Yes, they are mine!! All mine!!! 🙂

To explain. In winter, one of my students asked me to hold some workshops for taxi drivers. Those went so well, that we decided to try and set up a class especially for them! Which worked out very well…in Malaysia taxi drivers are basically entrepreneurs so they set their own working hours. As a consequence, their schedule is super flexible and they fill in very well my morning slots, when no one else can attend. So, we started! I didn’t really know what to expect but at this point in time I can just say….BEST IDEA EVER!!!

My experience so far has been that everywhere you go in the world, taxi drivers are special. They generally talk more, are willing to share their opinions on everything and are some of the people that really give you a taste of the place you’re in. Add to all that the fact that in Malaysia (and probably in most other developing country), taxi drivers are also a bit suspicious. Will he use the meter or will he try to rip me off?

Well…I can honestly say that MY taxi drivers are the nicest, kindest and funniest people ever!!! They are incredible! Super motivated and always making fun of everything. As you might have noticed from my previous posts, I live in a rather conservative community. But these guys have no problem discussing about sexiness, making jokes about second wives and just being generally naughty!

Furthermore, they know way more about the world and general knowledge things than my teenagers (who should be currently learning this) and my adults (who all have at least medium education) put together. Because, believe it or not I have been in the position of explaining to my adults what a continent is; that Paris and London are not countries, but cities; that there is no jungle in Europe and so on and so on. And no, people here are not stupid. But they are living in a system that is teaching them only Malaysian history and geography (and even that not in a very good way) and that is not encouraging them at all to search, to expand, to seek answers.

My taxi drivers on the other hand are brilliant! They know lots of stuff from all over the world, most of them have extra jobs (one actually owns a travel agency, and was laughing that his employees don’t know he’s a taxi driver too:)), they always ask questions (and really good ones I might add), and are genuinely interested in anything new or different! Plus, they all actually LOVE what they do, which gives them an unbelievable energy!

So now our mornings are beginning in a much more awesome way than before! Not to mention the fact that one of them is one of the funniest people ever…so it’s basically like I got myself a MAlaysian dad (his wife is awesome also…she decided to come to the class too, so she is now the only woman in the whole group of men. And not at all shy! But confident, strong and funny!). And another one of them is like our granddad…you just want to hug him all the time 🙂

It’s just unbelievable how much warmth and energy they can give! Not to mention the free taxi rides 🙂