Taking the Taxis

One of the ways of getting a true ‘african’ experience is by taking one of the local minibus taxis- the longer the journey the better! Over the last few weeks I have taken quite a few so I thought I would share a few stories.

The minibuses are licensed to carry 18 passengers, two in the front cab next to the driver, then 4 on each row of seats in the back, and if you are unlucky you get the ‘seat’ which is the gap between the fixed and fold down seats. It’s quite a squash, particularly if anyone has children or luggage with them, and gets very hot and sweaty.

The mentality of the drivers and conductors is a ‘full taxi means more money’. This means they will stop anywhere to pick people up, wait for people sauntering down the road, or reverse to collect them, squashing a few extra people in, and the conductor will get out to round people up to get on the taxi, who I’m sure had no intention of travelling anywhere! This was taken to the extreme last week when I got on a taxi along with about 6 other people on the edge of a town to go to the next town. A bit further along the road we stopped again and picked up a few more people, but as the taxi was not full the driver decided to turn around and drive back into the centre of the town (about 5 mins away) to see if he could find more passengers. Eventually the taxi filled up and we set off again. I’m not convinced the extra fares would have covered the cost of the petrol to make the detour!

To let the driver know you want to get off, you knock on the roof and pay the conductor. The fare depends on how far you have travelled- how they remember who got on where and how much the fare should be, amazes me.

Another time I got an express taxi from Kigali. It was scheduled to leave at 5pm but was sitting in the garage for at least 20 minutes before and slowly filled up with passengers. It left on time but only got 10m up the road before it pulled into a garage and parked up on a hill. The driver got out, pulled out several tools and proceeded to change one of the tyres with a workman from the garage – whilst all the passengers remained sitting inside. Why they hadn’t done it in the time before it was scheduled to leave when there weren’t any passengers on board, I have no idea.

There are many other stories I could tell you…. The locals always find it intriguing when a mzungu is on the taxi and an opportunity to practice their English. I have met some interesting people, and had some good conversations as well as declarations of love and marriage proposals!