It was raining this morning so I caught the taxi to work and Liam Neeson didn’t need to place a threatening phone call to get me back. If you haven’t already figured it out, it was my first time doing it alone. I walked two minutes from my apartment to the main street and raised my hand towards the sky to signal the approaching cab.
In New York city, where the taxi drivers speak English (most of the time), you can easily explain your destination, reroute if the traffic is heavy and/or tell the driver some choice words if they are trying to rip you off. But how could I do that here only speaking a handful of Durija?
When the driver pulled over there was a woman in the passenger seat and a man in the back. The driver was on his phone having what sounded like a heated conversation. No one said anything to me. I leaned forward and said, “Marshe Koudiat” to let the driver know the general area that I wanted to go. He didn’t respond so I took that as my cue to sit back and hush my mouth.
The woman got out. I saw that she haggled her price. (You go, girl!) We took off again, but we were going in the opposite direction of my office and the driver hadn’t even acknowledged that I was in the car.
I could tell that the driver and the male passenger were talking about me. They figured out that I didn’t speak their language. They were smirking.
Time to Panic
O-M-G, they are “finsta” kill me! Get it together, Nikki. Maybe I should open the door, jump out and tuck-and-roll. It looks completely doable in the movies.
Years ago, in a self-defense class, I learned how to do a little maneuver to break free if someone is trying to choke me. But they’d have to be choking me from the front. Sigh.
Oh, forget it. I’m just going to be kidnapped. This is how it all ends. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Then, in Durija, the driver asked me where I was going. I could tell by the inflections in his voice and by the “Are you going to answer me or not?” look he was giving me in the rear view mirror. I told him the area again. When we approached, I started pointing and directing him left and right in Durija.
I didn’t know how to tell him to stop so when we were two seconds from being in front of the office I yelled out “MERCI!” As a driver, I know how irritating that can be because I have a friend who likes to tell me to turn as we are passing the intersection so when I walked in the office, I asked someone to tell me how to say “Stop” in Durija for the next taxi ride.
