Explanations for the last two photos

The first picture shows traffic running around a market.  The photo only shows a sliver of the actual market which is a large triangle enclosed by three of Nairobi's highways.  Vendors of second hand clothing arrive to the triangle early in the morning and set up their mobile tables and start selling their goods.  The market is just outside the main section of town where all the tall buildings sit.  People either jump off matatus or play frogger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogger)  across the busy highways to get to the tables.  I only brought 3 pairs of pants with me so I'm hoping to find another pair here one of these days (I haven't decided yet whether I'm serious or not).
In the background of the photo there's a blue van.  This is a matatu.  Matatus are the main mode of transportation around Nairobi.  These vans can fit 14 passengers, a driver (this term is relative to nairobi, in the US we might call him or occasionally her an "attack driver"), and a conductor (again a relative term).  Mataus usually have loud rap or 70s music playing and sometimes have tv screens showing music videos.  Matatus also usually have bizarre stickers on the windows like "have you thanked a green plant today?", "God's love", "Jesus is Lord", "Chris Brown", "naked boy", "SMS only", "big gun", and "speed demon." Like ships, matatus have names, and the names of the vehicles themselves are sometimes even more amusing than their stickers. Some examples include: "Dark Knight", "Junior", "Lover Machine", "Hand of God", "Lady Luck", and "Death Trap." I'm going to start recording matatu names and stickers in a notebook (as soon as I get a notebook, that is).
Now that you've become acquainted with the vehicles themselves, you need to know about their operators, drivers and conductors. The driver and conductor of any given matatu can communicate better than any two human beings on the planet. The conductor sits next to the sliding door on the left side of the matatu and can easily hop out of the vehicle to allow passengers to exit or enter. Conductors tend to ride standing with their feet inside the matatus while their heads and upper bodies remain outside the vehicles. This way, they can see over the roofs of their own matatus in order to assess traffic situations and decide whether their drivers should create new lanes (between other lanes of traffic or on the unpaved sidewalks... there are no lines painted on the roads to designate lanes). The conductor usually taps a coin twice against the roof of the matatu to signal to the driver to stop to let passengers off or onto the vehicle. Signals to create new lanes, cut off buses, etc., are not always as easy for passengers to understand, and vary from matatu to matatu.
Matatus are simultaneously insane, hilarious, cramped, terrible, and wonderful.  And you can't really get anywhere without one.  Here's some links (oh yeah, these look clunky, how can I make them not clunky?) :http://www.google.co.ke/images?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1C1ASUT_enUS373US373&biw=1366&bih=667&tbs=isch:1&sa=1&q=matatus&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai= , http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=matatus&page=2 , http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-stories/the-mad-matatus-of-kenya-20100315/

The second picture is of a street I use to get the the AU Abroad program office on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.  I posted this picture because I wanted to show Nairobi's dust and pollution.  There's a lot of both.  Where there's no pavement, cars and feet stir the loosely packed dirt into the air.  Grass doesn't seem to grow in most of Nairobi.  If you walk around in sandals (I do) your feet quickly get red dirt tattoos around the straps of the sandals.  All my shoes now look like dirt.  After washing my feet in the shower I need to wash the shower to get the red dirt stains off the floor.  The dirt is endless.
In addition to constant dirt, the cars, trucks, and matatus of Nairobi spew black smog.  I kind of doubt gasoline in Nairobi is unleaded (correct me if I'm wrong), and after a day of walking around Nairobi my snot turns black.  The smell of burning garbage isn't uncommon in the city and is constantly coming in through my apartment's window.  Usually, ravines of litter run parallel to foot paths (packed dirt) along the sides of roads (although I imagine some of it will be washed away during the rainy season [it hasn't rained since I've been here]).  During the twice daily commute the black fumes of vehicles intensifies the nausea associated with traffic.
Micaela helped write some of this post while I looked after some cooking pasta.  She'll guest post sometime soon.  She's also my constant editor (please don't blame her for my terrible writing though).
More soon.