Episode 4

Free Falling

One thing that doesn't surprise me anymore is how trucks are often packed with people. And I don't mean the inside of trucks. I mean the truck beds. Packed with 8, 9, 10, even more. I was driving from Mangochi to Liwonde last weekend and I had to sit in the truck bed. At first, I thought it was some mistake, because I was told that expats always get shotgun. But apparently not, because when they came to pick me up, the truck was packed, and they just shoved me in the bed. So I pretty much spent the better part of the 2 hour ride petrified that the door latch would come undone and we would all go flying out. And when we almost hit a herd of cows crossing the road, I almost had a heart attack. There's a very good reason why this is illegal in most of the West.

Anyway, to end the story, riding in the back of a pickup truck is not exciting or glamourous. I was driving down a winding road when I saw a truck in a ditch on the side of the road and injured passengers lying on the ground. It's definitely not exciting, nor is it glamourous, especially when you end up part of a horrific accident that would leave you with only a scratch if you had been sitting inside the truck with a seatbealt.