Friday, December 17, 2010

Buses in the Congo!

I recently returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo where I was over-joyed to find the people-mover of choice to be the trusty VW Bus! I'm assuming most of these very well-used vehicles originated from the South African factory, but then again I also saw a few Westfalias, so go figure.

I was able to shoot a bit of footage and scored a quick interview with a cabby working on his broken down bay window bus that will hopefully make it into the film. Here are a few pics of the Congolese busses in action.  If you look closely, you'll see there are up to 20 people crammed into each vehicle. After inspecting the interior I discovered the secret to maximizing passengers was to replace the original seats (capacity: 7-9) with 5 rows of wooden benches bolted to the floor (capacity: 20). Wouldn't be quite the same classic VW road trip experience, but I guess that isn't exactly the point...