When I first started work in the CBD of Durban and my friends heard that I was travelling to and from work by bus, they thought I was crazy! Here in SA if you have a car you use it. It's a status symbol and especially for my male engineer friends, they can't imagine life without the luxury. For my part, travelling to work in the early morning or through rush hour traffic, dodging possessed taxis, potential hijackers or smash & grabber artists, and then paying throught the nose to park in the most convenient parking garage, just didn't seem very appealing!Although getting up at the crack of dawn (5am) and waiting around in the morning chill in winter for the bus (which is invariably late) was initially a little daunting, it has now become a daily ritual. Never in my life have I seen so many sunrises, and the daily trips are a wonderful time to simply sit back and observe the world or alternatively sink into a peaceful reverie before the noise of town and the office. Watching (and listening to) the other bus passengers can be very entertaining given the range of people and personalities who share my daily ritual. There are the regulars who slowly one gets to know by name, and every now and then somebody interesting decides to take a trip. Of course one gets to know the loudest charcters first - the lady at the bus stop who is continually moaning about her elderly tenant, the sports fan who wants to challenge the bus driver about his favourite soccer team, and the giggling and squawking school kids who rule the back seats of the bus. Other people stick out because of their dress sense or odd behaviour. as freaky as any of them may be, there's always a question in my mind as to their health when they aren't at the bus stop as usual.
I'll never forget my first time on the bus... I got on and sat down in on eof the front seats... Stupid move!... Those seats are for the regulars. A few stops later I was greeted by a large coloured man who sat down next to me and proceeded to stare at me with a broad toothless smile.... Freaky! Needless to say I never sat at the front of the bus again, except on those days when I was minimising painful awkward steps in excessivelt high-heeled boots!!
Now a few months down the line, I have become a regular, and on regular observation, the above mentioned man is just a harmless friendly man and not the terrifying predator I imagined in my paranoid delusion! Of course I still usually keep to myself, placing my bag on the seat next to me, and avoid eye contact, but the bus it now part of my "zone"!
One really gets to appreciate the variety of people in the world and it's great to see people from different backgrounds interacting - especially in South Africa's multicultural, multiracial society. Amongst the many interesting charcters I have sat next to a budding warlock who wanted to become a cabinet maker, a hotel school student with dreams of grandeur on a cruise ship, a 92-year old grandmother who braves the crime in town every week to go and visit her grandkids and a foul-mouthed nurse who was an Egyptian in a previous life and who is convinced that her ex-lover is trying to kill her!
And then there's me - the silent anti-social girl, with no dress sense, who always wears the wrong clothes for the weather, who stares vacantly into space or out of the window and occasionally nods off on the hot afternoons drives home! Thankfully there's a place for all of us in the world!!
I'll never forget my first time on the bus... I got on and sat down in on eof the front seats... Stupid move!... Those seats are for the regulars. A few stops later I was greeted by a large coloured man who sat down next to me and proceeded to stare at me with a broad toothless smile.... Freaky! Needless to say I never sat at the front of the bus again, except on those days when I was minimising painful awkward steps in excessivelt high-heeled boots!!
Now a few months down the line, I have become a regular, and on regular observation, the above mentioned man is just a harmless friendly man and not the terrifying predator I imagined in my paranoid delusion! Of course I still usually keep to myself, placing my bag on the seat next to me, and avoid eye contact, but the bus it now part of my "zone"!
One really gets to appreciate the variety of people in the world and it's great to see people from different backgrounds interacting - especially in South Africa's multicultural, multiracial society. Amongst the many interesting charcters I have sat next to a budding warlock who wanted to become a cabinet maker, a hotel school student with dreams of grandeur on a cruise ship, a 92-year old grandmother who braves the crime in town every week to go and visit her grandkids and a foul-mouthed nurse who was an Egyptian in a previous life and who is convinced that her ex-lover is trying to kill her!
And then there's me - the silent anti-social girl, with no dress sense, who always wears the wrong clothes for the weather, who stares vacantly into space or out of the window and occasionally nods off on the hot afternoons drives home! Thankfully there's a place for all of us in the world!!
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Update: The above mentioned toothless gentleman has freaked me out once again by staring at me on the bus and making as if he was blowing kisses. He may still be fairly harmless, but I'm definitely putting him back on the "freaking-me-out list"!!!
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