Transport

Long have I awaited this momentous post. That's probably why I haven't ever done it, and also why the next 45 minutes is probably not going to be enough time for me to write it now. Public transportation here is unlike anything you have ever seen stateside. I did post some pictures a while back showing the decorations on car rapides and taxis. When I first got here it took a while just to adjust to the idea of hand-painted words all over cars. I thought only high-schoolers did that!

I have now spent enough time in the capital that I have tried nearly every type of public transportation. There are taxis, which can be anything from a 2008 Iranian-built "local" model to a gigantic Mercedes with no suspension that predates me by nearly two decades. If you imagine the cars that the lower middle class (like my family) drove 10 years ago,  that is the typical taxi. Late-80s Toyota Corollas and Carinas might be the best-represented models in the city.

And yes, they have been driven into the ground. Once three of them have been driven into the ground the guys take them apart, trade out bad parts for less bad ones (or clever substitutes), and put two of the cars back on the road with a fresh coat of paint. As for niceties like rear seatbelts, window handles, door handles, door seals, etc... they just get removed when they don't work anymore. Who needs them anyway?

All of the official taxis are yellow and black (with decorations, of course!). Then there are "clandos" who do their work unofficially. Apparently not all of them are illegal anymore. Out in the village all you can get is clandos like the one in the photo.

Car rapides. They are old delivery vans that have been completely stripped out and converted into mobile sardine cans. I once counted 29 people in a vehicle that probably has the same wheelbase as a regular 12 passenger van. You can see an interesting documentary here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZjD9QrMR7Y&feature=related. As long as you don't mind grandma sitting halfway on your lap and putting her vegies under your feet, they are a fantastic way to get around town (well, certain parts of it anyway) for very, very cheap. They cost less than a 10th of what a taxi costs.

The amazing 7-place. These are old peugeot 505s that never die. The back seat was clearly made for the youngest children in the family. If you are more than 5'5" tall your knees will be wedged up against the seat in front of you. My poor roommate, who is probably 6'3", had to ride in back once and he vows he will never do it again. He doesn't like that bird-in-the-shell feeling. I only rode one 7 place and it was only for a few minutes. That was a relief because I too was in the back seat and it was raining- both outside and inside- because of a missing window seal.

And then there are Ndiaga Ndiayes, which are the same basic idea as a Car Rapide but bigger. They go between cities. The seating inside is similar to a conventional bus but there is no passenger door in the front (just in the back) and there are fold-up seats in the isle to maximize the capacity. Like in the car rapides, major baggage goes on the roof. Sometimes you can see a Ndiaga Ndiaye that is nearly twice it's normal height because of baggage. Once in a while you see one careening down the road (suspension is a rare commodity) with two dozen guys up on the roof banging on drums and yelling. I'm still not sure what that's about. I think it might be a religious group. Either that or soccer fans, which are arguably a religious group of their own rite.


Finally, there are the "official" buses like the one in the photo. Some run set routes within the capital city and some run between cities. The price for the in-city buses is slightly more than the car rapides but they make fewer stops so they are usually a little bit faster. Like any other vehicles, though, they frequently get stuck in traffic. That, combined with rather liberal timekeeping, means that a bus can easily be an hour late. The only time I tried to take one I had to sit at the bus stop for at least 45 minutes before it showed up. If you want to get somewhere more or less on time you need to take a car rapide. There are so many of them that you usually don't have to wait very long.

That takes care of transportation in the city. But once you get out in the country, everything changes. Any vehicle going between two points becomes a potential taxi. As long as there is an open seat, someone will pay to fill it. The village where I stayed is between a major city and a smaller one that finds itself on the main highway across the country. On the road between these two towns are four or five villages. Many people from the villages work or go to school in the major city or want to sell goods on the main highway, but none of them own vehicles.

Most days aren't a problem. There is enough traffic going back and forth, and enough guys driving clandos, that you don't usually have to wait more than 10 or 15 minutes for a ride.  Some days though, especially on a major M holiday, you can be sitting there for an awfully long time.

SO, that is an overview. That's all I have time for tonight. Next blog I'll share some stories from my various rides on public transportation.