My crazy boda-boda adventure

This past week Opportunity International-Wedco was able to finally report its loan repayments on Kiva and to its lenders (after pausing during the post-election crisis). Now I can jump into coordinating visits to do journal updates. Special thanks to the sick excel skills of my MPM, Ben Elberger.

I wanted to share a quick funny story from my travels. Many of the fellows have mentioned the various forms of transportation that we get to take around our locations. In Kenya, matatu, tuk-tuk, and boda-boda’s are the transportation staples. Last week I was heading home after leaving Kenya’s own version of Wall-Mart, Nakumatt. I took a boda-boda because I had loaded up with a couple gallons of water.

As we were going I noticed that my boda-boda driver was sweating, a lot. I’m not talking about the light sweat from a warm day, I’m talking about the kinda sweat you’d see glowing fiery red or neon green in a Gatorade commercial. While sitting behind him on the bicycle I couldn’t help but focus on the sweat droplets form around his ear lobe and I got a bit worried when I imagined it slowly flying back into my eye. So I asked him if he was feeling sick. He replied “I don’t feel so good”. Sure enough right after he uttered the last syllable the collection of droplets on his ear flew back and was aimed to hit right between my eyes. Quickly I ducked my head causing my bag with a big water jug to fall to the side of the bike throwing off the balance of the boda-boda and rubbing against the rusty spokes of the wheel. He hit the brakes yelling something unmentionable in Luo while I stuck out both my feet and thankfully we safely stopped. It was a close call and I’ll make sure to not bring large full water jugs with me the next time I take a boda-boda and make sure my driver isn’t under the weather.
Well that is my quick story, although it is nothing to the stories Nabomita could share. Also, I promise that after some comprehensive time in the field my next post will be more substantive regarding the post-election violence in Kenya and its impact upon Kiva funded businesses.

To see all currently fundraising loans from Opportunity International-Wedco on Kiva.org, please click here.

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