the blue collar bustle

In hindsight, I may say that it was a great opportunity to experience Durban, to flow through the heart of our city during rush hour, and to be part of the hum. But today, taking a taxi was as ordinary as a day's work.

No taxis go directly from Glennwood to the uMhlanga Rank (below DUT), in fact, they all go in the exact opposite direction. It makes perfect economic sense for them to do this because generally they're taking the working class to work and back home again. It has made me rethink the title of my blog. The adventures of this little mlungu should be rephrased to the "blue collar bustle".

Today the blue collar bustle took me 20 min to walk from my front door to the rank. Then a brief wait for the taxi to fill up and a direct ride to La Lucia - 30 min, and then another walk to my office - 15 min. And that's how we ordinary workers get to work.

weather permitting

Rain! Rain! Go away, come back another day!

I thought to myself a few weeks back that I was fortunate to begin this adventure in autumn/winter because it would not be pleasant walking in the heat of summer to a from the taxi ranks. As it was, I could work up a sweat. But it never occurred to me that I would be guarding against the rain in May. As you know, Durban is renowned for its wonderful dry and warm winters... there is something to be said for climate variation when all the mamma's on the taxis are shocked to be having to battle with rain in our winter. Fortunately a friend from Cape Town is visiting and kindly brought me a few things that I had left there, namely my raincoat!

liberating or free

When I reported on taking my first taxi, I said it was the most liberating thing to do... and my sentiments have not changed but there is a distinction between freedom from and freedom to, as any good philosophy student should know.

If we call "freedom from" liberating, then taking a taxi for the first time broke personal barriers for me and I was free from the feeling of being an outsider in my own city. I can't tell you how many people have assumed I'm from Germany or Sweden, just because I'm uMlungu not afraid to take a taxi! Everyone from the local Indian guys selling me fruit on West street across from where I work, to even the black foreigners who want a passport to another country (green is all I got buddie).

La Lucia Taxi Rank

And if we just say that being free is to be "free to..." then I must say I didn't feel very free to get anywhere on time today standing in the long queues during rush hour. At 8am this morning, a lady told me to "zip it" - seriously! 3 of us standing the same queue had been sent back when the taxi was full to rightfully stand in the front of the queue but she would have none of it. The other 2 protested but she wouldn't hear any of it; we had to go to the back of the queue.

And this afternoon at La Lucia Taxi rank, I had over twenty pairs of eyes from vacuum packed cars staring at me - "she must be white trash", their calculated stares concluded. I'm going to make sure that public transport has a brand makeover!

Respect for the working MAN

I have enormous respect for working men! They have a different energy about them...
They have pride and purpose.

I was lost in admiration on a 4:30pm taxi ride home back from La Lucia to town, until I realised that I was the only woman in a car full of men. Ordinarily a little white girl is supposed to be afraid of 12 strange black men, but I gained an invaluable appreciation for the working class. I might go as far as saying that unemployment is worse than HIV/Aids because it deprives other men of this pride and purpose.
Taking taxis is worth the effort, even if it is just to experience each other.

Viva La Lucia!

Downtown detour

Someone has to learn from my mistakes because I'm not!
On Friday morning last week, I eagerly jumped into a full-looking taxi on Che Guevara Rd (old Moore Rd) heading downtown only to find out that the route down to South Beach is not the same as the route up from South Beach. Instead of going through market they go around it and down Dr Pixley Kasema St (old West St).

I needed to get to the spot where all the taxis depart for La Lucia (which is also where the Umhlanga taxis depart from). Its just behind the Engen if you're coming down the N3 through Warwick Junction towards the beach front.

View Larger Map

So I had to walk through the whole length of the market at 7:30 am. I might as well have walked from Berea Centre - you live and learn!

South Beach Taxis

Today I was running late.
I was running to Berea Centre where many taxis do a turn around loop to go back to town. It was late and taxis on the less busy routes become very few... I couldn't see any on Che Guevara Rd (old Moore Rd) so I kept going to Berea Centre and caught the first taxi heading down King Dinizulu Rd (old Berea Rd)... Bad move - I was the only passenger.. We trawled for people stopping at every busy intersection. The assistant would jump out and usher, whistle, and slap the sides of the taxi to attract attention and implore someone to jump in.

On the way home I didn't learn my lesson, I jumped into the nearest taxi: it was a South Beach Taxi.
They are famous for their one-of-a-kind hand signal and infamous for prowling the streets for passengers. Their route is well known (unless you're me of course): from South beach, through the CBD along Anton Lembede Rd (old Smith St), right at Julius Nyerere St, which takes you through Warwick Junction which everyone calls "the Market"... think of all the opportunities to stop to trawl for more passengers (it's a high turn over route, costing the passenger between only R2 and R4). Then left up Steve Biko Rd (old Mansfeild Rd) passed all the DUT students at Steve Biko campus, and left onto Botanic Gardens Rd, over the N3 to Berea Centre - heck that was long!

Simple strategies

If you’re in a hurry and are on the route your taxi is going, choose the taxi with the most passengers.

Taxis will head for the destination much faster if they are full. A full taxi is not a defined thing but can sometimes mean between 12 – 14 passengers. Some kind of variation of the diagram below is a safe measure of full. Unless you’re “do or die” desperate, I would caution against anything more full than this.

My first time

I got a lift to work in La Lucia on Friday morning with a friend, knowing that this would be the day I would catch my first minibus taxi in Durban. Never mind that I'm 25 and was born and raised here. If you're from Durban, you will inherently know that generally, whities don't take minibus taxies - because we believe that they're dangerous, we usually have our own cars, but MOSTLY because WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW IT WORKS! We don't know where to wait for a taxi, where they go, how often they come, or if we will arrive alive.

So I walked across to the obvious taxi rank near La Lucia Mall on Armstrong Ave and hopped on to a spick 'n span taxi because I heard the taxi driver tell a woman that this taxi was going to "eThekwini", which means town in isiZulu and commonly refers to Durban town central (or the municipality but that's another matter).

We were off immediately and I learnt that it is the Taxi Driver's sole discretion as to when is the time to leave. It must depend on some rough schedule and whether there are enough people in the taxi. We trawled the main streets en route to town in order to fill up the seats - very economical! But these are the same taxis that stop wherever there's a potential passenger, whether there is a yellow line or not, but mostly they try to not obstruct traffic. As soon as the taxi was full we left the main route and headed towards the highway (M4). It took us max 15 min from when we left until the first call to stop, which was at Soldiers Way (this taxi was heading to the Market - the Warwick Junction Market). I had been advised to jump off at Soldiers Way, walk toward the Workshop and over the road to the taxies heading up Monty Naiker Road, and ask where the taxies going to Glenwood Spar are.
And that's as easy as it was!

Everyone was kind and helpful and to be honest, nobody thought it was that odd that this little Mlungu was catching a taxi with her laptop satchel and shopping bag. In fact, a lady asked me how much it was to town from La Lucia! Whe! At least I knew that much - it was only R10 and from the Workshop to Glenwood Spar it was only R4.