Taxi Tetris

i was in need of a little american company, so i decided to have lunch
with my closest volunteer, tom. he's an interesting guy who's in his
second peace corps service. he is an older volunteer whose experience
is so different from mine. he lives in a trailer with running water,
flush toilet, fully equiped mini kitchen, and satelite tv. this makes
his spare bedroom a good getaway for me every now and then. he has an
office job at an ngo in my shopping town. it took me 3 hours to get to
jane furse, but i made it and was glad to be out of the village for
the day. As we finished our lunch, tom had to get back to his office
and i had to get my groceries for next week. i got my bag of groceries
and a few other things at the strip mall and headed for the taxi rank.
my first taxi ride, i got lucky and had control of a window. it stayed
cracked the whole way. the taxi was full the entire trip too.
everytime someone got off, someone else got on. it was a comfortable
full. when i got off at my rank, they finally had an open seat and the
window was closed. the next taxi for me is always interesting. these
are the falling apart, old, not fully functional, smaller taxis that
run on the dirt roads. although they are smaller, the driver of the 12
passenger van insists on carrying 14 people and all their stuff. this
means it will go when every row has 4 people in it. 4 average peoples
shoulder width is wider than the taxi. today, i was in the way back
seat, so i got to watch the game of human tetris. i felt bad for the
ladies in the next seat up. there was a very heavy woman in first,
then a lady with her 3 year old, then a fat lady. so the seat is full.
but, the taxi wont go till there are 4 people in that row, 4 adults.
so another lady had to squeeze in. then their bags must fit in around
them, on laps, under feet. just like tetris pieces fitting into place,
with 1 way being the best. then the next row had to fill with 4 people
and their bags and boxes and one lady had laundry baskets-hamper size.
then the driver has to force the door closed and it must be latched on
the inside with a welded on latch. we bump down the pothole infested
road until the first person wants to get off. then half the people
must pile out and the seats folded up or moved so that 1 person can
get out. the tetris game starts all over again fitting everyone and
their stuff back in again with a little more breathing room this time.
the game continues as people get on and off. i think i prefer the
video game to the real life taxi game.