Is it a taxi or a roller coaster?

Every morning I go in a taxi to school.  The driver is a man named Abu George.  (That means his oldest son’s name is George.  He is “the father of George.”  So, my dad would be stuck with me.  His name would be “Abu Marie Adele”.  Uh oh!)  Driving in Ramallah is a crazy experience by itself. 

Nobody ever wears a seat belt here – except an occasional tourist, and us (of course).

Abu George is very safe for a taxi driver here.  I have been in a taxi that stopped at the bottom of a hill that was almost vertical and then revved the engine and drove up it.  It sounded like a roller coaster and it felt like one too.  I really felt like I was about to go upside down.  Another time a taxi driver went down a hill (much like the first one) and it felt like he was going run into the car in the intersection at the bottom.  

In the afternoon, usually, we take a share taxi.  A share taxi is called a “service”  (ser-vees).  How a service works is that it picks up multiple people at one time.  They do not all get out together.  For instance, I could get out at the Arab Bank and the person next to me could get out at the spice shop and the person in front of me could get out the Stick House (an ice cream shop where I want to get out).  Sometimes the service driver does not go exactly where you want to be let out because of traffic.  But usually they do. 

I do get out at the Arab Bank.  It seems like the walk from there to my apartment is the same distance from my home to Stepping Stones, but it is a lot busier.  I walk past multiple pharmacies, groceries, fabric stores, tourist shops, supply stores, office stores, cafes, candy stores, and convenience stores.  I like to buy candy on my way home.  There are also ice cream men -- an ice cream man is sort of like an ice cream truck, but it is a human carrying a cooler with ice cream.

I want to ride the service home by myself in the afternoons, but my parents are not sure quite yet. They still come get me.  One reason is that they don’t let me out in the same place.  (I say, “You could get me a cell phone.  Only for emergencies.”) 

So, that's the basic idea of taxis here.
-Marie Adele