Never Tailgate in Africa...

I think that I probably share these stories mostly just so that I don’t forget them. Usually something throughout the week will remind me of an experience I had in Ecuador or Kenya, and I try my best to remember it. So now I am going to ensure that I will remember it – at your expense! Don’t worry, this one isn’t too boring (I hope).

I think I have probably a dozen different stories about the matatus in Kenya. Basically a matatu is a public transportation van that runs just about everywhere and is the main mode of transportation to take people from point A to point B. Well, that is the theory of the matatu – the reality is a lot different from the theory. This is one of those realities.

I was in a matatu with about 15 other people traveling from the rural country back into Nairobi. I had probably one of the worst seats possible (very back in the middle), and I couldn’t really see anything going on around me. We had been driving for an hour or so on this old country road when all of a sudden we stopped. Right in the middle of the road, the driver just slams on the brakes and then he rushes out of the matatu. I had kind of been in a lull, but now I was wide awake – mainly because everyone was hurrying out of the matatu and screaming and yelling.

My first reaction was to be a cultural observer and just see what was going on. That is my was of saying I was a scared musungu (white person) who had absolutely no idea what was happening and didn’t want to get my camera stolen. But, really, I had no idea what was happening. As I think back, it was probably a pretty funny image. This wide-eyed musungu sitting in a frozen stupor of apprehension as all of the Kenyans flowed out of the matatu all around me yelling and screaming.

But finally I got out, too, to see what was going on. There was another car directly behind us, and our driver was talking to their driver. And by talking, I totally mean fighting. It was almost like there were two gangs: our matatu driver and passengers vs. this other driver and his friends. It was nuts. But they were fighting and yelling and screaming and it was pure chaos. I still didn’t really know what was going on.

When it finally ended, everyone just got back into the matatu. We all got back into our seats and started heading back to Nairobi. I leaned over to the guy next to me and was like, “What happened? Why did we just fight that car behind us? What in the world happened?” The man turned to me like what just happened was no big deal and just an everyday occurrence and said, “The man in the car was following too closely to us. Our driver did not like that.”

Lesson learned.