Some years ago, I worked with a student who always smelled like moth balls. For the first few months of school, I thought he was wearing some clothes that had been stored in a closet with moth balls, but the smell never diminished. Then one day, I saw him take a moth ball out of his pocket and rub it on his neck under his chin and behind his ear. When I asked about this mothball ritual, trying to hide my horrified face, he told me it was his “perfume.”

From that moment, I came to understand that smells are subjective. What smells terrible to one person might be the best smell ever for someone else. Sadly for this kid, mothballs are also incredibly toxic, so I had to call home to talk with his family.

The conversation with his family also let me to another understanding: smells can represent even more than just personal preference. They can represent larger concepts like safety and hygiene. This family had left a refugee camp in Nepal and the moth balls in the camp kept away pests and masked other smells that were far worse. For this family, the smell of moth balls brought comfort.

It’s hard to hear that kind of statement from a family and still enforce the rule that moth balls are toxic and not allowed at school.

Fast forward to Abidjan, where the smell of moth balls abounds – but only in Yangos/taxis. At first, I just assumed that there must be hidden moth balls somewhere in the car until Owen pointed out (when he was visiting me) that urinal cakes smell like moth balls. He also pointed out that it was not an air freshener mounted to the dashboard, but it was, in fact, a urinal cake. Ew. I don’t know a lot about urinals, and apparently, neither do the Yango drivers.

The good news is that not every Yango driver subscribes to the moth ball/urinal cake method as a good source of air freshening—just some of them. Maybe about 20%, but even 20% is too many.

So this fact leaves me with an uncomfortable three-pronged daily calculation:

1. If I take an Economy Yango without air-conditioning, I might die of heatstroke.
2. Also, if I take an Economy Yango with no air-conditioning, I also might die of exhaust fumes.
3. If I take a Comfort Yango with air conditioning to avoid dying of heatstroke or exhaust fumes, I may get a driver who subscribes to the moth ball/urinal cake method. In this case, I will die of toxic fumes by inhaling the ungodly scent of a urinal cake for the length of the car ride.

Every day, I stand on the street playing roulette with my Yango app. If the sky is overcast, I might take an Economy Yango and do my best to stay cool and not breath the air coming in the windows. But when I miscalculate and end up in a Yango with a urinal cake, I also spend the length of the car ride trying not to breath. Since breathing is important, and necessary to sustain life, I am retraining my body to need less oxygen. Every day is a new adventure for survival! I guess these are the times we live in.

Seatbelts (or lack thereof) are a story for another day.

Me trying not to die of heatstroke in an Economy Yango and also trying not to breathe.