After the long day in court and traveling there and back, we decided to go out to dinner to a local pizza place that is popular among muzungus here. It's too far to walk and the guest house owner wasn't available to drive us, so we decided to hire boda bodas. A boda boda is a small motorcycle used as taxis here. There are hundreds of them. So we flagged 2 down, and each driver was able to fit 2 people (we went with our friends). They charged us 1000 shillings each. 2000 shillings is about $1. THe trip was uneventful except that the metal bar in back pressed on my sore tailbone from the van ride.
We had a nice loooong dinner. (Dining out here is extremely slow). It had started to rain, thankfully not hard, and gotten quite cool when we were heading home. We hired 2 more bodas. As I got on, I asked the driver how much and he didn't answer. Then, halfway home (in the pitch dark and rain and I have no idea where I am) he announces that he will charge us 5000 shillings total because there are 2 of us and it is dark. So of course I agreed--what else could I say? I could have argued once I got off safely in front of the guest house but I was exhausted so I didn't. But I learned a valuable lesson--negotiate the price before you get on! A local woman also told me to ask a local what the price should be to get from point A to B and then you will know if they are quoting you a fair price.
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