Iced Mochas and Boda Bodas

Yesterday I walked to the AidChild Equator Café. It's about an hours walk, but the iced mochas are worth it. And all the money goes to orphans with AIDS. They have a great craft shop and some beautiful not too expensive paintings, if only shipping it back home wasn’t such a hassle!

Anyway, having walked all the way there, people screaming “mzungu” the whole way, I decided to take a boda boda back to campus. Now, Boda bodas are bikes that take passengers on the back. Some are pedal bikes, but most are motorized. I’ve been watching them for a while and thinking that they look like a lot of fun. And I’ve always wanted to ride a motorcycle, although these are small, more like a dirt bike.

Now in my fantasy of being on a motorcycle, it’s always either me alone with the open road, or me sitting on back my arms wrapped around a hunky guy in leather. Either way I’m riding astride. But all of the women I’ve seen on the bodas have been riding side-saddle, so that’s how I got on. And I didn’t think it would be a good idea to hold onto the driver, again, most people don’t, and I didn’t want to give him the wrong idea! Plus he’s defiantly not the guy in my fantasy.

So I’m balanced precariously on the back, one hand balancing my purse and purchases on my lap, the other behind me white-knuckled to the seat, holding on for dear life! (My hand was cramped for like an hour afterwards, and it was only a ten minute ride!)

I never want to get on another boda boda, but I guess I’ll have to get used to it, they are the main transportation between the campus and the main road. But next time I venture out I’m taking a backpack so I can hold on with both hands!