Physics of a Car Crash

Samedi…

We finally found out that we were going to Kara today…along with 7 other people…in a 9 person van. FML. I thought distance driving in the states was rough. Try having 5 teenage girls, 2 older women, a buddy, and a driver who speaks a very harsh form of Afrikaana French sit in a 9 person van, traveling roughly 10 hours (I know this isn’t a measurement of distance, but there was literally no way to calculate km on this trip) over pothole-filled paved/dirt roads, while swerving past other vehicles and around switchbacks in the mountains. We stopped once for a beer break (kid you not, our driver was thirsty), once to take a piss on the side of the road, twice to let off the two older women (separate locations), and once more in Kara for dinner.

Now its time for the definition of awkward. Colin and I sat a dinner table in the black of night, next to our driver who said nothing more than a few words in response to any question, and across from 5 girls (who we later found out were sisters) who said next to nothing the entire night. Needless to say it was a fast dinner, but not fast enough. Our driver somehow pounded down two more beers. And these aren’t your typical American brews. This is craft Togolese beer (Aweyoo), which is a mild 6.2% contained in a .62 liter glass bottle. Uh oh. I was surprised he made it back to the van and now he was going to drive us even further off of the beaten path?

Oh btw, there was an oil spill on the mountainside just outside of Kara. At the bottom, no less than 10 minutes before we reached it, a large tanker skidded off and flipped over the roadside. I think it also managed to clip another less damaged truck heading up. We skidded our way up the side of the mountain clinging to our seats every-time the van lost control and hydroplaned on the oil. Also about 2 hours before this Colin and I saw the result of the physics/chemistry of a car heading 80kph in one direction with a lorry heading 80 kph in the other direction. No beuno. Immediately after that, I saw Colin (sitting in the middle of the middle seat, aka nothing in front of him but the windshield) reach over for his seatbelt with a fixed gaze on the accident. Priceless.

Back to the present time of the past. We were back in the van and cruising up another mountain side, this time on a washed out dirt road. We followed said dirt road for close to 30 minutes before coming to a clearing with a large fortress-like building. We had arrived. And upon walking through the large main door, we realized that there was no electricity and that the generator was out. Time to get out the flashlights! We made it to our rooms, rejoiced at having made it to our destination alive, curled up in a ball of sweat under the mosquito net, and went to sleep.