May 31, 2007

I had a very interesting transportation experience recently that I felt I needed to share…I was on my way back from a not-so-far away place, about 25 kilometers or so. I was the first one in the taxi and so as usual, I expected it to be a little while before it filled up and we headed off. Well it was a small sized sedan, and after squeezing four of us in the back the driver proceeded to find more passengers for the trip. There clearly wasn’t enough room and the Ugandans beside me voiced this to the driver. After much arguing back and forth, the passengers all exited the vehicle and I followed. I got into another taxi, now waiting for this one to fill up. When it did we were off…not for too long though. The bus stalled and we were stopped on the road. This isn’t so unusual, so about 10 men got out to push the vehicle to push-start it. We got going and the engine started again…we were off…no we weren’t…the bus quickly filled up with exhaust. We stopped, but the smoke was quickly pouring into the cabin and people were scrambling off the bus. Of course I was in the back of the bus, so what did I decide to do…I climbed out the window…HA. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a big deal in the US, but everything that a muzungu—white person—does is somehow the most interesting thing—even when it is nothing out of the ordinary. So the fact that I was doing something out of the ordinary made it very amusing to them…