Minibuses.....
First a bit of background information. I was supplying a grade 4 class and the lesson called for the students to describe things about Malawi using nouns and adjectives divided into “Good things and Bad things about Malawi”. On the Good side were things like safaris, Mangoes, the lake etc. On the Bad side were things like robbers, poverty, malaria, and minibuses. It was this last one where I learned how observant little kids can be. They went into great description of minibuses, cracked windshields, “they always cut off my dad”, no headlights, “ they run over dogs”,”they carry like 50 people inside them” , and among other things they have no brakes. It is this last one that brings us to new news that we were rear-ended by a minibus. Upon getting out of the car I was faced with the driver who informed me that “I have no brakes” as if it wasn’t his fault anymore. We tried to call the police (to get a report), but none of the 40 bystanders knew how to call the cops from a cell phone. Tess tried to call from a pay phone stand, but the mini bus driver, and all the by-standers were standing around yelling at the phone operator in chichewa, and the women won't dial the police for us. Somebody finally told us that even if we got hold of the police, they wouldn't come, as they don't have gas for their vehicles these days. So finally, we convinced mr. minibus driver to drive his brakeless vehicle over to the police station with us to file the report. (talk about good police service)
We are still waiting for the police report as you have to find the same person who filled it out and she continues to be quite elusive (it's been over a week!). The Driver was fined 2000MK (20 CDN) because he was in the wrong. At the same time, we were charged 2000MK to get a police report for insurance. talk about a fair system!
jimo
the damage
posted by Tess and Jim O @ 8:51 AM
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