The ideas of "going green" and "environmentally friendly" have not yet reached Kenya. Here there are no emissions standards for vehicles -huge plumes of black soot billow from exhaust pipes as cars accelerate down the pot-hole ridden paths. The numerous speed bumps and other road obstacles ensure that the hundreds of drivers that traverse that path everyday will repeatedly slow down and then speed up -smashing the gas pedal and leaving behind a trail of black.
There is also no waste management system. Trash piles up into the streets, it clogs ravines, and pollutes rivers. The simple solution is to burn it, so all day, everyday, piles of trash are burning in the street. Toxic fumes rise like an ominous cloud around the city. The smell seems in though the windows and burns my nose, but the people here don't seem to notice. But for me, I still smell the stench when I get home and throw my clothes into the laundry basket.
After breathing this in for several days I noticed something odd -my snot is not the color it once was. My snot is BLACK! It makes me wonder what color my lungs are -well, I guess I will be putting my respiratory system through the ringer.
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