The life of a Jamaican Taxi- Part 1

If you live in Jamaica and, like me are unfortunate enough to have to take public transportation, then you know its always an adventure to take a taxi. I will attempt to look at life through the eyes of the car itself. I wonder what goes through their minds (well if they had one, or maybe they do...i don't know).

Part 1

Hi my name is Jerry, I'm a white Toyota Corolla. I was born in Japan in 2000. I've had a hard life, i never imagined, when i left my home country, I would have such experiences. Some adventures were good, some were quite scary, others were down right horrible. My poor body has endured so much since i arrived in Jamaica, my driver; though i use that word with much reservation, sometimes the road, my passengers all affect me in different ways.Today i found out that we ply the Half Way Tree to Papine route. I'm a bit excited. I'm new to this, some of the other cars seem to be excited to be taxis. I don't know what to expect, it's my first time in Jamaica.

Here i am parked at the taxi stand, there are so many cars here. I'm trying to look my best, help my owner get as many passengers as possible. Right now I'm quite shiny so I'm not concerned. Oh here comes a girl; "Papine, UC, Campus" "my girl, Papine UC Campus" "yuh a come?", i see him hold on to her hand, but she doesn't look too pleased, but she's coming anyway. Ouch, take time with my door, why did she have to slam the door, i felt that all the way up my spark plug! I wonder if she knows that if she keeps doing that my poor door might soon fall off. Ok let me calm down its just one person, "Slam, Slam Slam" "Ouch Ouch Ouch", what on earth is going on!

We're off, oh my, he has a heavy foot doesn't he, he'll slow down, hey, that was a red light, what the, you can't cut him off like that, you can't treat the other road users like that. Why is he going into the filter lane, i thought Papine was straight. Ok, maybe i was wrong. What! did he just cut in front of him? but the white line is all the way back there. Why is everyone just sitting there and not saying anything? What's that beeping, oh, right my seat belt light, maybe they just forgot. Hey you, put on your seat belt, don't you see this is a mad man, HEY PUT ON YOUR SEAT BELT! It's hopeless, that noise is going to drive me crazy.

We're coming near to Campus, last stop. Sigh that was an interesting first drive on route. That beeping is still in my head, and my spark plug is still vibrating from all the door slamming. I'm so ashamed, so many others saw me racing up the road,way outside the speed limit, they saw me bad drive other cars, they saw me run the stop light. How am i going to ever live this down. No one in Japan quite prepared me for this.