Thursday, 03 June 2010 13:59
In my last post, I mentioned that we’ve already sold our car. Plus, half our furniture is gone (the other half is bought, but by the grace of the buyers, not yet collected.) In a big sense, it feels like we’re back at the beginning. I remember one particularly painful and humbling moment 2 1/2 years ago, when Tim and I sat on our bathroom floor with a Russian-English dictionary and our brand-new clothes washer, trying to figure out what the words written on the front of it meant. You haven’t felt humble until you’ve been unable to wash your own socks because you can’t read the instructions about how to do it. We had no furniture; no beds for the children.... Now, with no car, we’re back to The Good Old Days of taking public transportation everywhere we go (not for the faint of heart, when the heat and humidity are 80/80,) and, when the food shortage in the cupboards finally becomes too pressing to ignore, calling taxis to take us to the supermarket for A Big Shopping.
I just got back a round-trip to the grocery store, and on the way there, I started thinking about what makes a good taxi driver, and what…doesn’t. So here, for the benefit of you readers who may earn your living this way (*echoing silence*) I offer (free of charge) some:
Advice from the Other Side of the Front Seat
- A good taxi driver keeps a reasonably clean cab. In Krasnodar, most taxis are the personal cars of their owners, and some seem to…er… fairly crawl with unseen fellow-passengers. I am not a snob, but I do count it a good day when I don’t have to disinfect my clothing after a taxi ride.
- Please do not smoke while you are driving the 4 kilometers to my destination. Or if you must smoke (because apparently you must) please hold your cigarette arm out the window as you do so.
- I too think those portable DVD players are Really Cool. But please defer watching your movie until you are safely parked, and I am out of the cab.
- Don’t feel you need to entertain me by turning up your All-American Rap station as loud as it will go. Although you probably don’t understand the lyrics, trust me they are filthy, and I’d just as soon not have them re-echoing in my head for the next several hours after our time together.
- I like a talkative cab driver. But if you speak mostly slang, or if your speech is peppered liberally with profanities, expect me not to understand, and to spend the majority of the drive nodding benignly and saying, “Da, da.” (This means I don’t understand a word you just said.)
- Calling in to your dispatcher at the beginning of the drive is likely to increase my confidence in your honesty, and may result in a tip.
- Time is money, and nowhere is this truer than in the taxi-driving business. But when I am riding in your Zhigoli or Lada, which I’m pretty sure don’t have “crumple zones” or air bags, and there’s a mere quarter-inch of metal between me and the next reckless car, I’d appreciate it if you kept your speed below 100 kilometers per hour.
- When you tell me your price, be prepared to show me your fare chart, if it seems too high. Because I’ll probably be asking, and it’s no fun to admit you just quoted me a price too high.
- Please feel free to chat as we drive. Taxi drivers are some of the most interesting people I’ve met, and you almost always say something worth remembering. Who knows? You may even end up in my blog someday!
