Getting a ride back to Kalkfeld

I looked at the pictures below and thought- What in the world?!  

Then I remembered. I took the pictures to remind me to tell you the story of why I am now a confirmed believer in the joy and luxury of public transportation.  

There are some experiences you just can't photograph and some feelings you just can't capture in photos or words.  But I will give it a try because I need to share it.  It was a unique and intimidating on many levels.

I have driven and had access to a car since I was 16.  (In my family with lots of kids and activities the oldest (me) got my license, a car, all the siblings, and responsibility to take over "Mom's Taxi" duty early.)  Being a driver has its own worries- safety of vehicle, good driving, other drivers, road hazards, being sure not to run out of gas, being able to deal with a blow out... but what if you don't have transportation?

The adventure of going to the Assembly continued... Getting back to Kalkfeld was the new challenge.  Windhoek is a four hour drive from Kalkfeld. (Of course that is if you drive the speed limit).  Nobody was willing or available to make the 7 to 8 hour round trip drive to come and get me even if I paid them.  

There is no public transportation in Namibia, and "Greyhound" doesn't go to Kalkfeld.  If it goes to Otjiwarango (50 miles from Kalkfeld) it is very occasionally (once a week?), and you must have advance reservations, from what people have told me.  (Actually it could be only from Windhoek to Swakopmund (4 hours from Kalkfeld on the coast) and then you have to get another bus from Swakopmund to Otjiwarango.)

I thought I had a ride back with a church member on Saturday but it turned out he changed his mind and decided to go next Thursday- a week from today.  There are no hotel, bed and breakfast, or any other beds available in Windhoek until Tuesday.  I can't stay another night much less another week. 

So I called for help.  Take a taxi is the answer. 

You might think taking a taxi is a quick fix. But I have never taken a taxi alone - there has always been someone with me- safety in numbers.  And it is usually a relatively short trip- to the airport.  And here it is not like the movies of the streets of New York where there are hundreds of yellow cabs whizzing by and you step out on the curb and raise your arm and an empty taxi stops and picks you up and whisks you to where ever you choose to go.

Instead, you ask help from the B & B people and they help you get a taxi (which may or may not have any identifying marks as a taxi) to a place that they have told you about.  It is a dirt lot on the outskirts of the city where there is a sign saying no parking and no taxis.  So of course this is where the taxis going to other parts of Namibia gather.  The drivers are assertive and come up and say (or shout over each other) the name of the town they will drive to.  Sometimes there are two or three of them coming and fighting for the fare.  They seem to work it out among themselves somehow.

The winner comes and helps you put your bags in his trunk.  He indicates the flat fee, and by opening the door that you should get in the back seat.  You get in and sit and wait.

Other taxis come and park in front and behind you.  You wonder how the driver will get out.  You wonder where the driver went.  You sit and wait in the car in the middle of the Namibia day.  It is hot.  But you have been smart enough to carry water with you.  (Little need for bathrooms here as you sweat it all out- sorry to be crass but I am trying to share the experience in a realistic way)

Forty five minutes later a woman comes and gets in the back seat with you.  She says hello and smiles but that is all the English she knows and you don't know her language.  After thirty minutes a man comes and sits in the front passenger seat.  He says hello in English and then talks with the woman in her language.

  The three of you sit and wait.  After another thirty minutes the driver comes and gets in and an a second woman climbs in the back seat with you.  She says hello to the other two passengers in a third language, and since you are sitting very close to each other and she speaks English, you are able to strike up a short conversation.  

The driver somehow maneuvers the car out of the jammed lot and without a word drives you two hours to a parking lot on the outskirts of Okahandja.  You repeat the same steps.  

The next driver takes you the two hours to Otjiwarango.  This time you repeat the same steps in a gas station parking lot so you have a chance to grab a drink and bathroom and off you go the 50 miles to Kalkfeld.  

After six 1/2 hours, (three and a half hours driving FAST and three hours waiting-for a four hour drive) the driver leaves you out in front of the Roadhouse with your suitcase.  Luckily it is only a 10 minute walk to a church member's house where you can rest and get a ride the rest of the way.

It turns out, the reason you had to sit and wait for the taxi driver each time was he was trying to line up four fares because if he doesn't have a full taxi, it costs too much to make the drive.  So at each leg of the trip, all the people in the taxi wait until the driver gets a full taxi.  If he can't he will cancel the trip completely and wait until the next day.

So how do people get around in Namibia if they do not have a car, a friend with a car, or need to go when they cannot wait for a taxi driver?  They "hike."  Hitch hike.  My mother threatened my life if I ever do that.  I wonder, now that she is in heaven and can see everything I do, what punishment would she give?  Or would she be a guardian angel and protect me from all the dangers she told me would come from hitch hiking, and the snakes and hot sun of Namibia?  

I pray for the people "hiking."  I pray for the drivers because they barely make a living and so they drive too fast and take chances at night in the dark with animals running across the road.  I pray for the passengers at the mercy, and in the hope of good, drivers in their vehicle and the others.  

I pray that people don't drink and drive.  

I say prayers of thanks for people dedicated to keeping the drivers and passengers safe (police, vehicle inspectors, mechanics, road engineers and repair personnel.)  I am thankful for having had the resource of a vehicle my whole life- those my parents provided out of their hard earned money and those I had to sweat to make the payments and pay the insurance on!  And those who have given me rides here in Southern Africa; taxi drivers and all the others who made special trips so I didn't have to take a taxi, and for those who are dedicated to developing dependable, safe public transportation- a true luxury and a now for me a joy.