A late night taxi road home made for a cramped ride when 25 people were in a 15 person van.
There are generally two staff in a 15 person van. The driver, who drives, obviously, as well as a second person who does everything else. Sitting behind the driver, they open the sliding door, organize passengers, look out the window to alert the driver either when to drop off, or pick up passengers, as well as deals with the money. The cabs go over long distances, and like buses in Victoria, the have a start and stop point, and the right cab gets the passenger where they are going. Distance matters, going from Village A to village B costs a certain amount, while A to F costs more. The taxi I take from Kyetume to Masaka generally costs 4000 shilling (I'm being overcharged, but as a mezungu it's to be expected). This is less than 2 dollars for a 40km cab ride. It costs approximately 15,000 shillings to get to Kampala, which is about seven dollars for a 4 hour drive.
When taxis are at over capacity people cram in beside each other, or in some cases sit on top of each other. I had a man behind me standing and leaning over me, while a person in front of me sat on the secondary worker. The problem I have with the taxi is that I am so tall that my head hits the ceiling, and my legs push into the seats in front of me, regardless of how I sit.
No comments:
Post a Comment