That's right - that's a white lady working as a matatu conductor in Nairobi, Kenya.! She loves it and makes some money out it, kes 1000 or $10 per day to be precise. Don't get it twisted though, she's not poor, she explained that she loved the matatu culture and that she was also doing as a school project. She does it for fun but there are other ladies who take this work serious because they have families to support with the earnings they get!
It's always a spectacle to see lady conductors and drivers fighting it out with their male counterparts in a field predominant by males. This is a field that requires brute force and arrogance and you can't just imagine how a lady does it! If the adage "what a man can do a woman can do it better" really applys. Then this is where the truth reckons. If you boarded one that a lady was driving you'd stare at her the whole time in disbelief and admiration.
The main question would be why
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She is knowns as the mkokoteni (cart) lady. She pulls the heavy cart hawking bananas in town along side her daughter!
Why do women do this "odd" jobs? Odd in the sense that these jobs were a man's domain.!
I think the simple reason would be.
1. Provide
A man's role in life is to provide, protect and to procreate. Most men have negated two of these roles, they only seem to be better at one - procreate. They are like the village champion cock leaving their foot prints and DNA from door to door siring babies they don't want to raise! This in turn has resulted into a rise in number of single mothers with no one to help in bringing up the baby. Some of the mothers are then forced to do these jobs to support their families, others are drastic in the choices they make and end up in prostitution!
2. Education
Education is the key they say but still they end up making it soo expensive for "normal people" to afford! Education is important if you want to grow and develop yourself as a person but its not responsible for your functionality. Most technical skills are self taught and perfected with experience. Education has very little to do with your own success. We therefore can't point blame to how many degrees you could have achieved to measure your success.
3. Abandoned
Some of these women were raised in the streets, abandoned while young to fend for themselves. Being dignified, they made a choice not to get into something that would result in run ins with the law but to work hard and make ends meet.
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I used to see this lady in town at night selling hot coffee. She carries with her some eggs and a small gas cooker to fry eggs for her customers (her story is not related to number 3 but im sure she has a story to tell).
4. Unemployment
Lack of formal employment by government and institutions, play a huge role. The gender rule of 2/3 introduced by the government to create more employment chances to women is still not applicable. Women still have to fight it out with man for these chances.!
Strength of a Woman
These photos validate the strength of a woman, literally. But they also remind me that women have been responsible for creating homes and raising good quality sons and daughters over the centuries.
The sheer determination and will to provide for their families is admirable.