Here we spend quite a bit of time on buses.
You may be surprised (if you haven’t been reading my blog) to find out they are
just retired US school buses (Bluebird) customized with stickers, lights,
streamers, and more.
The way they work is as they are passing
passengers on the street, the ayudante
(or
driver’s helper) calls out the bus’ destination. If you want the bus to stop,
you put your hand out, with your palm down, and move your hand in a scooping
motion. We always confirm that we’re getting on the right bus by asking the
driving if they’re going to our desired destination. If there is a seat, you
grab it. The goal is to and get a seat near the front or rear of the bus to
have easy access to get off. And if you’re going to be on it for a while, the
window is definitely the desirable seat. And they squish the passengers in, two
on the smaller seat and three on the larger seat. If you get the aisle seat it
is likely you will have someone standing directly over you and when the ayudante passes through the bus they
will be forced to dangle over you to let him pass. If there isn’t a seat, you
stand and the ayudante will remind
you of the empty space you left between you and the person next to you if
you’re not practically touching them.
One of the responsibilities of the ayudante is to collect the fares.
According to the guide books, the buses are about $1 per hour (or about 30-40
km). So far the seems pretty accurate. My long ride to my permanent site cost
120 córdobas, or a little less than $5 for about 5 hours. Normally we take
buses around our area and it costs about 8-10 córdobas, so less than 50 cents.
The ayudante
walks through the bus to collect fares. He makes change for most of the
passengers with the large wad of bills he carries between his fingers and the
dozens of coins he keeps in his palms. When the bus is crowded, he
squuuueeeeeeeezes past the passengers in the aisle. Sometimes it’s so tight it
is as if he is lying on top of you as he passes. Some of you have asked about
the smell on the buses since it’s so hot, they buses are so crowded and there
is no AC. Amazingly, we have yet to ride on a smelly bus. Nicaraguans take
their appearance seriously so they are all freshly showered and neatly pressed
in the morning.
The amazing thing about the ayudantes around here is that they don’t
issue any tickets. When I went up north to my permanent site, I was issued a
ticket on all the buses, whether I was riding 20 minutes or 5 hours. Around my
training town, the ayudante remembers
everything like a short-order cook. It is extremely impressive, especially
because sometimes there are 100 people on the bus at one time and that doesn’t
include all the people getting on and off.
So far they have always been men but they
are of all ages. They remember who they have and haven’t collected money from. Only
once have we ridden for free because the ayudante
never came up to us to ask for the fare. And it was a short ride, less than
10 minutes. Since the fare is usually 20 córdobas or less and some people pay
with C$200 and C$500 bills, he doesn’t always have enough change early in the
trip. The first time I handed over a C$200 bill for a C$12 ride, I was
convinced I would never get my change but halfway through the ride he came back
with my exact change. He repeated what I had given him, the cost of my ride and
the change I was to receive. You can also have him take your large or heavy
items to the back or top of the bus and when it’s almost time for you to get
off the bus, you remind him and he will take them off the bus for you. Since
many people don’t’ have cars, people transport sacks of food, enormous baskets,
furniture, etc. You can also ask them to tell you when you get to your stop and
they will let you know. All of them have a unique whistle so the driver knows
if he should stop or can pull away. Like a short-order cook, they are required
to have an incredible short-term memory while juggling multiple tasks.
After 10
weeks in country, I am still amazed!
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