Enjoy the Ride

I am sitting on the back of a piki piki--Tanzania’s motorcycle version of a local taxi--sitting sidesaddle in my Konga wrap skirt as we zig zag through the mud huts into town. The night sky is huge and open above, a warm breeze blowing in my face, as we bump up and down over ruts and garbage down the dirt paths of the village. Leaning this way and that with the bike, dodging pedestrians, running cats, bikes who all yield hurriedly when they hear our motor coming. As we emerge from the huts and hit a stretch of open road, the driver says something in kiswahili that I took to mean “hold on”. I do. He revs the engine as the moon makes its grand spotlight entrance from behind a cloud and the sky catches fire with light. Even though I know we aren’t going that fast, for a moment it feels like 100 miles an hour, the dust kicks up and my skirt flies back in the wind. Dark palm trees shiver in the absolving breeze and the thatch roofs border the horizon. The motor mumbles loudly in my ears and I’m thinking - this is so totally awesome.