another post about the matatu. i could go on for days. i've had a huge bag of potatoes fall on me, sat with my legs propped over a bag of beans, had a ten year old boy on my lap, and a man's armpit literally on my head.
the other day we got kicked off before getting to our destination because not enough people were going there. awesome. when we were taking the younger kids to the clinic, we were kicked off because they weren't running anymore; there were too many police officers on the streets "ensuring" they meet safety standards. these things never meet safety standards. i have no idea how old these machines are, and they are only supposed to hold 14 passengers - it says so on the side of this ramshackle bus, and there are only 14 seats - but very rarely do they run with only 14 people on them. i found this slightly confusing, only because i've been on many a matatu that got pulled to the side of the road by the police and then took off without much conversation or any kind of ticket or anything. i later learned and then noticed that the driver hands the officer money, basically bribes the police officer not to ticket them. this is very common and also not a big deal. eric explained this to me as if it was as common as anything, and then he asked if we had this in america.
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