Days when I wish I had a car… or at least Coaster service here.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
I headed to the bus stop this morning not quite “bright and early” at my normal time of 6:30, but I figured 7:30 was still plenty early enough to catch something quickly. So I waited… and waited. Until 3:30 I waited. That’s 8 hours of standing on the side of the road. Okay, so I did sit some of the time on the ledge outside of the little bread shop. I was headed to Kamonyi to stay with Kim tonight before continuing on to Kigali early tomorrow morning for an appointment with the eye doctor. If I had a destination of Kigali today, I could have made it; I could have taken a bus north. But to go to Kamonyi I was waiting for a south-bound vehicle. So the first mutatu that came by heading the direction I wanted to go was already full and the guy was demanding I pay nearly double the normal price to squeeze in and sit on someone’s lap – no thank you. I figured another one would be coming where I could find a seat or at the very least the bus would come by eventually and I’d stand. At least the bus has fixed prices and after an hour or so someone always gives me a seat (even if it is only two inches to perch on next to several large men). The next mutatu that came through barely even slowed down. It was full and the driver was refusing to take any more passengers. Alright, the bus it is. But even when the bus came by it was more packed than usual. It had just begun to rain but I ran out to the bus and tried to claw my way on. The woman with the baby who had been waiting with me climbed on as I held her umbrella. Then before I knew it the bus was pulling away, the lady only half on the bus, not able to squeeze all the way in and shut the door. I still had her umbrella so I had to run after the bus and pass it off like a baton. By then it was really pouring and I got drenched as I sprinted for cover. So now not only am I tired, frustrated, and hungry (the only thing I ate all day while waiting was half of a tiny loaf of zucchini bread I had baked last night and was planning to take to Kim’s) but now I was also soaked, freezing, and quite miserable. A secondary student took pity on me and let me wear her sweatshirt, but I soon gave it back to her and just gave up. I called Dr. Elite and told him I wouldn’t make it and that he should reschedule the appointment. The new appointment is for next Tuesday. I shivered my way back home, went inside, and had igikoma and the rest of the zucchini bread bundled in a sweatshirt and coat. Then I decided to change into my PJs (but keeping the sweatshirt as well) and climbed into bed to try to get warm. I read a few pages of Emma before deciding a nap sounded better. It was 5 P.M. My “nap” lasted until nearly 7 A.M. the next morning with only the slight interruptions of a few text messages sometime between 6 and 8 P.M.
