There are many differences between Africa and the States. I imagine that I could spend hours... for real... listing my observations about just the differences I see. Instead, I have chosen to focus on the differences in just one basic part of life: transportation, with a focus on taxis. (I am sorry that some of these differences are ones I may have mentioned before... I tried to make an exhaustive list.) Enjoy!
• Horns are used all the time... for communicating about where you are. They are not as rude sounding as the horns in the States, either... so it makes it not so bad that you hear horns ALL the time. In the States, we seem to only use horns for emergencies. I imagine it might be true also there are just more emergencies here when on the road.
• People are in danger all the time when on or near the road. Someone I know recently hit someone crossing a fence median (because people will run cross not just the street, but the freeway). The person who got hit was okay after going to the hospital. I also saw someone that had just got hit by a minibus. It was AWFUL. Everyone jumped off the minibus and gathered around. There were tire marks behind the minibus for several feet, but it had still knocked the person hard. Immediately, hundreds of people crowded around the scene. They carried the person who got hit and put him in the minibus to take him to the hospital. It is usually fastest here to take someone yourself instead of calling for help.
• Cars are in danger all the time when on or near the road. I have seen multiple accidents, most of them fender benders. Crowds gather to look and give their opinions on the matter every time. This is a culture that doesn’t accept responsibility so the liability for an accident is usually a mess. (It’s interesting: even in the language spoken here, sentences translate like this: The pen dropped from my hand. They don’t say: I dropped the pen. It is the pen’s fault, never the subject who we would actually say did the action.)
• Streets here are often being swept. I said this would be a job I didn’t want because it seemed endless and someone told me that if I lived here, I actually may want it because of job security... which is very important in this society.
• Roads are a suggestion. If you want to go off of them to pass someone, go for it. Passing also happens often in the oncoming lane, usually with the expectation that oncoming traffic will slow a bit.
• There are some regulations on cars, but no vehicle emissions testing. So... diesel fumes abound.
• People here often think that headlights use up gasoline. So, many choose only to use them when absolutely necessary (flashing them when someone is coming may be an absolute necessary time, for example). This can be a driving hazard, as you would imagine.
• People travel by car (very few have cars), minibuses (about 5-6 thousand in the city), taxi (about 12 thousand in the city) or by bus. Cars have a couple people in them, taxis have a few, minibuses have 15-16 and buses have so many that it looks like the bus driver is playing a game each time you pass one: how many people can we fit on this bus? And, this is not a lie: I actually saw a bus that was full like usual, people sitting and standing, packed in AND, the back door of the bus got pushed open, I saw a woman start falling out and someone pulled her back on. Like I said: no lie.
• Addresses are funny. They can involve zones and streets and neighborhoods, etc.
• The roads have no lines on them except near the airport or some places on main roads.
• There are bones often found on the streets, from an nondescript bone to the skull of a goat or cow. If an animal dies on the street, dogs have it eaten very quickly, but the bones often remain.
• There ARE laws, but there aren’t really people to enforce those laws everywhere. The people who do enforce the law stand often at roundabouts (which are EVERYWHERE) and blow their whistle at you if you do something wrong. When you pull over, they run up to you to write a ticket for you. If you don’t pull over, they write your plate number down to get you the next time around. (After about 9 PM, the law enforcers go off duty and you can sometimes see soldiers around keeping the peace.)
• Bicycles have to be registered and have a license plate on them.
• Because there are a lot of holes in roads, people without jobs have begun to help. I don’t think that the government could even keep up with all the holes anyhow, so it is probably a good thing that people are helping out. This is what happens: someone finds a bad part of a road, gets rocks or something else to fill it in and does so. Then, that person stands in the middle of the road accepting money (like a toll) from anyone who will pay him for his services. I have even seen them set up little flags even, of fabric or plastic they have found. They perch the flag on a stick and prop it up between rocks. It’s pretty amazing, actually. (Side note: they don’t have traffic cones here, official people or just people setting up their own tolls. They use large rocks.)
• Since there are always herds of animals on and near the roads, it is not uncommon to hear about someone hitting one, a cow or goat or sheep. If you do, you pull over to the side of the road and decide with the animal’s caretaker what the value of the animal was. Then, you pay it.
• Taking a shortcut means you are traveling a shorter distance, yes. However, it also means that you will probably be going slowly on a really dirty, bumpy ride to reach your destination.
• In case it wasn’t apparent in all of this, driving around here gets pretty wild.
Now about riding in a taxi:
• Taxis often have fur covering the back seat area behind the head rests. There are often a few elements added to the taxi to make it “nice” inside, like the minibuses. This can include pictures of Mary, tassels, brightly-colored (like roller skate rink brightly-colored) plastic coverings for head rests and one time, I saw a light up head of a baby. I don’t get it.
• You can sit in the back or the front. It is just a regular car, so I guess that’s why the drivers don’t care much.
• There is no money meter measuring how far you go. It is up to you and the driver to decide. If you don’t barter back and forth and if it is a driver you don’t know, you may get charged a lot.
• You have to be careful about what taxi you take. One time, my friend told a taxi driver that we (three of us) would pay three birr total (about a quarter, I guess) to get home. He agreed and I told her that I didn’t want to ride with him. :)
• Like everything in Africa, even riding in taxis is culturally about community, about who you know. Most of the time, people use the same taxi drivers over and over and just save their personal phone number, calling them whenever they need a ride. It is important to develop relationships with the drivers and it is also important that they know who you are connected with. This gives them greater accountability and assures you that they will take good care of you.
I know a lot of this may seem crazy, but I actually have enjoyed the experience that comes with getting from one place to another. It is quite the remarkable system they have here. :) It makes me wonder if a teenager’s parents here would yell on the way out the door, “Drive safely!” I kind of doubt it. Driving safely won’t get you very far.
Love,
Laura
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