The wheels on the bus go....

Once again, the truck’s visiting its mechanic friend. They’re close it seems. If they don’t see each other every month or so, the truck gets cranky and leaves its owner high and dry in the middle of nowhere. As a side note, just once I’d like the mechanic to say, “No worries my friend. It was just this 25 cent part that I actually already had here in the shop. Give me three minutes and you’ll be on your way!” instead of some long, twenty minute explanation of what’s wrong and how it’s going to cost you $300 if he can find the part.

And so...Ken has been relegated back to public transportation. Again. For nearly a week now. I’m kind of torn really...buses and taxis here add a certain joie de vivre for sure. They keep life entertaining. But at the same time...they’re so ridiculously slow! It takes forever to go anywhere. Yimy and I went to his house yesterday (out in the country) and what would have taken forty five minutes in my truck turned into over two hours on a bus. I guess it should make me thankful for what I have and not just freaking frustrated.

It should...

Tuesday night I was on a bus with Sandro, and we came to a spot where a parked car was blocking the oncoming lane of traffic. An SUV tried to swing out around the car just as we got there on our bus, so we ended up bumper to bumper. Of course no one wanted to back up, so what does our driver do? He turns off the bus and shuts off his headlights and sits there. The other guy doesn’t care...he’s talking on his cell phone and obviously has no where better to be. There are now other cars behind the SUV and people are getting impatient. Finally someone on our bus nicely says, “Well, there’s room behind us...”

With a very dramatic sigh, our bus driver starts up the engine and backs up...a foot. Then he stops. The SUV inches ahead a foot. Our driver backs up another foot. And stops again. He wants to be sure the other driver knows he’s giving in reluctantly. The SUV moves forward another foot. This goes on until finally the SUV can squeeze through with mere inches to spare. Sandro and I look at each other and just shake our heads. Sandro’s annoyed. I’m mostly entertained.

Then later a young hippy lady gets on the bus with some kind of little, two octave keyboard thing attached to a hose that she blows in. She rides with us for two blocks and plays a little ditty with one hand and then asks for donations. She made a killing! Everyone gave her something. It was crazy. I told Sandro we were going to start doing that. Everyone playing or singing on a bus for an hour and we’d have bus fare for a week!

I’ve mentioned this before, but there’s a certain code of chivalry on the buses here. If you’re sitting down near the front, and an elderly (or even middle aged) lady gets on the bus, you should give up your seat and stand while she sits. I guess we probably have that back home too. Anyhow, Sandro and I were sitting near the front and the bus started to fill up. He gave up his seat first, and then I began my usual “Oh please don’t be an old lady! Oh please don’t be an old lady!” chant in my head ever time the bus slowed to pick someone up. It’s not that I don’t want to be chivalrous...I do. But the buses here are not made for tall gringos and so I end up standing, hunched over, looking at my feet while getting tossed into random people until it’s time to get off. It doesn’t add to the entertainment value at all...

Yimy, on the other hand, has been nothing if not entertaining these past few days. Yesterday on the bus I looked over and a spider was crawling up his arm. I was like, “Dude...” He says, “It’s just little.” “Yea,” I say, “but it’s going to bite you!” Yimy doesn’t say anything in response; he just makes the hand gesture of shooting webs out of his wrist.

Public transportation also involves a lot of walking. As in, Ken’s too cheap to pay for all of us to ride a bus when we can walk. So Sunday after church we walked for about fifteen or twenty minutes to the restaurant where we were going to have lunch. It was a good time of laughing and talking...so it was all good. My favourite moment of the week came when Yimy, who was walking beside me, tried to reach over his head with his right arm and slap the top of my head. Only I was just a bit too far away and with those big, monkey arms of his, he missed me and slapped himself good on the left side of his head. Then he rubbed his ear and said, “Ouch!” in perfect English. It was awesome.

Ah well...soon enough (hopefully) my truck will be fixed and my days of riding a bus, hip to hip and bum to bum with thirty other people will be over (once again I learned that there’s always room for one more on the bus!). At least until the next time my truck misses his real friend, and wants another visit.

This weekend (if the truck is back) we’re going camping out in the jungle at some very cool waterfalls. It’s a long weekend here and we haven’t gotten away as a group for awhile. It’s Santa Cruz’s 200th Anniversary on Friday, and the city has been gearing up for the party for weeks. We’re planning to escape the festivities if we can. =)

Thanks for praying for us by the way. Life is going well here. Other than those normal little bumps in the road that come with every household, we’re all good. I know no one in Saskatchewan wants to hear this, but summer has arrived with a vengeance. After a crazy cold winter, the last couple of weeks have been really hot. I was on my second shower today before 11 AM. I can only imagine what February will be like.

Oh well...the waterfalls await...