WARNING !!!

I have been driving in Malawi now for about three weeks. I have had more close calls with people than I have with other vehicles. People walk up and down the street on both sides and there isn’t much of a shoulder. I think when rainy season hits it will be much worse. In the America I never worried too much about pedestrians because they have their own walkway. As this is the case, the warnings on alcohol bottles in the states are geared more toward the drivers. You know “Don’t drink and drive”. Here in Africa they are geared more toward the pedestrian. I love the warning on this bottle of wine from South Africa. And after driving here it makes perfect sense.

Click on the picture and read the label.

Minor Mirror Mishap

So it finally happened. I clipped another car with my mirror while driving the kids to school this week. ARRGH! Considering how narrow and congested some of the streets I drive can be, I am not really surprised that this happened. I am more surprised it hasn't happened earlier. Maybe the reason it hasn't happened sooner is that I drive a minivan so my mirrors are higher than most. Maybe I am just lucky, who knows. I was trying to avoid getting sideswiped on the driver's side and misjudged the distance on the passenger side. I was very lucky though, I didn't do any damage to the other car, but my mirror is toast. The mirror itself didn't shatter but the plastic clip that holds it in did.*

David has already ordered a new mirror assembly but it will take a week or so to get here and I still have to drive the kids to school everyday. I really need that mirror, there are several spots where I have to merge right and with out that mirror I will be driving by ear. CRUNCH! Not the best plan. So what to do? What to do? I applied a little southern ingenuity and dragged out the packing tape. Hey Presto, I am ready to roll!

Classy I know, but Hey I was out of duct tape.

*I don't think the clip would have totally shattered if David hadn't hit the mirror on a big cargo truck in Indonesia, which cracked the plastic clip. The mirror has been a little wobbly every since, so it's not all my fault. I don't care what Dave says!

Gaming on the bahn

Disclaimer: Until we moved to Germany I had never lived any place it snowed, so this driving in cold icy weather is a new and sometimes exciting adventure.

I have discovered driving in the snow is a lot like playing a video game. The goal of this game is not to get where you are going the fastest, nor is it to see how many people you can run off the road. The only goal of this game is to get where you are going, and get there alive.

Like any video game there are lots of challenges along the way. The roads can be so slippery that one wrong move will send you spinning off the road, never mind that stepping on the brakes to slow down doesn't exactly have the desired effect. Sometimes it works, sometimes it sends you sliding and not always in the right direction. So far I have avoided this particular pitfall, but judging from the number of banged up guard rails not everyone has been so lucky.

When there is a lot of snow on the ground it can be hard to tell where the lanes are or even sometimes exactly where the road is. In this case you follow the tracks of the car in front of you and hope for the best. If it is snowing hard while you are driving, well that makes finding the road even more challenging.

By far the most startling challenge is the road bombs. No, not IEDs like the troops have to face, these are less explosive and more icy. They come in two varieties: one white and fluffy, the other black and yucky. The white fluffy one happens when the guy in front of you on the aoutobahn couldn't be bothered to get all the snow off his car before driving. At some point all or part of that blanket of snow peels off, becomes airborne, and generally lands square in the middle of your windshield. It can just about make you about pee your pants. The trick is not to jerk the steering wheel or stomp on the brakes when this happens. Just keep going straight and use you wipers.

The other type of road bomb is black and gross. It forms from the salty nasty slush from the road splashing up on to the underside of the car and freezing. At some point gravity takes over and a huge hunk of hard black ice breaks loose and comes bouncing down the road at you. Most of the time this type breaks up and scatters smaller ice chunks all around. Once in a while one will bounce up and hit your bumper or door panel making a loud thump and if you are very unlucky it drops from a big truck and so bounces higher and lands on your hood. Yikes!

The last challenge is only for those playing the advanced version of driving in snow. This challenge come from within the car, it is the kids in the back seat screaming and fighting while you are trying to remember to downshift not brake, keep a good following distance in spite of the Porsche-driving genius who just squeezed his over priced sports car/coffin two feet in front of your bumper, and watch out for road bombs. All this while preventing he fight from escalating to actual blood shed in the back seat.

Good Luck with the winter road games where ever you are, they sure are exciting.

Driving Solo

I did it! I finally drove solo in Germany. I had to pick up Alonzo at school, he stayed late for chess club. I know driving to pick up the kids doesn't sound all that impressive, but I really haven't driven much in the last couple of years. For the two years we lived in Jakarta we had a driver (Hi Haryono! We miss you!). I was really nervous driving. The road signs here are different from the states. The streets are made for teeny tiny Euro cars not big American mini-vans. Some things that would be completely illegal in the states are normal here, l like parking on the sidewalks. Other things that are fine back home are illegal here, like turning right on red. Don't try that here!

David has been coming home at lunch and driving to the school with me so that I could get used to driving again before the kids are in the car yelling and fighting. I feel for all those teens out there just learning to drive. Dave has been doing a great impression of my dad. You know, "Watch out....turn you blinker on...the light is changing....there is a woman in the crosswalk...", actually David has been very patient with me and I do appreciate that he hasn't screamed in terror, at least not out loud.

I made it to the school and back with out incident but it will probably be a while before I feel totally comfortable driving in Germany.