Playing Chicken (aka traffic in Dar es Salaam)

By now, I'm sure most of you have heard about my first adventures in driving here in Tanzania.  If not, let me know - and I'll email you a copy of my newsletter.  But today, as my roommate Marie and I tried to traverse getting groceries, I realized that the driving experience might be one to relate to all of you on this blog.  (Going to the grocery store means taking a dala dala (aka bus), then walking... then hopping on a bajaj on the way back and hoping the guy speaks English or is at least familiar with the African names of places around where you live so you don't end up on the other side of town like we managed to today...)

Generally, the roads in Dar es Salaam have 2 to 3 official lanes.  They look nice, paved (sometimes) with lines, and very pretty.  The funny thing is that there are a number of "understood" lanes that you don't see.  These could be on the cement barrier in between lanes (if one exists), on the side of the road, or on the dirt way off the shoulder where people have to jump out of the way.  Pretty much, if you're near a road, your little square of dirt is fair game for someone to drive on... so watch out!

Another recent observation we've made is that of the "chicken lane."  If there are three official lanes, the middle one might have arrows marking one way or another, or they might not.  The thing is, it doesn't really matter.  This lane is dubbed the "chicken" lane because going on it means you're playing chicken.  Anyone can drive down the middle lane of the road going either direction at any time.  In the light, it's not too bad, since you can generally see if anyone is coming soon or not.  But at night, it gets more tricky as you have to judge whether someone up the way is using the middle lane to pass 5 cars in a row, and whether they are in fact going to be let back in to their original lane before meeting you going the opposite way in the middle of the road. 

So far, I've gotten pretty used to the craziness of traffic in Dar.  I no longer shudder when I see that three cars are turning right at the same time on a two lane-two direction road.  That's just normal.  Or when the dala dala skims the bajaj I'm on by inches.

My next goal is to learn how to drive!