Bush Taxis

In my emails I've complained a lot about the predominant mode of transportation here, bush taxis. They consist of either large VW-style vans, known as 15-placers, smaller vans known as 9-placers, or station wagons or sedans known as 5-placers, for the number of people that are supposed to be seated in them. So for instance in a 5-placer, 3 or 4 people would sit in the back seat and one or 2 in the front. In practice tho it doesn't really work that way, as no one "respects the places" as they say in French. So that means in a 5-placer you can get someone sharing the front seat with the driver (!!), people in the trunk, 6 or more people across a row in a van. The other interesting thing about the taxis is how much stuff people try to cram onto them or to bring with inside the car. So animals often ride on top of the car or inside of it with you. Or people buy tons of large yams or firewood and try to tie as much on to the top of the car as possible (Or, in the picture here, about 20 1970s-era typewriters, which added to a bed frame and all of the baggage for the 19 or so passengers in the 15-placer). In addition to being trying because of the uncomfortable seating arrangements, the trips are often incredibly slow for a variety of reasons, including vehicle breakdowns (often multiple times in one trip), the driver slowing down in the hopes of finding more passengers along the road and police checkpoints.