Transportation

This is a car rapide, which is not really rapide, though it's much faster than the bus. It is the way I get home from school every day which is a pain because during rush hour they are super crowded. No matter how crowded the car is, they will almost always stop to let people on. When its too crowded some people will hang off the back or even ride on top in the rural areas. Normally they don't let girls ride on the back, but one day it was really hot and I wanted to so I insisted. After arguing for about a minute the "apprenti" (the guys who hang off the back to collect money) finally let me stay, and it was so much nicer than sitting in the stuffy car. At the end of the ride he said I was now and apprenti.

In general, driving here is crazy and there are basically no rules. I asked Victoria (the person in charge of our program who is American but has been living in Senegal for the past six years) if she had to get a drivers license in Senegal and she said no, so I said "oh your american one works" and she replied "I hope so." I realized how ridiculous my question was because there is certainly no such thing as a speeding ticket here or any other kind of ticket for that matter. I don't want to know what constitutes bad enough driving for a ticket here...

Here are some of my greatest public transportation moments:

1. One time I took a taxi to an ice cream place by my friends house. We were on the busy/highway-ish road and he missed the round about that let us turn around to get off at the other side. We said it was fine to get off on this side and he said "no it's okay" and then just made a you turn right over the median. Side walks are more like guide lines for cars, they are basically aloud to drive wherever there car is physically able. 

2. My car rapide was once rear ended by another car and the two drivers just got out and started yelling at each other for a while then kept going. No one called the police or collected information, they didn't even pull over. 

3. Multiple times my taxi has just pulled over randomly on some road to fix the car in some way, like check the oil or tighten the tires. The best was this one time where it was really hot but we couldn't roll down the window. We asked the driver if it was broken or if we were just doing it wrong. He said "oh okay, one minute" and turned the car around. He drove about 4 minutes and then randomly pulled over to where a guy was sitting on the side of the road and the driver handed the guy a 1000 cfa (2$). Then guy the physically forced the window down with his hand and then the taxi turned back around and kept driving. We kept saying it was the Senegalese version of pepboys.

There are also some really cool things that you see in public transportation that show a lot about the culture here. For example, the following things are very normal to see on a bus or car rapide:

1. If you are standing up and you are holding a bag people who are sitting down will offer to hold your bags for you

2. Whenever someone with kids gets on the bus other people will hold their kids on their lap while the person buys tickets, or even for the remainder of the ride

3. If you are standing up on a car rapide and there is even the smallest inch of room on one of the benches, people will tell you to come sit down. 

4. If you are at the opposite end of a crowded bus from the ticket man it is normal to just pass your money up to the guy and then they will pass down your ticket and your change.

I will add more moments as I remember them / as they happen!