Travels by Taxi-Brousse

I just came back from a short trip to see some friends and feel compelled to write about my travel experience. I think the traveling experience is similar in other developing nations so anyone who has lived/worked in a developing nation can probably relate to this.

First of all, where I live is known as the “black hole” amongst Peace Corps volunteers and staff in country. As a Raiders fan living in the “black hole” makes me happy. It's where I belong. Also, as I've stated in past posts, I love where I live. I love my town and the people in it and it is gorgeous here. That being said, it is known as the “black hole” because of how hard it is to get out of. For me the pull comes from two things. One is that, while I was away for a couple days, I greatly missed my site and new friends. I thought about them often and wanted to get back quickly. The second is that the roads to my site are pretty awful.

I live right outside of a town called Befandriana. The next biggest town if you head northeast on the road I live on is Antsohihy. Antsohihy is on a really well maintained road called RN 7. It runs north to south on the island and heads to the capital, Antananarivo. The road between my town and Antsohihy is RN 32. It might be the worst road in the country. Or I guess the worst national route in the country. It is about 100km or so between Antsohihy and Befandriana and, in the dry season, it can take anywhere from 4-6 hours on a taxi-brousse. The wet season is much worse. However, the experience of riding on the taxi-brousse is actually kind of awesome and I'll get to that soon. This is not a wholly negative post.

What makes ride the brousses extra interesting for me is also their size and the amount of people that fit in them. They are very small buses/vans that are made to seat 12-15 people but most of the time have around 30 people in them. As you can imagine seating space is limited. And as a rather large individual I take up a lot of the seating space. Most of the time everyone is very accommodating of me and I get to sit in the front seat next to the driver and one other person. But I do sit in the back rows sometimes and that is comical. At one point during my trip I was in a row meant for 3 people with 5 others and a baby. The nice part was that I hung half my body out the window so everyone could fit which gave me a nice breeze. When there is a stop either for food or to drop off/pick people up getting out and stretching your legs is the most wonderful feeling in the world. It feels like you are the genie in Aladdin and you have finally, after 10,000 years, been set free!

When riding a taxi-brousse as a westerner though, the most important thing is to get over the very western idea that everything must happen quickly and promptly. They have no set time to leave. They leave when they are full. And sometimes when stops are made getting back on the road is done at a leisurely pace. For example in one instance, when I was changing brousses, I got a nice 3 hour rest in a town along my route. Keeping in mind that there is no reason to hurry helps a lot with maintaining a good attitude throughout the process. Already here I have begun to acquire a sense of calm about things that are out of my control. I think that will help me for the rest of my life. Of course there are still frustrations but I find myself being pretty calm when in the past I would not have been. It's a really nice feeling.

It is also fantastic the brousses because you meet so many great people. Everyone is amazed that a vazaha knows Malagasy and is riding a taxi-brousse. It's a great time to practice speaking for a bit and the whole brousse gets a kick out of you speaking. And the look on childrens faces when you pass through a really small town and they see a vazaha riding a taxi-brousse is priceless. It's a mixture of awe, surprise, and sometimes a little fear. Especially if we stop, I get out, and they see how big I am. But usually when I say hello to them the fear goes away. Either that or the run as fast as they can in the other direction. You can't win them all. I love the time I get to spend chatting with people on taxi-brousses. It's particularly nice to meet some one who doesn't know much or anything at all about Peace Corps and to get to tell them all about it.

(In case I haven't explained it before “vazaha” is the Malagasy term for a foreigner and particularly a white foreigner. Most people think all vazahas speak French so they often will speak to me in French at first until they find out I speak Malagasy a little and am American)

If anyone visits me they will have to ride a taxi-brousse at least once to really get the true Madagascar experience. It will be one of the best and most frustrating experiences of your life.