Motorbikes

Everyone here seems to have a motorbike, and drive like a mad person. When I asked if you have to take a test, everyone laughed and said you only have to be 15. They drive on the left side of cars on the right side, on the right side of the road on the left side of the road. Some bikes look like they were built 100 years ago while some are brand new. You can always tell after a pile of 30 bikes are waiting at a red light whose bike is newer. The new bikes start up faster, but then sometimes there are the bikes with two adults and three children dangling onto it which might have new bikes but just a heavier load. I haven’t driven yet, but sitting in the back you are constantly stressing about knocking your knees against the car driving way too close to you.

This morning when it was raining it was even worse since Africans are not used to the rain it was like a huge race to get to the location you wanted as fast as possible. Children by the sides of the road were hiding under their mother’s dresses. Women were putting on shawls. This rain was not a torrential down pour mainly just a light sprinkle so I can only imagine what people do when it really rains.

One guy today was carrying I think about a hundred bottles of mustard in front of him on his bike. I don’t know how he saw around it but he managed to not hit anything from what I saw.

On my drive to the house we drive down the market place and it is full of people sitting and walking and talking and driving down the street is the most stressful part of my day and I’m not driving.

Having this crotch rocket under you is another form of heat as well, which is not something I’m encouraging. It also vibrates so much my butt goes numb.

People use old sleeping eye patches that you get on an airplane and put them upside down to cover their mouth and nose while riding their bikes. I don’t know where they get them but they all look like old air France eye patches.

I also just discovered tonight while I was sitting outside that the place where I toss my left over water is where some people go to the bathroom. I’m really happy I discovered this by watching and not opening the door, but on the other hand I wish someone had told me, I will be very careful in tossing the water to make sure it doesn’t splash up onto me.

Food has been very difficult for me here. The biggest reason is that it is so hot, I will do anything to not turn on the stove. But after 5 straight days of yogurt and mangoes I started to need something else. There is a lunch spot at work where this stubby little woman cooks about 50 meals a day. And if you don’t reserve a meal at 9 am all the food is gone. Today I reserved two meals. One for here and one to go, both plates of pasta with sauce. I was able to bring it home. She also gave me half of a baguette with the pasta. So now I can have cooked food for dinner and bread and jam for breakfast. Just to give you an idea of money here. I bought two larger lunches for 1000 CFA. For that money I ate lunch, dinner, breakfast, another dinner and one more breakfast, so 5 meals for the coast equal to 14 SEK (Swedish) which equals about $2. Big spender.