Sometimes, public transportation can be a wild ride, and I've had my fair share of crazy experiences. But there's this one experience that really stands out above the rest. It was a recent trip I took on a bus from Lagos to Delta (where I'm currently schooling).
My school had been on a long vacation of almost 2 months, and the news of resumption came as a bittersweet feeling for me. At some point, I was happy I'd finally get to see my friends again, change my environment and resume doing the things I've missed (yup who knew sitting for lectures would be one of them? 😅). At the same time, I felt reluctant and sad because I'd miss home and all the good stuff I usually enjoyed 🥺.
Either way, I still had to resume right? After all, there was no escaping it. So, after I had prepared myself and gotten my things ready, I hit the road on Monday morning.
The wildness started off on my way to the motor park, the people from the transport vehicles stormed out and rushed me as soon as I'd crossed the road. As I made my way towards the transport company I wanted to board, these thug like men rushed my luggages barbarically. Despite yelling and fighting for my luggages, they still pulled and continued compelling me to board their vehicle.
Eventually, one of them spoiled the handle of my bag and the rest fled when a gentleman intervened in my defense.
Feeling a little uneasy from all that tussle, the gentleman walked me to the transport company until I safely boarded the bus and began my journey.
A journey which was supposed to take not more than 6 hours exceeded to 10 hours +. My dear readers, I experienced firsthand shege! 😩 Getting on the bus, I felt at ease knowing I'd sit comfortably and enjoy the AC but I guess I was delusional to think so.
Typical of most Lagos transport vehicles, this driver's AC wasn't functional. To top it all the passengers windows were tinted and jammed. Only the driver's window could open. So you can imagine how bad it was. Plus there were traffics here and there. All of us on the bus kept sweating profusely from the unfavourable weather condition and stuffiness of the bus. Of course, passersby outside couldn't tell because the windows were tinted black.
The “no-nonsense” passengers stood up to the driver, yelled and almost broke into what would've been a disastrous fight. But at the end of it, we couldn't really do much, the damage had been done and the fare had been paid too. We just tried to manage the heat by using paper fans and buying cold drinks to cool ourselves down.
The most traumatizing part was having to witness one of the passengers go through an asthma attack due to the condition of our car. Myself and everyone else on the bus panicked the more because the person had accidentally put her inhaler in one of her luggages which was deep inside the trunk of our bus.
The driver had to park and get everyone out of the car including the asthmatic patient. Then we all helped in searching for her inhaler until it was finally found. The young girl was revived and the wheezing stopped.
We all thanked God she survived but I couldn't help but wonder what could've happened if she'd passed out and never woken up. How would her parents, friends and loved ones react if I myself could feel so frightened by the experience.
What if I was in her place instead and I didn't have my ventilator with me? Or what if I didn't know I was athmatic? Would I have suffocated to death then? Mehn, I just couldn't stop thinking about everything and until this very day, that journey still lives rent-free in my head 😪.