This is my seventh trip to Africa, and many sights that are totally unknown in the western world are now quite familiar to me. Seeing three, four or five people on the back of a motorbike is perfectly normal. Bikes and trucks that are so laden that it’s barely possible to see the actual vehicle? An every day sight. People (mostly women) walking with amazing loads balanced on their heads? Not at all surprising.
Markets where goods of all kinds are spread out along the roadside are common, as (sadly) are roadside tips where all kinds of rubbish is piled up, attracting scavengers of both the human and animal varieties.
One thing that has always appealed to me as typically Africa is that the roads are always throbbing with life. At home, our roads are barren – all life is either locked up in cars or contained behind fences. Here, no matter where you are there are always people walking along the road (and often on the road.) Herds of cattle, sheep and goats straggle along the roadside. Life is everywhere. (Incidentally, this was one of the first differences that Adams noticed when he visited Australia – he commented several times on the lack of people walking anywhere.)
Another thing that has struck me is just how African the culture of the Bible is. In the Mosaic law there is provision that farmers should not go over their crops a second time after the harvest, but should leave the gleanings for the poor. On my last visit I saw this in practice, as many poor people invaded a field to gather whatever they could of the leftovers from the harvest.
Donkey carts and ox carts, which have been used for millennia, are still used today, in many cases modified only by the substitution of modern tyres for the traditional wooden wheels.
On the subject of transport, motor bikes, known here in Kenya as “boda boda” are everywhere, and are a cheaper alternative to taxis. They were originally used for smuggling goods across the borders (“boda”), hence the name. Not so plentiful here in Kenya, but everywhere in Malawi, are the three-wheeled modified bikes known here as tuk-tuks.
As I said, all these sights of Africa have become very familiar to me. But there are still occasional things that make me shake my head and ask myself, “Did I really see that?”
The most confronting of those on this trip was a body-shaped parcel, wrapped in black plastic, tied on top of a bus. Adams told me that yes, it was exactly what it looked like – a human body, being taken somewhere (probably the person’s home village) for burial. I am far from superstitious, but I don’t think I would have felt very comfortable travelling in that bus!
Then there was the guy on a motor bike who passed us with two live pigs in a crate on the back of the bike. They were tied upside down so that they could not escape, and did not look like happy little piggies.
Or the other motor bike rider who passed us with a full-sized 3-seater couch strapped sideways across the back seat of his bike. The general attitude seems to be, “if you can get it on the bike, and the bike is still able to move, go for it!”
Then there was this morning. We went to do some Christmas shopping. The area is a narrow street, with shops on both sides, market stalls on the footpath, and boda-bodas lined up along the side of the road, leaving barely room for two cars to pass each other. We were driving along one side when down the other side comes a massive truck, needing the whole width of the road to be able to get through. Boda-bodas hurriedly moved out of the way so that we could pull over to avoid being side-swiped.
Ah my Africa! You can still surprise me – and not always in the most pleasant ways.