African Transportation

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28TH

Leave the house. Walk 10 minutes. Get into an overcrowded "L" car and spend the next 20 minutes fighting for shoulder space with various people, briefcases, and handbags. Pray during that time that I don’t wind up standing next to someone who smells like they missed their morning show. Manage to somehow squeeze myself out of the train car, where I then walk another 10 minutes before finally arriving at my destination. Such was my daily commute when I worked out of my downtown office in Chicago. Now here I am, ten months later, halfway across the planet doing relief work in one of the poorest countries - in essence almost the complete polar opposite of my life in Chicago - and yet my daily commute, for all practical purposes, has remained virtually unchanged. The only real difference is that, rather than crowding myself into an "L" car full of people with handbags and briefcases, I’m instead crowding into a ‘dala dala’ -literally translated, minibus- full of people carrying sacks of grain, rice, and vegetables (and yes, it smells like a few of them missed their morning showers here as well) .

I have come to form a love-hate relationship with these mini-buses. On the positive side, they are both an extremely efficient and extremely cheap way of getting from the downtown area of Arusha to its surrounding areas. Depending on whether I’m headed out to the orphanage or to teach at the Omoja Centre, I pay either TZS 500 or TZS 300 (~$0.40 and $0.25, respectively). On the other hand, they drive with a recklessness I am betting would even make a few Chicago cab drivers nervous. Oh, and did I mention they were crowded? Having spent plenty of time on the dala dalas, I’ve estimated that most of them (some vary slightly in design) would sit 14-16 comfortably, including the driver and the door operator / money collector. However, it’s rare that they squeeze less than 20 people into each van, and on several occasions I’ve counted no less than 22 passengers (24 people total). For the first few weeks I was convinced this was the maximum threshold for the number of human bodies that could be squeezed into something that officially has the word ‘mini’ in its title. However, I must confess that on this specific occasion, I vastly underestimated the resourcefulness of the African people. Last Sunday, against all odds, we at one point squeezed in 28 people and…wait for it…THREE SMALL KIDS! I am still completely dumbfounded at this miraculous feat, and at the same time can only hope that I never have to experience such an uncomfortable sensation ever again.

A few other random notes about African transportation:

- Just like our friends in Britain and Australia, they drive on the wrong side of the road here

- While ‘dala dalas’ are clearly the cream of the crop when it comes to driving like they don’t value their own lives, most drivers in general give little disregard to other vehicles, and especially pedestrians. Again, I am very much reminded of Chicago, and therefore am not sure whether I’m annoyed at their discourtesy or thankful for the small taste of home

- In spite of this, I have to admit that African road traffic is at least somewhat organized. In contrast to India, where I’m told roads are just a massive free-for-all, there are usually clearly marked lanes here to which the majority of drivers adhere

- Additionally, to prevent excessive speeding on main highways, they have numerous speedbumps leading into any small towns, as well as dangerous stretches of roads. These are extremely annoying as a passenger, but at the same time much preferable to the alternative of having drivers speeding at will through these areas