Hatred on the Bus

The bus is a great place to meet new friends, when you find yourself squished uncomfortably close to a stranger you are faced with two options, ignore them and hope the awkwardness goes away or strike up a conversation. The girl next to me was writing messages with her hand on the frosted over bus windows. She was very surprised when I could read what she had written. We struck up a conversation and I was excited by how pleasant and outgoing she was. I could judge by her appearance that she wasn't originally from the city, her clothing and demeanor screamed country side and sure enough she quickly started telling me about her home town. She was anxious to know what I thought of the Uyghur people and their culture. She seemed so kind and gentle that I knew I had found a new friend.

At the next stop two more girls from a different people group, one that has long lived in tension with the Uyghur people got on. They ended up standing packed tightly right behind us. My new friend picked up the edge of her headscarf and used it to cover her mouth and nose, the way you might if there was suddenly a foul smell. Her face suddenly took on a hard edge “What do you think of those people?” she asked with contempt. I looked at the girls as they stood giggling behind us, deep in their own conversation. I knew my new friend was a devout Muslim, so I decided to appeal to her religiosity “I think Allah created all people on the earth, Uyghur, Canadian and their people group. I think we must love and respect all that comes from His hand”. Almost as if I hadn’t spoken at all “I hate them, I hate all of them,” she spat out with distain.

I was confused and hurt. Where did the nice gentle girl I was speaking to just a few minutes ago go? How was she replaced with this prejudice, hate filled young women? I made a comment about how our hearts could never know peace and happiness if they were so filled with hate for other humans, but once again my words fell on deaf ears. Her face remained hard set and scornful. Thankfully it was my stop, and I gratefully escaped the tense situation. I was still contemplating the complete change in her personality and the way hatred overwhelms a person when she called me on my cell phone “did you make it home safely on the icy streets?” obviously the nice version of this young women had returned.

TV on the Bus

For the rest of the population (those who aren’t willing to get up and dance to their destination) the public transportation department has provided its own entertainment. All of the newer city buses have TVs on them, which tend to play the strangest loops of programming I have ever seen. There are of course commercials for stores and companies around town, but there are also reduce reuse and recycle suggestions as part of the governments green intuitive (most days this place seems anything but environmental, but at least this bus add campaign is a start).

While riding the bus I have learned how to rinse out my cooking oil container cut off the top and use it to store children’s toys. I have learned how to properly fold a bed sheet so that it takes up less room in the cupboard, how to make cute crafts out of toilet paper rolls and different ideas for reusing flour sacks after they are empty. Yesterday they had a 5 minute segment on how to use the rest of the powder/foundation in your compact after it is dried out and clumpy. Every ride is a new lesson; many of them leave me scratching my head asking “how is that Green?” But as traffic gets worse and worse in the city it is nice to have some sort of entertainment as we stand squished like sardines for over 30 minutes.

Dancing on the Bus

Buses here are known for being over crowded. The running joke is: “How many more people can you fit on the bus?” The answer is always: “One more”. Some of you may remember a few summers ago when my foot almost got broken because of a crowded bus.

People were squished at the front of the bus so tightly that the driver told me to jump on the back. I passed my money in and ran around to the back door. There were already two people occupying the back bottom step, and the three of us hung on until the door was shut tightly behind us. When we arrived at the next stop the back door flew open with force right on my foot. This left me limping on a very swollen foot for the next few weeks. Overcrowded buses are just part of life here.

That’s what made our experience the other night seem even odder. My friend and I got on a bus and it was empty. Just us and the driver. We had the whole space to ourselves. We ended up tossing our purses on one of the nearby seats and dancing up and down the aisles like our life was a musical. This was unique in that there was no one else squished in next to us. When our bus pulled to a stop at the traffic light we could see that drivers in the cars next to us were craning their necks to see what was going on in the bus. That didn’t stop us, we kept dancing till we reached our destination. One other passenger eventually joined us, but you could tell was uncertain of what was going on. He timidly stayed seated in the chair right behind the driver as we continued to swing and sway our way down the street. When we got home we found this video on Youtube, a different part of the world, and a different mode of travel- but these guys get the joy of dancing on public transportation.