jeepneys!!

Ali P says
hello everyone,
thanks for your comments Elesha and Ilham, we finally made it! some of us got here yesterday and the rest arrived at lunch today. Read the comments from Patrick to catch up with journey so far - but we are all doing well, todays arrivals look very tired, we must have been like that yesterday, but for now we are all adjusting to the time difference quite well.
we have been learning at close range the traditional skills of the local jeepney drivers. every day we go to eat with our local YWAM team at their base, this involves a 10 minute journey on the back of a jeepney, these are small buses with bench seats along each side, where in England 6 people would comfortably sit side by side, on each side, but here it is customary for at least 25 people to fill the inside in any way possible (36 was last years record) people sit on the floor or others laps. there are no windows, which in this heat is a blessing, but when it rains they fold down the plastic sheeting and we boil! today it rained! people locally also like to hang off the back steps, cram at least 4 in the front and sometimes put others on the roof. they get very slippy in the rain, but we won't talk about how big a bruise you might get by testing this theory.
crossing into the oncoming traffic is mostly attempted with a blast of the horn at full speed at any time, 3 lane roads become 5 lane roads and i have seen bicycles without light coming head on at the jeepneys in the dark, none of this phases the drivers, they just carry on getting you from A to B.
we are all very noticable with our pale skin and loads of people shout as we travel along, we are quite conspicuous, so i guess everyone around here knows we've arrived, so when we get out into the communities we will already have made our introductions in part.
for now we must venture outside, in the dark and the rain, to walk back along the main road to get home, lets hope the jeepney drivers notice us, on the way here it was a bit like walking along the M6, so keep us in your prayers!