Monday, December 27, 2010

Chapa Rides

Okay so I have mentioned this word Chapa in a number of different blogs of mine, but I don’t think I have taken the time to elaborate on what it really is. A Chapa is a Toyota mini van that has a front seat that fits the driver and 2 other people and four back seat benches. Each of the benches are made to fit 3 people but they put four and usually as many babies and chickens as well. Also the driver has what’s called a cobrador who collects money and sticks his head out of the window to yell their route and fill up the Chapa and so he will sit on the fist bench directly behind the front seats and control the door and stand hunched over if there is no room on the bench – other people will stand too if there isn’t room so basically they just jam it until they can’t close the door, sometimes the chapa is so old that the door doesn’t really even close and so the cobrador just holds it shut. I have a love hate relationship with these chapas (they have the same thing in Uganda as well so I have ridden in my fair share of these Toyota vans) I love them because all of my best stories stem from riding in a chapa, however I hate them because they take so much more time and make you feel like you are in a corset, straight jacket or can of sardines the entire ride…On Sunday on the way back from the beach it was raining, which made belay-ing not an option and so myself and two other volunteers had to take chapas back. We stopped to have in Xai-Xai town before heading back and I had the rest of my lunch in a box ready to take home. As I stopped to situate myself in my rain jacket and such I forgot to pick up my food, but didn’t remember until we got on the chapa. But because we were the first handful of people on the chapa the driver had to drive up and down town waiting for people who were ready to go to our same destination this took a good 45 minutes and in the meantime I was trying to accept the fact that I would not be seeing my Indian leftovers anytime in the near future. But then to my surprise we happened to turn around in the dirt lot next to where I left my food and to my surprise it was sitting on the table right where I left it! So the chapa stopped and left me get out and grab it before we went on our journey that took much longer than the hour and a half journey I took a few days prior…

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