Taxis…

We asked our friend Jonathan to take us to town and show us the way of the taxi. He obliged. I asked him to show us the real taxi, not the White-dignitary taxi. Last weekend a Nigerian JETS colleague took us to town to by our phones and the only way to get there is by taxi. The price seems a bit steep, 250N each way. I asked Jonathan about it later and he explained that our host paid the taxi extra to not pick up any one else.

Normally taxis pick up as many as they can fit in the car, which normally means two passengers in the front passenger seat and 4 squeezed in the back. Please understand these cars are sub-compacts by US standards!

Well back to our story, today we rode in normal taxis. Heading to town we were fortunate, there was only one passenger in the front and the 3 of us in the rear. No problem… luxury at 40N (34 cents) each!

On the way home we filled the taxi… Mike and I nestled into the front bucket seat; Jonathan squeezed into the back with 3 others. Whenever the driver shifted into first I felt it!

And please don’t think of the official taxis of NYC or any other major town. Instead picture a jalopy, dented and bruised! Ours had 3 major cracks in the windshield… and look like it survived last weekend’s demolition derby!

One other curious fact about taxis… say you are driving to work and you want a little extra cash, when someone sticks out their hand looking for a taxi, just pull over and have him climb in! Any car can be a taxi.