#109 The Excitement of the Road

Submitted by @janereitsma (Jane Reitsma) and @lisamedia (Lisa Thomas-Tench)

EAW are seasoned travellers. They learned years ago how to navigate the roads where work might take them. Road travel gets too bloody predictable at this point. It’s the same old, same old across the world… Hire a driver, pay a little more, and get where you need to go.

But the EAW craves the excitement of the unexpected. They quickly tire of the tried and true and so dream up ways to add some fun to what has become mundane.

So what’s an EAW to do?

1)  Party till dawn at the local Irish pub. After a night of dancing and drinking with World Food Program pilots, any road you take will feel like you are entering a war zone in the back of an old pick up truck.

2)  Add one more, preferably remote destination. The more the merrier. And an extra destination will likely take you down some new, dirtier routes.

3)  Take a ride with a stranger. You may have a reliable every day driver. But for quick jaunts, nothing makes more sense than hopping onto the back of a motorcycle taxi. And the pre-trip price haggling will help you keep it real.

And when EAWs do decide to drive, with a little creativity they can ensure that they make the most of the thousands of American dollars their INGO is spending on their micro-sized Toyota each week.

Some options include:

1)  Driving through a village with all the windows down. Remember to grin wide, wave charmingly, and occasionally shout out “hello” in the local (or some nearby) language.

2)  Playing tag with the wildlife, especially in places like Swaziland where the roads are rife with springbok and monkeys, and the King has smoothed the pavement for his flotilla of Benz limousines.

3)  Pothole surfing (de rigueur in rural Uganda). Extra points can be scored for skimming over roadside rifts with only two wheels touching the ground.

4)  Losing one or all of your hub caps in the process and shrugging at the Avis agent in disbelief.

No matter what choice of transportation EAWs choose, they can always count on a road check for added excitement, so travelling in the wee hours of the morning is a good choice. Keeping local, American, and Euro currencies on hand may not be necessary in order to keep on trucking, but it can’t hurt to try. It’s a good thing to have a per diem at the ready on the road to ensure you keep up appearances.

And most importantly… remember, it’s all in how you tell the story to the folks back home. No one needs to know that government official was just joking when he said the rebel fire wasn’t accurate enough to hit you from that distance.