A story

As I haven't had much excitement in the last few weeks and I have yet to find a reliable internet connection where I can upload another of my videos, I thought that I would tell one of the many stories that I have accrued.

My roommate and I had gotten in the habit of using the same group of taxi drivers for rides home. These guys post up at the top a hill next to a metro station, so it is a bit of a walk, but they understand that each time they will get 5 manat and we get a ride home without having to barter over the price. We've had several interesting run ins with cabbies since we've been here, so having working out a mutual understanding makes the walk worth it.

So after a long, hot day I made the trip up the hill alone, as my roommate was currently on vacation back in the states and hailed one of the cabbies while offering the other drivers in the group (people here hang out in groups of four most everywhere you go, haven't quite figured out why yet) a "Salam". The cab was actually one of the better ones in the group so I slouched down into the rather comfortable back seat grateful to be sitting down again and on my way to my apartment.

Before I go any further I need to explain something about the cabs here. None of the cabs work for actual cab companies. They don't have yellow cabs. They don't even have cab meters (hence the bartering over the cost of the cab ride). Any person with a car can run his own cab service, and from what I gather, they so quite well for themselves. The only way to tell a cab is the magnetic light on top the car that says "taksi" which is connected to the battery by a wire that runs through the firewall and up to the roof.

Back to the cab. We started to pull away from the front of the metro station and I turned to look into the on coming traffic. When I turned back, the car was completely filled with the most foul smelling, thick black smoke. I didn't panic, but I didn't really know what to do either. Should I jump out? I opened the door so I could breathe a began to furiously waft the smoke out. Steadily things began to clear and that is when I caught sight of the flame along the A pillar of the cab (the A pillar is the part of the car where the windshield and the front doors meet) and the panicked cabbie batting at it with his open palms. He patted the flame out and turned to me with a smile on his face to say "problem no, problem no". He drove me the rest of the way home without incident and I got out and laughed al the way up the elevator.

I couldn't help but laugh. I know this is like joke you tell where you say "I guess you just had to be there", but stuff like this tends to happen here quite regularly. How many people can say that they were in a cab when it caught fire?