Now I know – A Lesson in History - I had a crash in Africa

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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