MY UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER WITH PUBLIC TRANSPORT

There is something different about traveling via public transport the glances of people we've not seen before, shared stories, laughter, and the tiredness that comes with it at the end of the journey. Each journey has its own story and there is this journey I embarked on that has continued to live rent-free in my head.

I can still remember the journey I embarked on in the morning of 2016, during my service year from Imo State to Delta State. Just like any of the journies I have been embarking on, A small conversation will create an avenue for having long conversations when passengers begin adding their own stories. The passengers were filled with laughter and the bus was transformed into a warm gathering of strangers. I was enjoying the trip every step of the way. I learned one or two things on the way and even made a friend.

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Around halfway through our beautiful journey, the unexpected happened. The driver met with long traffic that wasn't moving at all so he decided to bypass the traffic by passing through the villages. While he was passing through, the bus sank into a pothole filled with water. He tried to get out of it all to no avail. He met some boys gathered around that place hoping they would help us push the bus, they wouldn't help us unless we paid 5,000 naira. The driver was with only 3,000 naira and they said they wouldn't do it for that amount. Everyone on the bus was like they didn't have extra money with them so I had to balance up with 2,000 naira.

They finally pushed the bus out of the pothole, and it refused to start. The driver tried and tried and we were stranded. The driver called a mechanic and he took forever to come. We waited and waited and I was getting tired. The passengers started looking for free lifts because we couldn't get another bus from their park. I was scared of free lifts so, I took a bike from that place to where I could get a bus home. It wasn't funny at all, the road was so lonely. I got home by 9 p.m. for a journey that was just 4 hours. Do you know that the passengers who couldn't get a free lift or afford a bike stayed and waited for the mechanic? The mechanic came the next day morning and fixed the bus and they continued the journey the next day afternoon. I collected one of the passenger numbers that stayed behind so I was checking up on them.

Is it something I would love to experience again? It is a Yes and No. Yes the laughter, conversations, and fun we had among strangers, will always remain with me. I learned a whole lot from those conversations. No, for the stress and suffering, I had to go through. A journey of 4 hours took the whole day. These are some of the encounters with public transport sometimes, the journies are not hitch-free.