This Afternoon's Bus Ride Back to the Village

Today, we were on a small bus riding from Mansa (capital of Luapula Province) back to our village. There were 25 seats (6 rows of 4 seats, plus the driver) on the bus. There were 42 men, women and children and 3 chickens on the bus. Nine passengers were in the back row- 5 adults and 4 children- and the conductors were still trying to pick up more passengers along the way. That struck me as very efficient use of space.

Picture Above: the bus stop in Mansa where we catch the Peace Soldier Bus Company's bus north to our boma, Mwense. The bus you see is the bus we took int he journey discussed above. The employees are packing the passenger's luggage on the trailer behind the bus.

Picture Above: Here's the bus again at the end of our journey, as is stops in Mwense boma to let us off. The women toward the front of the bus are selling things like bananas, groundnuts and roasted maize to the passengers. As a side note, that is one of the things I love about traveling through Africa- if you want t snack you just have to lean out the window at a stop; you don't even have to get out of your seat to get a fresh snack or fruit, roasted veggies- even fish and chicken! The gentlemen at the back of the bus near the trailer are taking off our luggage (our backpacks).