Moto Rides

I wish I could make a video, well may be I will later, of a moto ride around the city. You could at least see the experience minus the wind in your hair and your knuckles gripping the back bar of the bike. It would be good for you to see.

Last week Julie and I were on a mission and so we hopped on our hired motos and we were off. These particular moto guys were some real speed demons. It was like they were racing each other almost. HONESTLY!!! My moto-man would pass Julie and I would make faces and she would laugh at my white knuckles clenched to the back of the moto and my hair flying every which way. She knew I was praying. I can’t tell you how fast we were going (because all the moto speedometers are broken), but I know it was really fast, OK.
Julie on the other hand has an entirely different posture on the motos. This particular night I remember looking at her with a cigarette in her right hand as she smoked and made sure it didn’t go out in the wind. Her left hand rest relaxed on her left thigh and she looked around like she was floating down the river in a calm current. Her hair tossed a bit but she was elegant on the back of that moto and I was envious.

Down the road we realized that one of the other French teachers was riding with her boyfriend on his moto. The teacher said hello to me and then her boyfriend sped up to greet Julie and then ducked back to me. She and I can’t really talk as I don’t know French and she doesn’t know much English, but she is really friendly and I like her. She had asked me to teach her French students Old MacDonald Had A Farm last week and loves that her kids sing it now. When they ducked back to talk to me again we smiled and she stated to sing Old MacDonald Had A Farm and I joined in. We were buzzing down the main road in Lome, at high speed, singing at the top of our lungs. Her boyfriend laughed and my moto-man thought it was bizarre but we laughed as they turned off.

Later Julie did tell me how the moto was going so fast that her driver had tears rolling down his face and splashing on her face! We laugh about that night still!