Speed breakers
You haven’t really lived until you’ve been so tired that you keep falling asleep between speed breakers only to have the brakes slammed on and you almost slam into the dash. The other option is the driver decides they are small enough that he doesn’t need to slow down and that’s when you’re head, that’s leaning against the window, gets rattled, bam, bam, bam against the window. Oh don’t even think that your going to miss out on the brakes being slammed on. Oh no, you get that too eventually.
Now if you’ve never been to Uganda, you can’t even begin believe how many or how big the speed breakers are. The trucks, buses, cars, well everything that has wheels drive as fast as their vehicle will go! So they control the speed, or I should say they try, they try really hard, to control the speed with speed breakers. Sometimes it seems that the road is nothing but speed breakers. If you haven’t experienced them, you really can’t believe how many or how big they really are.
The way that the speed breakers are set up is with some small ones first to act as a warning about what’s coming. Now when I say small, think ridges 4 to 6 inches high and 6 inches apart with there being from 4 to 6 of them, this is just the start. Sometimes there will be just two and they will be about 4 inches high. I think that they are trying to fool you because here comes the larger ones, 4-5 about 6 inches high. They rattle your teeth and cause your eyes to lose focus and bounce around in your head! Now here comes the break slam.
Oh I forgot, between each set of breakers you are involved in some kind of a race to get to the next one. It’s not that far between the things! This race seems pointless but it’s the African way. Now comes the real speed breaker. The others were just a warning about what’s to come. As if they are saying, “If you think these are something just wait your fixing to really see something.” BAM, the breaks go on as you’re facing what can only be described as a small HILL. This thing is unbelievable, 3-4 feet wide and 10-14 inches high. If your driver is in a hurry you are in for it!! You are thrown up in the air and if your vehicle has a low ceiling, or your driver is in a real hurry, or he’s on his phone, BAM your head finds the ceilings but don’t worry your rear end is fixing to find the seat.
Now all off these speed breakers go all the way across the road so now you get the 4 and the 2 again. There thousands of these things. I know that without them, it would suicide to get in a vehicle and that people walking on the side of the road wouldn’t stand a chance but this Alabamian ain’t used to this!