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American oddities

America has some odd things about it:


  • Mechanical systems: when opening a bank account, the customer service officer will literally rap to you what accounts are available, what features and so on. People who sell fast food as well, seem to be in a trance-like state, mechanical even. This is perhaps due to the fact that they have to serve multiple people in a day, so no dilly dallying. This reminds me of Kenyan waiters who we keep waiting for 5 minutes while deciding whether we want mbuzi kaanga or mbuzi choma.
Queue at a popular fast food joint
  • Strange names for some things: football as we know it is called soccer, taps are called faucets, a bonnet is called a hood, a boot is called a trunk, petrol is called gas, takeaway is called takeout and many more.
  • Address systems: one of the easiest systems of navigation is the house numbering system widely employed in the US. This simple and obvious system is so useful, that it is impossible to get lost if one knows the address. With Google's Maps and satellite navigation, you can find virtually anyone, if given the correct street address. This is something we can employ in Kenya to avoid using "the house near the mugumo tree" kind of address.
Most US homes have a number and a street address making it easier to find

  • Sockets don't have switches: this is odd. I can't imagine why the socket holes are always powered ;) 
These sad looking sockets seem to have lost their "on" and "off" switches.

  • Government services work: though citizenry pays taxes to federal and state governments, the government seems to provide sufficient water, gas and electricity to its citizens.


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