As most of my three followers know, I’m currently in Nairobi,
Kenya. This country was a British Colony for many years, while the Germans were
carefully looking after Tanzania.
But Tanzania is a story for another time.
On the way back to my hotel this evening I had a very strange experience and things suddenly became clear.
I was in a motor vehicle accident. Nothing that made my life
pass before my eyes or gave me whiplash and a stiff neck or anything like that.
We were making our way through peak hour traffic, going left
around a bend, when some security company’s dilapidated mini bus decided to
pass us on the right where there was no space and made contact with our front
bumper.
There was an awkward scraping sound as he tried to push on,
but he got stuck and had to stop.
In most countries this would have led to a lot of screaming
and shouting and swearing and even shooting in some countries a bit more to the
south…
However, what happened made me realize that the Kenyans
probably had a major influence on the Brits, which is why they are, even up to
today in most cases, very courteous and quite well mannered people.
We had to stop – obviously because the mini bus was stuck to
our bumper and was going nowhere fast. There was contact between the two
vehicles and some damage.
But here is what happened next.
My driver and the other driver got out of the cars with no
real haste and walked towards each other.
Although they were speaking Swahili, this is basically how
the conversation went.
My driver looked at the area where the two cars connected
and said: “I say wot old fruit, quite a cheeky turn you made there and all that
old chap?”
“Quite the most unfortunate set of circumstances I have to
say mate” the other guys said, as he was obviously less polished than my
driver.
The two men casually looked at the new scrape marks on the
already “well tattooed” mini bus, which showed that that driver was a bit of a
brute when it came to slicing through traffic.
“Jolly good dent you have there my good man” my driver
remarked, while the other man nodded slowly, looking deep in thought.
“Jolly good indeed” the other man said.
We were holding up the already busy traffic behind us, but
there was no hooting or shouting or hanging out the windows waving fists or
anything like that from the other motorists.
“You think we should call The Bill over and do the necessary
and all that old chap?” my driver asked.
“I’d rather not waste their precious time with this little
misadventure don’t you think my good man?” the other guys asked.
“Yes. Let’s rather stop this unpleasant barney and avoid
attracting more attention my old cabbage and get back on the road I say wot and
all that thingamajig.” My driver suggested.
They got back in the cars and off we went.
Very unpleasant incident it was, but I survived….
Groete uit die woestyn en van al die Arabiere
H of Arabia
