|
 KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Ever wonder where America's yellow school buses go to die? Some don't — they find a second life on Central Africa's rutted, traffic-choked roads.
Boxy buses that once carted American children now haul Congo's impoverished people, young and old — and their loads of preserved fish, powdered milk, beans and onions. Charging breakneck around the capital, the yellow buses rattle fiercely as they crash through the potholes peppering Kinshasa's roads. The blinking tail lights that had protected many a child are now either missing or broken.
While many castoff products from rich Western countries find new use in Africa, the ripped T-shirts, faintly treaded shoes and old computers haven't had their original use quite as thoroughly inverted as the yellow school bus: Yellow buses symbolize safety and restraint on American roads. Not here in Congo.
|