A Jolly Old Man

Arriving or leaving Tana at the Fasan’ny Karana station is always a big ordeal with a bunch of taxi drivers and taxi-brousse assistants pulling me in different directions, fighting for my business. I’ve learned to not tell them where I want to go or give them my bags, but to scope out all the taxi-brousses myself instead. During my past trip, an older man came up to me and told me he can take me directly to my house if I took his taxi-brousse (which is about 3km out of the way from their normal stop), so I agreed. As soon as I saw that there were only 3 other people on the taxi-brousse, my initial reaction was to leave and take another one since it can take hours to fill up. Most taxi-brousse drivers are eager to squeeze in as many passengers as they can before departing, sometimes 25-30 people in a 15-seater van.

I kindly said to him accordingly, “Ahhh, misaotra. Maika aho fa mbola ela vao handeha ianareo.” (“No, thank you. I’m in a rush but it’s still a long time before you guys leave.”)

He responded: “Tsy ela. Efa hariva ny andro dia kely sisa handeha.” (“Not a long time. It’s already late so we are almost going.”)

It was about 3:45pm, and since it doesn’t get dark until about 6:30pm nowadays, I decided I had time to wait and save myself an extra 1.000 Ariary from taking another taxi-brousse that would drop me off closer to my house. To my surprise, we left just before 4pm even though there were only two other people who got in after me.

This was by far my most comfortable taxi-brousse rides in Madagascar (and a record for fastest time getting out of the Fasan’ny Karana station)! All of us basically had an entire row of seating all to ourselves while most taxi-brousses allow only five inches of seating per person if you are lucky.

At a speed of what seemed like only five miles per hour, this jolly old man was telling stories and jokes instead of blasting loud music on repeat like other taxi-brousses do. Although I did not understand everything he was saying, I couldn’t help but smile because he was proving me wrong in so many ways. No loud music, no lies. Nothing but good story telling and a safe drive from this wise old man.

Every experience in Madagascar is a new lesson learned for me. This experience reassured my patience and respect for elders.