One of the joys and some days trials of living here is the Tuk Tuk. We can get around our little island of Mombasa for between 1.50 - 2 dollars a ride on one of these. We all squeeze into one and are off. They are everywhere so it usually isn't a big deal finding a ride. The bigger deal is negotiating price. Knowing some Swahili helps alot! One of the great things about them is that we have gotten to get to know a couple drivers very well. Instead, of just picking up random guys to drive us we call up Sammy or John to drive us if we want to make a longer trip or do multiple errands.
For, the most part we do enjoy riding in the Tuk Tuk and are extremely happy they are here in Mombasa because we have a relatively cheap way of getting around our island especially because we do not yet have a vehicle.
We are praying about getting a vehicle though and hope to have one in the near future. Many times riding in Tuk Tuk's is an adventure. Like two nights ago when the kids finished swimming lessons and we caught a guy outside the pool. He had a terrible Tuk Tuk and we were breathing in exhaust and bouncing like crazy the whole trip. He picked all the short cuts in town to get us home which is nice but very very bouncy! At one corner we came across a pretty big disturbance where some guys were yelling at each other and there was probably around 150 people gathered. It was at that place we got stuck in traffic and I really didn't feel comfortable in the situation as there were 2 or 3 men that started doing double and triple walk by's our Tuk Tuk looking in at our bag at my feet. Our Tuk Tuk guy turned around at the same time I noticed all this and said make sure you have your bag secure! So, it's always an adventure! God has been so good and kept us safe as we have traveled around Mombasa over the past few months. We are very thankful for that.
Here we are riding in Sammy's Tuk Tuk. You can pray for Sammy as his Tuk Tuk has broken down and the owner is not willing to repair it leaving Sammy out of work for the past few weeks. We miss him very much!
These two pictures below are of John the Tuk Tuk guy. I met him one day and he said the one thing he refused to do was charge mzungu's (white people) an unfair price. We had a great talk about why he decided to do that. I got his phone number and he has been one of our regulars ever since! He sent me a picture of him with his family.
