Goat Jam

The title sounds a bit like a music festival…but in reality (my reality) it is dangerous traffic jam.

Since my students don’t exactly arrive to class on time in Ilkiloret, I decided I did not have to leave Ngong so early on Wednesday mornings. This however proved problematic as it seemed every pastoralist within walking distance of the road that leads to Ilkiloret was driving his/her herd on the road that morning at precisely the time we had chosen travel. We encountered no less than eight “traffic” jams involving large numbers of livestock.

After about the third jam, the situation became comical. The pastoralist believe, probably rightly so, that they have as much right to the road as we do, so they don’t bother to move their cattle or sheep or goats or donkeys out of the way for a car or motorbike to pass. Therefore every time we meet, for instance a cow jam, Njenga has to start whistling and hollering while maneuvering his way through the rather stinky herd.

Having just passed through cow jam number four coming down the back of hill number one (remember there are three, two being the worst), I looked ahead to hill number two and saw a huge herd of goats making their way up the hill. Hill number two is the worst because it’s the longest and has the most stones…as Njenga would say…”this is not a road.” However, there is very little that slows Njenga down and goats or no goats we were going up this hill right now!

Njenga’s motorcycle does not have a lot of horsepower. It really has to work to get up this hill. As we begin our ascent the motorcycle is revving and fishtailing a bit because of the layer of silt covering the sand, Njenga begins to whistle and holler at the goats, and I begin to giggle, because instead of parting so we can pass, the goats, being not the brightest animals in the world, begin to run ahead of us. Njenga says between whistles, “Ah, the goats are confused, they’ve never been herded by a motorcycle before.”

Well, of course…why didn’t I think of that?

We’ve talked, Njenga and I, and we’ve decided to avoid the goat jam…from now on we travel at 7 or after 9.

Timing is everything, even on a dusty “not a road” road in the middle of the Rift Valley.