Matatus

So now that I have been driving for a couple of weeks I have new found feelings towards Matatus (pronounced mat-ah-toos), Kenya’s version of south african (kombi) taxis.
Some of these feelings are ones of anger (as they jump long queues and push in at the front), horror (as they overtake into oncoming traffic) and pity (for the passengers).
But I mostly find myself highly amused by them. They are often decorated wildly and comically and they have all big words painted across the front windscreens. Some examples of these totally random names are:
Altar boy (yeah... whatever)
Baby bytes (wonder if they know what a byte is?)
FREEZA
Area code
King Kong
Flex
Mr Chicks (Big egos or what?!)
Hurricane
Facebook (quite trendy huh)
The Matatus here are way more organised than their south African counterparts. Each matatu has a big number displayed that indicates which route it runs on. There is even a map with the Matatu routes available! And they all have conductors. The matatu conductor is usually a very lively fellow who always has his upper body out the window, signing and gesturing and shouting away in an eternal attempt to pick up pedestrians. I have been asked countless times while out running if I want a lift :-)
When the matatus do one of their usual unpredictable and traffic jam causing stops, the conductor jumps out even before the matatu comes to a stop and starts to round up passengers. When the last (slow moving) passenger is almost in, he bangs on the roof and the driver pulls away. He runs after the matatu and jumps on, and just hangs onto the door frame. Often he wont even bother to slide the door closed.
Their behavior on the roads is just diabolical. They overtake on the inside, on pavements, on dirt, into oncoming traffic, in groups of 10, and on the other side of an island. They never wait one behind another at a circle or a junction, they squeeze in next to the car in front. And they don't wait for gaps, they just nudge further and further into the junction until the flow of cars have to stop.
They really are quite something.
Benedikt's aggression has rubbed off on me a teeny bit... If I see them trying to pass a whole queue (where they will just push in at the top) I block their way. Only sometimes though :-)
They are ALWAYS very confused to see a white chick doing this! Like why would I do that? The roads are theirs man. The thing is, most other cars just let them behave as they like. I know I will never win the war. Benedikt things he will though ;-)

So we leave for Germany in just 2 sleeps time! I am SOooooooooooo excited. Benedikt's sister is getting married in Italy... wish is lovely of her. So we spend 3 days in Italy, 1 day in Munich and the rest of the time in Koln. I will be popping accross to Belgium for a night too. So 10 days of fun and shopping and great travelling is coming up. This is one very excited girl. Its been like 4 years since I was last in Europe!

We will really miss this little thing though. But I'm sure she will be fine. We'll leave some pellets and a blanket in the cupboard that we're locking her in.






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