Exploding Mini-bus

(Quickly, while the internet holds)

 

On Sunday, a colleague of mine took me on a tour of Addis.  Our mode of transportation?  Blue and white mini-bus taxis, the official public transportation here in Addis.  I'd already had the pleasure of riding in these aptly named "blue devils", but hadn't attempted to really navigate the city in them. 

 

The two of us set off from the guest house I'm staying in, and walked on foot to "la gare".  (I can't help it, "la gare" is what these impromptu transportation stations were called in Benin, and that's how I think of them in my head)  In each mini-bus there is a driver and an assistant.  The assistant takes your money and solicits customers by yelling the destination out the window.  La gare is semi-ordered chaos, with lots of noise as passengers walk around to find the appropriate bus. 

 

My guide for the day had narrowed down our choices when I heard a loud commotion, and found the source in time to see a mass of people throwing copious amount of water into one of the waiting buses.  "Are they cleaning it?  Dousing a drunk passenger, too far gone to get out of the bus at his stop?"  That's what ran through my head.

 

Nope, the bus had exploded, and then caught on fire.  "It may be a battery issue, because otherwise, it looks normal", was our driver's response as my guide and I scooted into the front seat of our mini-bus.  Trying not to convey my misgivings, I jokingly asked my guide if he thought it was idea that we were sitting up front, so close to the location of potential explosions. 

 

On our next bus, the only seats availabe were in the very back.  I continued with the day's theme, commenting that if this bus exploded, at least we would be able to get out through the back. 

 

Explosions aside (and, to be fair, this appears to have been a rare event), this was a great way to see the city.  Each ride was about 10 or 20 US cents... a steal when you think that a tour of the city in a small, "regular" taxi can be upwards of $20, and took me to places in the city I'm sure I'd never see on a tour intended for "Farengis".  For example, the slaughterhouse district of Addis, where all of the meat that is consume in the city arrives in the form of real, live livestock. You can tell you're entering this district even if you're upwind (because if you're downwind, there's no escaping that fact)-- vultures cover all of the rooftops, and the ground seems like it's moving, with all of the scavengers there eating the castoffs. 

 

One of favorite stops was Piazza, one of the older sections of town, and one of the areas we actually got out and walked around to see a bit of the quarter.  There was a line two blocks long for the cinema.  I was tempted to try to wait and see what the movie was, but we had an agenda!

 

Other stops on our tour: Mexico, the Stadium, Meskel Square, and a really beautiful overlook of the countryside to the Southeast of the city.

--
"Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and
wings." –- Hodding Carter