I'd Like to Line Up Please

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                                            I need to get used to not having to queue up for things.

Line Taxis

Mike and I have started using line taxis as a mode of transport.  Line taxis are blue mini buses that can hold any number of people.  It’s quite a cozy ride.  There is not really a fixed route and the system works like this: a young boy hangs out of a window, yelling out a destination at an extremely rapid rate.  The mini bus comes to a rolling stop and if you want to board the bus, it’s a mad scramble to get into the small bus and get a seat.  The idea of lining up and entering the bus in an orderly fashion is a no go.  Budding and gentle shoving to get to the front is the order of the day. 

I have to restrain myself from behaving like a 5 year old and yelling “it’s not fair, I was here first, I should be able to get on the bus and not have to wait in the pouring rain for another bus”.  I think I find the whole thing irksome, because since the age of 5, it’s been drilled into our heads that budding in line is a very serious violation of some unwritten moral code.  Perhaps we should allow kids in kindergarten to bud in line, in order to prepare them for these kinds of things in their adult life.

My book and unused deposit slip

I recently opened up a bank account.  This was another exercise of forms and photos. I now have a bank account at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.   My bank book comes complete with a photo of myself (I guess in the event that I can’t identify my book or myself). 

The only problem is that I have not yet been able to make a deposit.  I’ve tried twice.   I show up when I am told to, fill in the deposit form and wait for a teller to appear.   Within a millisecond of the teller appearance, there is a mad rush of bank books flying into a pile in front of the teller.  And then you wait some more, hoping that your book gets to the top of the pile.   And then you get told that the teller is going away, please take your book and come    back “later”.  I need to sort out how to get my book to the top of the pile.

 I would really just like to line up and wait my turn.

Kids and Wondesa

A few words from Aysha and Sunil:  We have started taking taxis by ourselves.  Our favourite taxi drivers are Wondesa and Biruk.  We went to a fancy reception for the VSO volunteers at the British Embassy.  Who would have thought that the fanciest thing I have been to would be in Ethiopia.    The line taxis are not as bad as we thought.