Braving a Nairobi mutatu...

Last weekend we had to take our car to get the brakes done. There is a garage just down the road and Brian decided it was time to muster up some courage and take a mutatu back to the apartment from the garage. To explain, a mutatu is a van that serves as public transportation here in Nairobi. There are hundreds of these vans in the city and they follow bus routes, picking up passengers along the way whenever someone flags one down. Apparently, up until a few years ago, the rules about mutatus were a lot looser and dozens of people would pile into one van. The laws are a lot tighter now and the vans are supposed to only take about 11 passengers each (although we have seen a lot of infractions in this regard). When it came time to go back to the garage, Brian convinced me (LeeAnne) to come along for a return mutatu ride. I was a bit dubious, as the mutatu drivers are quite erratic and aggressive, driving at fast speeds and in creative ways, veering onto the shoulder and cutting other drivers off at will (in fact, they strike fear in my heart whenever we drive in the city). This mutatu ride didn't let us down in terms of the fear factor. It was packed with passengers to the point that Brian and I shared a seat by the sliding door (I was perched on the edge, hoping I wouldn't get caught in the door when it was opened or opened - while the vehicle was in motion, I might add). The video is a bit chaotic because as soon as I turned the camera on, the mutatu stopped and we needed to get out of the mutatu to allow a gentleman in the back to exit the vehicle. The video doesn't fully capture the intensity and risk associated with a mutatu ride, but it does give a little taste of the experience. And we survived! :)