J'ai roulé hier

I drove yesterday.  

Yesterday, Barb gave me a great boost in confidence.  She thought I was ready to drive in Niamey.  So the two of us, Sally was too scared to go, went on a driver’s education ride.

Now some of you may not think that driving in Niamey is worth a whole blog.  Maybe it isn’t but for me it was and will be a major experience in my life.

Now I am not a novice in driving or riding in traffic.  I have lived through Viet Nam, Kazakhstan, Chile and Argentina, Hopkins, and Bayou La Batre, Al.  And Sally and I have put a few miles on our camper van.  But Niamey takes the cake.  Viet Nam may be crowded, Kazakhstan may be bumpy, but Niamey is random.  It is like they put a city in the desert by allowing people to build buildings and houses and then put in the roads with what was left.  There are few regular blocks.  Things angle all the time.  You would not call it “laid out."

The roads.  Some are paved, most aren’t.  Even the paved ones have significant speed bumps, potholes, and no shoulders, some are four lane, some are two lane.  You don’t drive on most roads: you navigate them.  In and out between people and cars.  Actually, some of the unpaved roads are 10-lanes, very wide, because people are just driving in the dirt wherever they want to and there are no buildings on either side.  Then add potholes, speed bumps, no centerline, donkey carts, people walking three abreast, motor scooters, taxicabs, bicycles, goats, camels, and road rage.  It is not for the timid.

The roads seem to merge, on a random basis, into a circle or roundabout every now and then.  5-8 roads coming together into complete car chaos.  Barb would tell me that this is a circle where the people in the circle have the right away, or this is a circle where the people on the right have the right away, or this is a circle where the people entering have the right away.  Get the idea.  It really doesn’t matter what the rules are, they practice Darwinism here, survival of the fittest.

I have seen several stop lights, one of which was working.  I stopped at the light but since it is so far back from the road, I couldn’t see the other traffic and since there was only one light, I couldn’t see the light.  I could tell when to go when the line of people behind me honked in heavenly harmony.  There are a few stop signs and a couple of yield signs but communication, by means other than honking is scarce.

When I drive at home I don’t have to always be fully attentive.  Yes, there are times when I am on my phone; times I am using GPS, and times when I am just in never, never land.  By and large, these times have not been a problem.  I’m not sure I can explain how attentive you have to be driving in Niamey.  It’s a 360-degree eyesight need along with ESP and intuition.  It is one thing to come close to hitting other cars but it is a whole other thing to come close to hitting goats, carts, and people.  There is no fear of cars in Niamey.  Motorcycles just cut in and go wherever want.  People walk on the road.  Goats do not walk single file.  Cars will use the on coming lane if their lane is blocked.

Fortunately, the people of Niamey are used to their roads.  Fortunately, they don’t start out with high levels of fear and trepidation like I do.  Fortunately, it seems to work.  You could add our driving safety to your prayer list.

I wish I had pictures to show you.  You have to be very careful about taking road pictures and the ones we have just don't do justice to the experience.