Monday, Nov 7

I have never seen as many taxis as there are here. But it is still impossible to get home at night. On Sunday night we were waiting at the university for over an hour. Tonight it was the same. We no longer have a driver for various reasons, so we don’t use the van. And the car is at the mechanic’s because of the crash, so it’s taxis and tro-tros. Tro-tros go on fixed routes and the few that go where we want to go at night always create a violent rush to get on that we avoid. Yesterday people were fighting over one so hard that the door fell off. There are two kinds of taxis: shared and dropping. Dropping ones are like taxis back home, except without meters, so you have to agree on a price beforehand. Shared ones go on fixed routes and only leave when they’re full. It is also impossible to find a taxi to take you where you want at night, even though they make up about 80% of the cars on the road. We made it to the university again tonight and waited for ages, finally biting the bullet and getting into a tro-tro going way further than we needed to. It dropped us off at our junction, but we had to pay the full fare, a premium of 400% of the normal fare. From now on, hopefully we’ll leave the office early when it’s easy to catch a tro-tro from downtown.

Today was spent at the office working on schedules and proposals. We are trying to get affiliation for our university of natural medicine with a school abroad. This would give us greater credibility and resources.
I might have to get my leg amputated. Well, probably not, but I did step in a puddle today in the market. It was dark so I didn’t see it, but I know what it looks like from having seen it in the day. Green. I shudder to think about it. I washed my foot at home, but it might be too late for me. I’ll keep you posted. That’s all for now.