The public transport adventure

Living here in Sierra Leone has given me a chance to have several different adventures, just in daily living. But this Wednesday, was by the far the biggest adventure that I have had yet.
Kristen and I were in Banta for a few days because we had some work that we had to get done there. We were supposed to leave Wednesday morning. Well Tuesday night the car would not start because the battery was dead because the alternator was not charging the battery (I have learned a lot about cars and auto mechanics this year) The battery was sent to the mines to be charged and then the plan was to just put the battery in the car and hope that we made it to Freetown before the battery lost charge. Sounds like a great plan huh!!!! Well the plan was great for the first hour of the seven hour journey, and then the battery died.
We were in practically in the middle of nowhere, the closest big village was 2 miles away. So we put the car in reverse and went down the hill to a small village where we parked the car. So we had to change plans. The new plan was a little bit something like this: wait until a car passes and hope that they will help us. Another great plan, but this was our only option.
Well God answered our prayer in the form of a bright blue and yellow public transport vehicle that was happening to be going back to Freetown. So me, Kristen, a small girl that was going to be a new intake, and Mr. Kalokoh (head teacher of Banta) all piled in the public transport vehicle. While Quami and Mr. Kamara stayed with the car to wait for a mechanic to come and help us.
Now for those of you who don't know about Sierra Leone public transport, let me tell you. In Sierra Leone there is always room for one more. While this is a great policy to have, it really should not apply to the number of people that are put into a vehicle. So this public transport was packed full of people.
The cars are a bit run down as you can see from the picture and it really is a miracle that they run at all. The seats are wooden boards, that make your rear end hurt after about 5 minutes of sitting on them.
White people don't usually take public transport from the Providences, so we were quite a sight for all. The driver of the vehicle thought that it was his lucky day because not only could he brag about the fact that we were in his car he was able to charge us a much higher price then we should have had to pay. The other passengers in our transport were enjoying themselves as well. They even made up a story about how we had adopted this girl that was with us and we were bringing her to America with us!!!
Well this public transport had a few major problems and we broke down about 4 or 5 times along the way. Each time we all piled out of the car and sat in the road until they put back whatever part had fallen out of the car.
We eventually made it back to Freetown though, about 10 shades browner, from all the dust that we were covered in. I made the mistake of wearing a white shirt, that is no longer white, but red!!!
So that is our adventure of the public transport. Who is up for a rode trip Sierra Leone style???!!!!