Typical Taxi Ride

so on the way to natitangou me and my other two post mates had an interesting time getting there and coming back: but i guess that this trip is actually quite normal: we took a bush taxi from bassila and picked up the other volunteer in a little village along the way only 20 minutes from bassila then we were on our way to djougou to pick up another volunteer: the price between djougou and natitangou is fixed 1500 CFA, and the price between Bassila and djougou is generally 1500 CFA so really it should be possible to take all the same taxi from Bassila to Natitangou for 3000 CFA. ha ha ha yea well this is benin and things work slightly differently here. after leaving bassila and picking up the other volunteer we found a place on the road where there were bandits the night before only 10 minutes outside of pennasolou not far from me and my postmates. then our taxi driver told us a story about how he never travels at night because he was stopped by bandits and then he shows us this three inch long scar where he was stabbed. but dont worry about me i dont travel at night. how taxis work is that they pick up people and drop them off along the way. so we stopped and picked up and dropped off about 5 people along the way to djougou which took about an hour an half to get there. along the way we met someone who was a druggie walking around in a high stuppor. all he did was point at us laugh and say the same jibberish over and over again: then our taxi driver says oh i found you another taxi because i only go to djougou and i dont have enough people in my car to go all the way to natitangou. so we pay him get in another taxi that had the same amount of people in it that the first taxi had we also picked up another volunteer. we make it up to natitangou finally and go and have lunch where we met a senile old woman who at first sat with us at the buvette, place for drinks and food like a cafe and bar mixed together sort of like a pub, and then she decided she was tired and layed down on the floor and proceeded to fall asleep. in about 5 minutes a person who worked at the buvetter poked her with a stick and told her she had to leave. she then proceeded to crawl on her hands and knees out of the buvettes concession when she reached the outside she sat against the wall and ate dirt. i felt nothing but pity for this woman she probably had no idea where she was what she was doing and clearly nobody cared. but the meeting i went to went well it was good to see everyone:
the taxi ride back was equally as interesting we took a taxi from natitangou with 10 people in the car, 2 children and 4 adults in the back and 4 people including the driver in the front. note that this car only seats in the states 5 people. we then got stopped by police and told there were too many people in the car and the mother and two children got out so now there are 4 people in the back and 3 in the front: then we go about 1/3rd of the way and we get stopped there was something happening with the taxi union and our taxi guy couldnt take us to djougou as planned so we payed him and after a long discussion and some moving around trying not to get hit by the reckless 12 year old who was driving our taxi around we found a driver, not the 12 year old, and a taxi we then proceeded on to djougou and when we arrived it was myself my two postmates and another kid who wanted to go to bassila, not good not enough people so we switch taxis again why not? apparently more taxis equal more fun its like a big game of musical taxis. our new driver was not too pleased that there were only 4 of us and he wanted to up the price but we told him it was possible to find other people along the way and boy did we ever we must have stopped at least 15 times to pick and drop people off so it took us closer to 2 hours to get back from djougou. but that is my bush taxi ride and when i told this story to some locals they asked, whats so unusual about that? so there you are my bush taxi expirence.