Taxi Rides

Riding around Gaborone in a taxi is an interesting experience. First, there are all kinds of people to meet. We’ve had drivers ranging from a young woman with a master’s degree in social work who had travelled to China and Thailand for business to a young man who is waiting to go back to school for IT work but who dreams of opening a poultry farm and a cattle farm, to an older man who says he came to Gabs in 1985 and looks it. The vehicles themselves are interesting and varied too. We’ve ridden in cars that would look right at home in the US, complete with a back-up-camera and a color screen music player and other cars with seats that always leaned back and wouldn’t lock in position and a rear wheel that constantly scraped against the side of the car. Then there’s the driving conditions. In general Botswana has fairly well laid-out streets and signals and the rules are generally followed…until major traffic hits and then all bets are off. We’ve driven on the margins of the road, along a dirt strip somewhat paralleling the road but obviously not meant to be driven on, and even up the wrong side of the road only to jolt back across and make a right hand turn in front of a waiting line of cars. For those of you who haven’t had experience driving with locals internationally, it’s an eye opener.

~Tim