Mansa

In Lusaka after a trip to Mansa (met Lawrence's Mom and Grandma, etc.) - Luapula province is so GREEN and there's WATER!!!! It was really neat. And I found out I like cassava. On the way back yesterday, just between Mansa and Kapri-Mposhi, we passed 3 accidents. I was one of very few people that did not get up to look at them - but the 2 tipped over trucks and the 1st accident were on my side of the bus. The last one was a mini bus accident and Mindela told me about some guy who they were moving into a new mini bus whose head was crushed and bleeding. "Was he alive?" "I think maybe not" nice convo! And today's paper showed another accident from yesterday, just outside Lusaka. Caption read: firefighters removing the body of a baby... and it showed another body lying next to the wreckage.

All this just a week or so after I saw an upside-down mini bus in Lusaka. People were pounding on the windows trying to get out - one of the scariest things I've EVER seen. Someone managed to break one and they managed to pull the people out the back window. I tried to calm people down but no one seemed to speak English or Tonga and then this old lady came up to me holding her head with blood dripping down her arm - she moved her hand, her scalp was peeled back. I gave her my handkerchief and tried to tell her to just hold it down to try to stop the bleeding. And all I could think about was "no plastic, there's no plastic!" (cuz of all the blood everywhere). I called an ambulance and left, nothing more I could do.
...And now Mindela wonders why I don't want to get on mini buses even if they are 1/10th the cost of a taxi!


(We did a safety survey at IST and only 30% of the volunteers there feel safe on transport - #1 concern)

(Original Post)

Scared