Thursday, March 8, 2007

When is Right - - - Wrong?

The answer to this question is simple . . . on Tanzania roads. But, wait . . . that is not necessarily true. While all vehicles are supposed to travel on the left side of the road, passing on the right, everyone seemed to use the whole road -- avoiding potholes wherever possible.

It seemed however, because traffic headed toward you on the right, that there would certainly be an accident because we are all used to traffic headed toward us on the left.

To pass the time we renamed overturned trucks as holy rollers.

There is new meaning to tight squeeze:
  • many people in the back seat of our vehicle
  • two few inches clearance between passing vehicles
  • bus capacity double or triple what it should be
  • passengers tightly packed inside, extra people occupying the luggage rack on top
  • no more room at the side of the road while skirting around the craters of the dirt highway
  • passing between a tractor-trailer and another truck stopped across from each other on a mountain hairpin curve.

We discovered that these trucks had been stuck in the middle of this road for two days after a rain storm. They were waiting for the sun to dry the road so they could continue their journey. We passed with very little room to spare -- the tight squeeze! No telling how long we would have been detained at this spot. We wondered if they would be gone by the time we returned. They were!

Sometimes it may be better to just sleep on long trips. It might be possible if you didn't have to hang on for dear life. Doubt if anyone could sleep at times such as this?

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