The morning commute

Everyone always dreads the morning commute to work. All of the traffic, waking up early and those crazy people you can’t help but yell at from your car who cut in a swerve.

Well my commute to work is a little different. It starts by me walking down to the boat. Shoving the boat off of the banks and then hoping it starts as I slowly start drifting down stream. Then I have to monuver around the crocodiles, hippos, turtles and giant water hyasin plants (that can get caught in the engine and cause havic). After crossing the river I have to tie up the boat on to the dock making sure the engine end is tied well in case a freak storm rolls in I don’t want it to drown our engine.

Once the river crossing part it through I have to wait for my bike taxi. What is a bike taxi you may ask, well it is a bicycle with a cushion on the luggage rack. So once the bike taxi arrives, you climb on to the back, inches away from the man that is pushing the bike. More often than not, the man pushing can’t weight more than 110 pounds and if you’re lucky he is young and fit; however, you don’t want the pusher too young because then you have a 10 year old pushing me on a bike which has happened.

After I climb onto the bike we are off through the national park. Most days we see the occasional monkey or baboon stealing a coconut or playing around on a dead tree however the day we all fear is the day we cross the elephants on their way to the river. When elephants are on the path, there is nothing you can do but wait and pray you are unnoticed. But that has only happened once.
The bike taxi ride in total is only about 10-15 minutes depending on heat and fitness level of the bike taxi driver. This is great time to practice my Chichewa and amuse all the village children. Then I arrive at the school and about 8 hours later do the trek back home.