Transportation around africa is a completely unique adventure -- and often, we spend an entire day just getting from one place to another.
Here are some new modes of transportation that we've encountered over the past week:
Matatu -
These are shared taxis. for those of you who are familiar with the sherut in israel, that's the closest thing I can think of to compare. the only difference is, that not only does the driver wait until the van is full to move, but they also cram as many people as possible in at one time. (parents - don't worry - there are seatbelts, and the authorities are sticklers about them - but seemingly not about passenger limits in vehicles). Just to give you an idea, on any given ride, you can have 25 people squeezed into a 14 passenger van.
Boda Boda --
These are bicycles with padded seats on top of the rack on the back of the bike. young men make a living giving rides around town to business people, older women, and tourists. the best ride that we took so far on the boda bodas was in Kakamega Forrest. three guys picked us up -- one for me, one for Chaim, & one for our packs. They rode us out of the forrest to the town of khayega about a 50 min. ride in total (from where we immediately hopped into a matatu headed to Kisumu).
Buses -
Yesterday we tried out our first bus. We thought that it might be a good move because by and large, the roads all around Kenya are in horrible shape and any trip over an hour is quite a bumpy, uncomfortable experience. the logic was, with the bus so much higher off the ground and all the potholes, might cusion the blow of each bump. we were wrong. plus, the three hour bus ride from kisumu to homa bay (where we are now) stopped approx. every 7.5 min. to pick up/drop off passengers in these tiny back water towns along the coast of Lake Victoria. along with multiple passengers (way more than there were seats) we were also constantly picking up and dropping off belongings. Items included furniture, crops, goats (no joke - 3 of them in the boot of the bus!), luggage and anything else you can think of.
Taxis -
There are also these funny little taxis - more like go-carts with three wheels. they are a quick way to get around a city onve you've arrived. the only one we've ridden so far has been when we arrived in kisumu and were so overwhelmed with all the people that were jumping to help take our bags and maybe us - that we figured it was a safe move to just jump in the taxi and high tail it out of there.
