YOU SABI WHO IM BE BEFORE???

Call me weird but I enjoy bus rides. Yes, I do not mean comfortable air conditioned buses that belong to my father, brother, company or whoever you imagine I would know who might have a bus. I mean Danfo buses!

Ok, I am certain I would like it more if the seats weren’t as many and it didn’t carry so many people at the same time. It would get even better if the windows actually work and the doors don’t fall off in motion. Yes, it would be really great if we didn’t have to almost lap each other all through the ride and the half naked conductor did not have to hang on the bus just next to you with your nose just around his hair ridden abdomen. Can people just stop sleeping in buses? I mean even if you have to sleep, can you do it with some finesse, I don’t even know your name so why should I want your head on my shoulder or the souvenir of your spittle on my shirt? Then, can you be kind enough to keep your baby in check; it’s just not fair for him or her to cry all through the trip or for his chubby hands to find their way around my gala. And yes, kindly wear headsets if you absolutely have to listen to that song in the bus and I beg of you, do not sing along!

I bet those are the same things you hate about bus rides, the reason why top on the list of your prayer requests after money and man or woman (as applies to you) is a car. The funny thing about the matter is that the same things that make bus rides so unbearable also make it so interesting. Especially the chief of all the discomforts, the conductors and drivers! Alongside their habit of shouting relentlessly and hoarding your balance, sorry change.

So I was in a bus just last week, and we were to go some distance, now the first offense on the driver’s part was that he had no conductor.  Hence he had to combine maneuvering the bus in the busy traffic with ensuring he is not cheated as well as give everyone their change. Quite some feat, especially when you consider the impatience of the passengers who are naturally perpetually angry. So, as you already imagine, there was a battle of words. That is not striking, what however struck me as odd was the quality of the driver’s English. It was smooth and sweet and correct, good tense use, appropriate concord, uncommon grammar, from a danfo bus driver!

I was still caught up in the words that were emanating from his mouth when one passenger who was probably infuriated at his own obvious lack of education screamed; “why this guy dey talk big big English like this na, you think say na bank you dey?”. Another more thoughtful passenger answered as if on cue; “you sabi who im be before, maybe na one of this people wey dem retrench for bank”. Naturally, we all laughed as someone else crowned it up by saying; “he sha won’t die, he will continue his life”.

Now that got me thinking! Talk about picking up the pieces of your life, furthering despite disappointments, surviving against all odds. Assuming that man is actually a bank retrench, how does he feel when he occasionally runs into his former colleagues while furthering his new vocation? That is definitely a bold step, a major step at picking up the pieces of one’s life.

Then again, I know it’s not a new message and that you have heard never to give up so many times. Not to let disappointments get you down and all that. But if you are like me, I have  heard this message a lot of times and kept it in a corner of my heart that if  I ever experience a major disappointment, maybe a break up or job loss or something major, I wouldn’t give up, I would pick up the pieces straight.

But over the weekend, as I thought about that danfo man, I realized there were plenty things that had broken in my hands that I hadn’t bothered about. So many times I had been disappointed and have stayed disappointed. So many things I had packed up, so many things I had given up on, so many pieces on the floor, just lying around unpicked.

So I have not lost my job, but, what about the friends I have lost. The moments of laughter I have learnt to live without just because I couldn’t make that call. The things I no longer do at church because I no longer care so much. So maybe the pieces I need to pick start from returning that call no matter how long it has been. Getting up as early as I should to spend some time with my maker like I used to before. Forgiving that friend and doing the little things I used to do before that issue happened. Giving that person a chance to prove him/herself before I conclude and move on.  Buying that hair cream just in case my hair will grow this time around. So many little things, and big things too, but I definitely have pieces to pick and so do you!

P.S: If your pieces are not too personal, maybe sharing them here can begin the picking process.  Would also enjoy your tales from the bus rides you have taken in the past. Thanks for visiting, enjoy what is left of your week!