False Alarm!

The first night in Gabs could not have been more frightening. A group of us decided to go out on the town. We had our next door neighbor call us a taxi because none of us had cell phones. Since it was our first night out, we did not know what the taxi was going to look like. When two tiny beat up cars pulled up, we were all a little skeptical because they did not have anything on them that said taxi. Everyone decided to trust them, and we split up in the two cars because there was so many of us. The first stop light we go to, the first car turns right and my car goes straight. Every single muscle in my body gets tense and I just start preparing myself for the doom I was about to face. I tried to remember how to get back to campus, but the driver was taking too many turns. The cab driver, Mustafa, got a call from who we imagined was the other driver. No of us could understand the conversation because it was in Setswana. I was eyeballing Caleb, and I could tell he knew what was going on. I looked over at Anthony, and he was clueless. Caleb and I never said a word, but we knew we were not going down without a fight. I was just hoping Anthony would join in as well. Before we had a chance to put the driver in a headlock, we arrived at our destination. The other group was already there. It turns out that our driver had misunderstood where we were going, but that phone call he had during the cab ride cleared everything up.
Mustafa actually seemed worried about us getting worried! The whole time he was doing the right thing. Moral of the story: we all have a tendency to be suspicious of things, especially when you visit a “developing” country. And then you experience a situation where someone does the right thing. That always makes you feel better about the world!

Amanda W.