Matatus: A Blog-Worthy Subject

(This picture is completely unrelated to my post, but this is where I am at right now. Cafe Pap in downtown Kampala. It's a great little coffee shop, and I have a feeling Jenna and I will be here often)

So in an effort to save money, the volunteers at the guest house have begun to take Matatus, rather than "hiring" a taxi driver. A taxi to and from Baby Watoto is approximately $12 and Matatus are about 20 cents a ride, it takes two to get there so a round trip is roughly 80 cents.
I don't even know how to begin to describe how hilarious I find riding Matatus. I, honestly, just laugh through out the ride. I will do my best to describe the Matatus, and hopefully you will get a glimpse into their hilarity.

Matatus are Kampala's form of public transportation (and I think in other large cities around Africa, not just Uganda). They are taxi-vans that travel along certain routes. They are licensed to carry 14 passengers, however, I'm pretty sure it is common practice to have at least 17. These white vans with a blue checkered stripe in the middle are always PACKED. And just when you think you can't fit anymore people in, they pick up two more.

Each van has a "conductor". This person sits in the first row (behind the driver's row) on the opposite side of the van than the driver, halfway hanging out the window. As the Matatu drives along, the driver just beeps the horn at any and every pedestrian. Because anyone who is walking is looking for a ride on a Matatu, right? The conductor watches for any signal from pedestrians that they would like to be picked up; typically a wave of the hand. Then the conductor waves you on, as if saying, "Okay, we're stopping eventually, just keep running behind us until we do." So we run behind them...until they stop at their next designated stop. However, these stops are not marked. So you never really know where their "designated" stops are, you just hope it's sooner than later.

Almost all the matatus have one large speaker attached to the roof of the vehicle, which blasts ridiculous Ugandan music. Which just makes the experience that much more amusing to me.

As I said before, it takes two Matatus to get within walking distance of the Baby home. So after our first ride, we get dropped off near the "Taxi Park". Each day that we have ridden these, we have gotten dropped off at a different place (like I said, "designated" stops). But we make our way to the "Taxi Park". This is kind of like a Central station for a typical form of public transportation. This is where all the Matatus "start their route" I guess. It's overwhelming.
Matatus as far as the eye can see...none of them marked except for two. How other people find where to go, I have no idea. Thankfully, one of the two that are marked is the one we need to take. By marked, I mean that there is a wooden sign on top of it that has a list of road names, including Jinja Road (our final destination.) There seems to be no organization at "Taxi Park", the drivers just park wherever they can fit. When one leaves, two more take it's place. I have no idea how all of the Matatus get out of this mess, especially the ones in the very center in this cicle of confusion. But ours has been somewhat towards the outskirts of the commotion, so I have yet to witness the exodus of all of the vehicles.