Traffic Police

Roads and driving and traffic in this country are like nothing we can describe. One recent visitor said as were we traveling along 'in America we would not even call this a road'.

Well, interacting with traffic police is another interesting part of living here. Yesterday Ron & I were driving through Arusha to run errands. The police stand along the road since they don't have cars, and decide who to wave over to the side. We were motioned over this time.

The police officer says 'hello, how are you' in English. OK should we speak English or Swahili, we greet him with 'habari yako' and then use English. After looking at Ron's drivers license he says 'I need to look at your insurance'. He comes to my side of the car, looks at the sticker and says 'it is expired on February 28th'. 'You must pay 20,000 shillings (about $17 us)'.

'OK' we say as we realize this staff truck did not get it's insurance sticker updated. As we get out our money he says 'since I do not have a receipt you will have to go to the police station, so what should we do?' Ron says 'I don't know, what should we do?' He says with a funny look on his face 'OK, I will just give you a warning'.

But then he looks directly at me and says 'why don't you just give me half, OK?' I say 'I don't understand what you want me to do'. He stops for a minute and then says with an exasperated sigh 'OK just go'.

I think he was looking for a little extra money on the side. That is pretty common here. But he probably thought this silly old white woman does not get it and it's not worth the hastle. That's fine with me!