Dear Wisdom
I bought two bus tickets for my trip home from Port au Prince. When I got to the door of the bus and handed the tickets to the woman, she asked “Kote lòt moun?” (Where is the other person?) I pointed at my belly. ”Wow” she said which is also a word in Creole and on the bus I went. My long legs appreciated the extra foot space.
I am always amazed when I arrive somewhere in this country especially when traveling solo, solo as in with all the other people traveling. It’s not that it’s so scary or dangerous although sometimes there is that element. Traveling on public is already a privilege. Traveling on public within another culture is like two trips in one. Two adventures. One is the physical journey, through the traffic and haze of Port au Prince, past the cactus trees of Gonaives, up and a r o u n d the mountain roads and down the other side. The other trip is being included (with or without questioning) in a small crowd traveling together through time.
2 comments:
Thank you Esther for this blog. I was wondering so much about you but was not quite sure how to communicate (I think you mentioned twitter, but my technological brain has not reached that far yet.)
I too love riding public tranport in Iraqi Kurdistan. The buses are tiny compared to Wpg transit. You think the seats are full and then more people come and they pull down the folding ones between the rows. One can not get off from the back without all those people, uncomplainingly, getting up and refolding their seats to let you off
Yahoo! So happy to find you Kathy and to remember riding the wpg bus with you AND imagine you riding the bus in Kurdistan is truly LOVELY. It's like riding with you again.
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