BUS STOP is Bae...

Have you ever wondered of a productive activity you can engage in while waiting at the bus stop? I have one for you. All it requires is your attention and a bit of time. The good thing about this activity is that you can quit whenever you are tired or ready to leave the bus stop. It is important to note that, it is an interesting activity, which is more enjoyable when you do not get involved, but pay close attention to all the happenings around you. Well, this beautiful and highly intellectual activity is (drumroll) Observing. Let me explain how Observing activities at a bus stop can be a fun and intellectual way to pass time and learn, while waiting for your bus.

To me, a bus stop is a type of Theatre where different performances happen simultaneously. It is also a place where you can freely observe human interactions and how they react to perceived pressure. If you are ever interested in observing different reactions of people to a given situation, this is the place to be. The Bus stop is a place that teaches you how the actions of others can sometimes, affect a person. Most important to me is that it teaches a person that you decide how you let the actions of others affect you, that is, negatively or positively. Before I explain the bus stop drama or movie (whatever you want to call it), let me give a brief introduction of the actors, equipment and location used in the Buss stop drama.

The bus drivers, conductors (in cases where they are available), Agbero, passengers and even passers-by are the actors at the bus stop. In my country, we have people we call, Agbero, who are people who collect money (the money collected are said to be fees for loading, parking and some fees stipulated by the government) from the bus drivers. They are the ones whose actions and inactions play a key role in this bus stop theatre. The buses, money paid as t-fare and other items are the props used in the drama; with the bus stop serving as the setting or location for the drama. The Agbero are very important, as the fee or levy they collect from the bus driver determine the t-fare, the emotions of the passengers and drivers, and most importantly, the type of drama or movie you get to observe at the bus stop that day.

Let me share with you what I have learnt from my observing the bus stop drama. Due to my little observation, I noticed that most passengers behave like the driver and conductor are their enemies. Many a times, they talk to the drivers and conductors rudely, but expect a polite response (I do not understand the logic behind this). A large number of passengers forget that the drivers are also human beings who have problems and challenges. Another group of passengers, sometimes forget that driving is a job, and that the driver is at his work place, and that their terrible attitude makes the driver have a bad day at his job.

Also, I have learnt that there are different types of passengers (this is just my own way of classifying the kind of passengers I have encountered overtime), they include:

1. passengers who will always want to pay lesser than the t-fare, they are champions in haggling

2. passengers who do not care whether the price of the t-fare is high or low

3. passengers who hate you for not caring about the price of the t-fare

4. passengers who believe you are the problem of the country for entering a bus that the t-fare is higher than the actual amount

5. passengers who are in a hurry to nowhere (this group of people are very annoying, as they shout at the driver, conductor and even their fellow passengers as if we are the ones that made them late)

6. passengers who are hired mourners, their major skill is nagging and complaining (whether the bus fare is high or low, they will nag)

7. passengers who like nagging and expect you to agree with their nagging (if you do not agree with them, you becoming a bad person and will be used as an example of people that spoil the country)

8. passengers who want to teach the driver his job by telling him how he should drive

9. passengers who were once parrots (they talk throughout the whole journey), and those who eat throughout the journey (the eating is not the problem, it is when some of them start smacking loudly that it becomes a problem)

10. passengers that behave as if they paid for the whole seat in the bus, sit in a manner that makes other passengers uncomfortable, and still have the effrontery to defend their actions

10. passengers who are always ready to fight (I think they were killed in their past life by a conductor or driver)

12. passengers who will always rush to enter the bus, even when nobody is dragging the space with them. They have been wired to think bus entering is a competition (you could get injured while trying to enter bus with this class of people, as they kick, punch, drag, and jab while trying to enter the bus at all cost). The thing that annoys me the most with these people is that after nearly killing you to enter the bus, they will come down from the bus if they believe the fare price is high (what a waste of energy).

For the drivers, I observed that they are sometimes victims in the hands of the Agbero, that is, they have to pay both the sensible and senseless levies, whether they like it or not. They are also trying to survive, but in trying to do this, some of them becoming greedy and heartless, and do worse than the Agbero. As we have different types of passengers, we have different types of drivers also. We have:

1. drivers who are cool, calm, do not like trouble and drive well

2. drivers who are demonic beings who only want trouble

3. drivers who can not drive

4. drivers who are reckless with human life

5. drivers who can not concentrate when you shout at them

6. drivers who are manner less and insult you at every given opportunity 

7. drivers who are chronic womanizers, and those who believe most girls are prostitutes and do not work for their money

8. drivers who sleep while driving (I feel bad for this group because some of them are really tired)

9. drivers who do not like being corrected by their passengers and conductors

10. drivers who like to enjoy their life (this is a special group of drivers, they will have fan in their buses, buy drinks when they need it, eat before leaving the park). I like this group of drivers and call them the "I Cannot Kill Myself Group".

11. drivers that will drive you pass your bus stop

12. drivers that suddenly change route during a trip, and drop you before your destination (this is very annoying and it could be because the driver does not feel like going again, traffic, driver running from Police or LASMA,  or they saw more passengers going to another route).

Next on the list are the conductors, these people (when available, as some drivers work as both drivers and conductors) are in charge of collecting the t-fare from the passengers, calling passengers into the bus, settling the Agberos, act as side mirrors (as most buses do not have side mirrors), and they sometimes work as assistant drivers (this could be either driving when the driver is tired or using their mouths to direct the driver on how he should drive). The different types of conductors include:

1. conductors who are cool individual, friendly and are eloquent speakers 

2. conductors who are unfriendly, insult you for no given reason, and are naturally annoying

3. conductors who are tactless and believe everything you tell them is an insult

4. conductors who like hanging on the bus, irrespective of whether there is a free seat in the bus or not

5. conductors who are womanizers, and will try to woo almost every girl in the bus

6. conductors who are womanizers, and will get angry if they woo you and you disagree

7. conductors who want to marry almost every girl they see (they keep insisting they can take care of you and that they have money to buy everything you want). Some of them are really smooth talkers, and are great at wooing a lady

8. conductors who never have change, even when you can see the change in their hands (change is a balance collected by some passengers when they pay the t-fare)

9. conductors who are kings in tying people together, popularly known as SO YIN PO (Tying people here means joining people together to sort their change issue themselves)

10. conductors who believe they can drive better than the drivers, and sometimes get angry when the drivers rejects their driving opinions.

11. conductors who are always ready to fight, be it the Agbero, LASTMA, their passengers, and in weird cases, their drivers

12. conductors who are always well dressed, look nice and smell nice

13. conductors who always sit in a comfortable position in the bus (they will even tell the passenger to stand up and go to another seat, if he mistakenly sits on their seat; if you refuse they tell the passenger to go to another bus).

The Agbero are the most interesting characters or actors at the bus stop. Their job is not an easy job because they are charged with the responsibility to collect money from people who most times, do not want to pay. Their job involves a lot of shouting, fighting, cursing, insulting and threatening the drivers and conductors. They are the pace setters of the bus stop drama, and determine whether the bus stop drama at that moment is a comedy, tragedy, melodrama, satire, farce or a mixture of genres.

The passengers, drivers and passengers forget that these people are human beings like them, and treat them badly in most cases. Whether we believe the work they are doing is good or bad, the level of contempt and disgust given to these individuals is a lot. They are also victims of the people who sent them out to collect the money, be it legal or illegal. The different forms of Agbero I have met over time include:

1. Agbero who are loud, cruel, violent, no respecter of person, and will do anything and everything to collect the money from the drivers or conductors (this is what we believe most Agberos are)

2. Agbero who are cool, calm and nice individuals

3. Agbero who like to fight at every given opportunity

4. Agbero who can not fight to save their soul, but brag that they can beat up you and the whole universe (their mouth alone does the fighting)

5. Agbero who sympathize with the drivers 

6. Agbero who are womanizers, they will woo you every time they see you, and offer to buy you anything you want

7. Agbero who do not fit in, they are like misfit, you can not tell why and how they are Agbero

8. Agbero who are like dons, they do not say much, just stretch out their hands to collect money and use their looks to silence the driver or conductors when they refuse to pay

9. Agbero who are like Mafia lords, if the driver refuses to pay, the boys in the park will beat up the driver for free, and he will still pay the fee

10. Agbero who are funny creatures, and drivers pay them with a smile on their face.

All these category of people make up the bus stop drama, and if you pay close attention, you could learn a thing or two. We are human beings, who are different in behavior, temperament, mannerism, ideals, culture and sometimes language; we should learn not to discriminate, and learn to be patient with one another. I know misunderstanding may rise at one point or the other, we should learn to deal with this misunderstandings in a matured manner. We are trying to survive, and do not need to frustrate or transfer aggression to our fellow man in the course of living. Our life journeys are different, and we are at different phases of our life, and should not feel superior or inferior to others; it is just a phase, it will pass.

In this new month, I hope we can learn a thing or two from the various forms of drama around us, be it life drama, church drama, school drama, marriage drama, hospital drama, bus stop drama, among others; and try to be a voice of reason when need be in these drama; and not be an irrational, irritating, condescending, disgusting, unreasonable and inhuman voice of hate and disharmony.

Photo credit:

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Alamy stock photo

Amakamedia