, two boys, his mother passed away early, and as a young adult he therefore had to make ends meet. he is also very polite - asks me for permission to take a wee. of course he can! he must!

he learned to drive from a friend - he drives really well, honking once signals a lane change, honking twice and energetically probably means: 'here i come - watch out!'. it is important to be attentive at all times in order not to drive into the potholes and thus damage the tires. so we come closer to our goal with some sudden swerving and still some more bumps.

in jachie we see trucks with materials for road construction and heavy construction machinery. there is dust in the air. still, people's clothes are clean and, as it seems, freshly ironed. george tells me that the village street in jachie should be paved soon, for the first time ever. the reason being that a village elder's burial is to take place soon expecting many visitors, including vips. 

deep drainage channels are concreted on the roadside. in the rainy season from late march to early november, it rains heavily at times, so that many road connections can be interrupted by flooding or damage to the roads. in jachie, a place with several thousand inhabitants, there is a central wash house, the residents can collect water centrally with a canister, most residential buildings have no water and sewage connections. there is electricity and some satellite dishes, and often there are no windows in the houses that are in an perpetually unfinished state but are inhabited nonetheless. there is a town hall for the village administration, a chief, and a council of village elders.