My guide took me first to see one of the new government buildings in town. It was near the river, so we got off the minibus we had taken from the SIL center and walked across the river on the bridge. From there, we could see all of the gardening that was being done on the low-lying areas that the river will flood in another month or two—lots of manioc and some plants whose leaves are used in the sauces that are served with the staple food, called “boule” (pronounced pretty much like the English word “bull”).
From there we traveled to the university where my guide is a student studying linguistics, except that the faculty has been on strike since January, so he’s kind of stuck in his efforts to get his degree. The university is in the process of combining its schools, currently located on several small campuses, onto one large campus. Funding for the construction has apparently run out for the time being because there is a lot of planned construction that is not happening. That fact may be related to the strike or it may not; I don’t know.
The university is way out of town, so it was late morning by the time we got back into the heart of downtown. At that point, we continued on to the main downtown market for one last visit. While there, it began to rain, so we took shelter under the awning of one of the booths. Unfortunately, we discovered that the rainwater ran downhill toward our chosen shelter location, pooling to a depth of an inch or two. The rain lasted the better part of an hour, but we ventured out again before it was quite finished. While en route to our next destination, the rain became heavier again, so we ended up returning home quite wet.
With all of the places we visited and especially because of the large open spaces between existing buildings at the university, I walked several more miles today, adding to the exercise I got in yesterday’s outing.
There are three forms of public transportation that I’ve seen here, and I’ve personally experienced two of them, having been warned not to avail myself of the other one. There are taxis (painted yellow) that you can pay 20 cents to get picked up and dropped off anywhere along their assigned route or that you can hire to take you some specific place you want to go to, in which case the amount you’ll pay is to be negotiated. There are motorcycles that serve as taxis for an individual at a reduced fare; I’ve been told not to take those, since there are apparently many accidents where they are involved. And there are minivans, which my guide and I traveled in many times yesterday and today. It is quite an interesting experience to travel in one of these, so I’d like to tell you about it.
First of all, these “minivans” aren’t necessarily like what you might be imagining when you read that name. These are Toyota minivans from the 1990’s (I’m guessing), so they are smaller than what I at least picture when I think of a “minivan”. Furthermore, all of the seats except the front two have been removed and the resulting space filled with four padded “bench seats.” (These are literally *bench* seats, though they do have a back to them, like what we think of as “bench seats.”) Each of these benches is used to seat four people, even though the space is only adequate for three people from a Western perspective. In addition, there is another set of four seats immediately behind the driver and the front passenger seat; these seats face toward the rear of the vehicle. Now if you do the math and take into account the fact that a third person is squeezed in between the gearshift and the front passenger seat, you realize that the operational capacity of this type of vehicle is 23!! And there were multiple times when I did indeed count that many adults inside one of the vehicles I was riding in. However, considering that each of us was paying only 20 cents for the ride of several miles, I guess it is only fair that they try to pack in as many people as they possibly can.
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