Ms. Piggy Takes the Bus

There are already 10 confirmed cases of swine flu in the Philippines . Congressmen are not even concerned because they are immune to this, so its safe for them to horde all the pork barrels. They can use it again for the next Pacquio fight. As of now, here in Tanzania we don’t have any idea if the flu infected someone. I’m not even sure if they are testing it . If somebody already died of the Mexican flu, he probably was misdiagnosed with malaria or something. If it truly comes here, then it would be a great timing for us to exercise the evacuation plan of the office. Yippee! The flu will surely plague the whole country in a matter of hours, especially if the infected person rides one of those dalas going around. With all the people inside at a given time. Even more space can be forced if all the passengers inside have still room to breath. All it would take is one sneeze and everything would fall down, even the walls of these mini buses, being rusty and dilapidated. Good thing that there is no Goat flu and chicken flu, because these comfortable dalas are the best place to get them. Yep! Goats and chickens are also passengers who needs to pay for the space they are occupying under the seats. The fun part starts on getting a ride. Unless you are in a bus station where you can get in immediately , but if you are standing by the road and trying to wave for a ride, the very efficient dala will stop a 100meters away from where you are .Then you need to push and shove everybody just to get in. Finding a seat is not really an issue. I don’t know if its better to stand up on your toes all the way to your destination (usually 4 hours travel or more) or sit with all the asses in your face while the chickens are pecking your feet, plus some moms putting their crying children to your lap hoping that you won’t protest and throw them away the window. Then the sacrifice of going down. There will be a stampede especially if it stops in a place where there are many passengers waiting. With all the people standing in the aisle and people rushing to get in and out at the same time .Its always faster to get out of the window going down which I did twice already, having my big ice boxes and sitting at the back of the bus. Its always exciting because the driver is always seems in a rush leaving your bus stop. Contrary to that, they always take their time drinking their tea in Mnazi moja,(an hour or more depending on their mood)while all the passengers are waiting inside the bus which is parked under the sun. The dalas are such a convenient public transport, good thing they don’t allow pigs in there and congressmen too.