We've mentioned how quickly you can normalise your day-to-day situation, rapidly accepting that which was so alien and different. Every so often though you get a reminder that bursts your bubble of complacency, sometimes this is in a negative way when you are once again confronted with the poverty that is so close but sometimes it is just the reminder that things are just different.
In Uthiru slum the other day, I took a motorcycle taxi or piki-piki from one side to the other. These piki-piki are run with usually Chinese made motorcycles and are cheap alternatives to matatus or taxis particularly for short journeys. It has to be said that neither you or the driver are always likely to be wearing helmets but safety concerns aside they are a popular form of transportation. As I got on, I failed to notice the large speaker strapped to the front headlight and music system strapped to the petrol tank. Before we set off the driver had to turn on the system to play the music for the journey which, for this particular journey, was Saturday Night by Whigfield a chart hit from the mid-1990s.
It was as I was bouncing along the dirt track through the slum with the music blaring that my little bubble of complacency was once again punctured with the sheer anachronism of the scene.
The bubble of complacency quickly reformed as I got off safely and I once again began deluding myself that everything is normal. And the next time I get on a piki-piki I will have assimilated that experience and be fully prepared for listening to Whigfield.
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