Wednesday Funnies- Driving lessons from Africa

Hey all… I hope I didn’t lose anybody in all of that story retelling…it was a lot to read, I know! It was fun to remember it all though, and to reflect on how far we have come in one short year.

Anyway, I have lots to blog about in the world of transracial adoptions, but since it is Wednesday, I thought I would share a Ben “Wednesday funny” and I promise I will be “back to business” tomorrow.

I have shared on here lots of times that Ben had an amazingly easy adjustment to our home, family and life in American in general. There weren’t too many things that seemed to really throw him for a loop in the beginning…he is just a very “go with the flow” little guy.

But one thing that bugged him in the beginning was the way that I drive!

Now if you have never been to Addis Ababa and experienced the death-defying driving/traffic in person, you can get somewhat of an idea of what it is like on this fun video on YouTube called “Addis in Four Minutes and 30 seconds”.

You will notice the complete lack of things we take for granted, like lanes, turn signals, traffic lights, etc. and will notice the complete abundance of things like swerving, people cutting each other off, lots of stopping and going abrubtly, honking and of course… people, animals and all sorts of stuff all over the road.

I got used to the traffic in Addis pretty quickly, but it took Ben a little while to get used to the way things work here. On one of our first outings after Ben was home, I was driving (which was also a surprise to him!) and I had Ben, Amanda, Maggie and Marcus in the van…we were driving the little girls to preschool.

We live on a country road, and at the end of it is a stop sign, as it connects with a major highway (65 mph speed limit). As I got to the stop sign, I came to a stop and waited for a few cars to go by. Ben yelled, “Mom, GO!” He could not understand what I was waiting for…

I showed him the sign that said “STOP” and explained I had to wait my turn, and wait for the other cars to go past us.

A few minute later, as we were pulling out of the preschool, I had to make a left hand turn onto the main road, so of course I was waiting for the traffic to give me the opportunity to turn. Again, Ben yelled from the back, “Go Mom! Go!” So I told him again that in America, the cars take turns, and if I went right then, we would crash into the cars that were coming.

He said, in a very serious voice, “No Mom. You will no crash. It is OK. In Ethiopia, cars no wait. Cars go. You go like Ethiopia. Go Mom! Go!” He was just sure I didn’t know what I was doing.

I can just see myself explaining it to the police officer…”Yes sir… I did pull out into oncoming traffic…you see, my son here promised I wouldn’t crash and that it would be ok, just like in Ethiopia…”

Crack me up, getting driving lessons from my five year old!

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