This is the termed used to describe the mopeds, motorcycles, and bicycles that transport people around. These bikes are the most common form of short distance transport. In the small villages you will find mostly bicycle bodas where in the larger towns you will find many of all the different varieties.
The term Boda Boda originates because it is said that the bikes will take you from border to boder this may not be completely true be you can sure find them anywhere between the borders. The Peace Corps has a rule that volunteers aren’t allowed to ride on the motorized bodas. We can ride the bicycle ones as long as we are wearing a helmet. This rule is enforced wherever volunteers are throughout the world. It is for the volunteers safety that this rule is enforced. The rides are very dangerous when you couple the poor rodes, bad drivers and poor condition of some of the bikes.
These Boda drivers will sit on there bikes together at street corners and just wait for people pass by and ask for a ride. For most Ugandans they pass by the Bodas with no problem if they want a ride they will just hope on the back of a bike. If they don’t want a ride they just keep on walking. It is a different story for a Muzungu (White Person). The drivers will see you coming from far off and start shouting at you to see if you want a ride. The Peace Corps volunteer will obviously have to decline the ride but it doesn’t matter how many times you walk by the same corner they will continue to ask if you want a ride.
Walking on my way to work I pass a few street corners which are filled with bodas. I knew that I would need to pass these drivers everyday and I didn’t want to here them shouting at me every day. So I decided to try a different strategy. So on the way to work I stop and Introduced myself to the drivers and told them I would be here for the next two years and wouldn’t be able to take a ride from them because of a few rules I had to follow. This strategy has worked rather well and now they greet me when I walk past in the morning instead of just shouting out Muzungu.
