I have done a lot more driving in the past week and a half. Two Fridays ago I drove in rush hour traffic for nearly 3 hours coming back from a remote project. That was kind of a baptism by fire. Then Friday I drove down to the port and back. I am getting pretty comfortable with it. In some ways I feel safer here than in the US. Traffic generally moves slower, even if it is crazier, and here I am always driving massive pickup trucks with iron bars on the front and back.
A couple of times when I haven't been driving I have brought my camera along to shoot pictures. I have been here for three months and I'm starting to not be as aware of which sights are unusual to American eyes so it is high time I start taking pictures.
This is a "car rapide," an emblem of my city and the cheapest form of public transportation. These old Peugot vans have been running for decades thanks to the marvelous ingenuity of their drivers. There are hundreds of them in town, each one following a vaguely defined route that is sometimes altered to meet the demands of the passengers. The capacity of the van is generally accepted to be 18 plus the driver and "apprentice" who collects the tolls, with room for about 7 more to stand if necessary.
Touba is the city which is home to the largest brotherhood in Senegal, and therefore many car rapides, trucks, restaurants, barbers, etc. are named after it. Many car rapides and taxis also have pictures of one or more marabous (religious leaders) on the dash or in the back window. This one has it plastered to the middle of windshield.
I am not sure about the significance of the other designs. They vary somewhat from one car rapide to the next but there are recurring themes, such as the eyes. "Entreprise" is not a misspelling, it's French!
In this picture you can also see a man walking buy with a wheelbarrow, not an uncommon sight in any part of the city, and train tracks. Yes, the second largest artery into the city has to come to a halt when the train comes or goes. Fortunately the trains here tend to be very short and infrequent.
Here is just a mild taste of traffic. You see a flatbed truck, a car rapide, a bicycle, a scooter, a parked vehicle, and a bush taxi all trying to share a 2 lane road. And you better believe the two taxis are going to dart around the flatbed the first chance they get. The amazing thing is that there are no pedestrians in the picture. They are there on the right side of the flatbed, and probably walking in the road, but you can't see them.
All of the taxis, like the car rapides, have writing on them. Most thank a Marabou, Allah, or both. Most of them also have a thing hanging off the back bumper that looks like some kind of good-luck charm.
This is a boutique. Generally if you want to buy something other than fresh produce or meat, you go to one of these. It's like a general store but smaller, and it pretty much just contains food. "tigo" is one of the major telephone companies here. Apparently this boutique sells tigo phone cards. Instead of monthly plans, everyone here has pay-per-minute plans. The other major phone company is Orange. You can see one of their massive roundabout signs in the second picture (above the bush taxi).
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