The attached photo shows my commute to work. Yes, that is a one lane dirt road. So far that hasn't been a problem since there is so little car traffic. There are some motorcycles (pikipiki in Swahili) and lots of pedestrians. This road, to my surprise, is on Google Maps and is their recommended route from my house to Selian Hospital. The road is much rougher in most spots than what you see here. It is the shorter way to the hospital and much more scenic than the highway. Corn fields, banana groves and native forest. Occasional glimpses of Mt. Meru.
The two dirt roads to the paved highway used to be just as rough, but the city recently graded both of them and widened one of them. Both of them can be one lane roads due to narrow spots or cars parked on the road. They are, for the most part, 1 to 2 lanes wide with the wider spots being filled in by parked vehicles and road side vendors. There are pedestrians on both sides and crossing the road and motorcycles going wherever they please at a high speed. The result can be chaos. People, push carts, and livestock block your path in addition to having to take turns going through the one lane parts. Even the wider sections usually involve driving frighteningly close to the oncoming traffic on your right side (Yup, we drive on the left side of the road here.) and pedestrians, etc on the other. One swerves back and forth over the entire road whenever possible in order to drive over only the smaller rocks and potholes. It is initially disconcerting to have the oncoming traffic swerve directly in front of you until you realize that they are just avoiding a pothole and will swerve back just in the nick of time to just barely miss you. You need to know that this vehicular ballet tempo is adagio, not presto. Top speed is around 15 mph and usually the speed is under 10 or even 5 mph.
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