Taking the Bus on an island

Taking the bus

Given the rising cost of gasoline and the fact that I drive a 19 year old SUV, ever so often I take the bus to work. Mind you I so t live in a metropolitan city like New York or Toronto but rather the small island of Antigua. There's no bus schedule or time table just routes and independent drivers who own their own buses. Growing up on the island you learn the schedule by knowing the time particular drivers pass your home during the morning rush hour. So if Donald (actual name of a driver) passes your street at 7:00 am and you're not there to catch him, you know you're already late.

The actual bus ride though is something else in entirety. Firstly if you don't greet everyone with the customary "good morning " you'll be considered rude and unmannerly. Add to that equation scores of children getting off at the various schools along your route and mothers with young babies in tow. Compound that with teenagers playing dancehall music from a device at the loudest volume. And you have the unique experience that is catching the bus on an island. Not to mention. That you might be asked to hold said baby while mother helps her older child across the street. Or that you naught be the one to cross the street with said child. God forbid the driver has to stop for breakfast along the way. Regardless to say that whatever the scenario your trip will be one of a kind. The experience of rubbing shoulders with your kinfolk as they too journey to work to make a living is indeed a humbling feeling. The journey home in the evening is just as humble. You see mothers with babies strewn across their laps, construction workers nodding on the window panes as this is the first time they've truly rested since waking up at the crack of dawn. At the end of another day you ride side by side those who've kept the wheels of production turning for another day here in paradise.