• Many people living in urban centres treat people in shaggz with disdain
• They also export their poor driving habits in town to the rural areas
Image: WILFRED NYANGERESI
They say when you go to Rome, behave as the Romans do. Not so much with many urban car owners when they go back to the countryside for the festive season.
Many of them have started trooping to their ancestral homes to catch a break from the concrete jungle of the city, where the race to make a living and put food on the table is enough to incur a headache.
However, for many more car owners, travelling back to shaggz is an opportunity to remind those back home that they play in a higher, totally different league.
Never mind the fact that most of these urbanites may in reality be living in squalor conditions by city standards. Here are the annoying habits that people in the rural areas are likely to experience from their urban visitors:
- 1. Relationship coups
In many rural areas, owning a car is considered a luxury and the ultimate sign of opulent living standards. I once read somewhere that owning a bicycle in shaggz provides men with a competitive advantage in the local dating and courtship scene.
However, the arrival of urbanites in their cars puts the domination of bicycle owners under threat. It is like car owners know they are in demand because many are the tales of the village damsel being driven around and taken to dates in a local, high-end restaurant or bar. The cyclist boyfriend would then have to lick his wounds, bide his time and wait for the car owner to go back to the city.
- 2. Poor driving habits
You can take the urbanite from the city but you can't get the city out of him. This seems to be the case when it comes to their driving habits. Driving at high speed and leaving a trail of dust behind, hooting aimlessly and overlapping, are just some of the behaviours rural dwellers witness from their urban visitors.
- 3. Aura of royalty
For all the suffering they endure in the city due to the high cost of living, urbanites sure do display a superiority complex when they are in shaggz. A common joke that always features during the festive season is of an urban car owner pointing at a chicken with his car keys, ordering for it to be slaughtered and prepared for him. Rural kids will often be cautioned not to lean aimlessly on the car or stare through the tinted windows. They will also be sent on endless errands with the promise of being given a ride in the vehicle.
- 4. Impoverishing rural dwellers
Thank God for rural areas for if it were not for them, cities would not have an abundant supply of food. One of the accusations against car owners is their tendency to overload their vehicles with food from shaggz when returning to the city. Granted, many of them carry plenty of goodies when travelling for festivities. However, these gifts pale in comparison to the food they carry from rural areas.