…i’d be in hospital now!
I got to Obalende this morning courtesy of these long buses owned by Lagos state. When they first came out they were long & luxurious, now its a different story.
Anyways, back to my story I got into this bus and realised that i’d have to stand throughout. No more spaces, well no problems! not my first time and probably not my last. I should get to the story abi!
OK!
I held a white nylon bag with my shoes in it and as the bus moved, I was rocked from side to side, all of us standing were! All of a sudden, this woman, almost shouting asked me to remove my bag ‘cos it had hit her accidentally, I immediately said sorry but because she mumbled something more which I didnt hear properly I went ‘hoinnn’ or ‘heennn’ ! My mum has warned me times without number to replace this unintelligible ‘word’ in my vocabulary with ‘Pardon me’ or ‘Excuse me’. Anyway, I think I learned that lesson well today.
The woman exploded! and said – I actually cant remember what she said. but she was so rude, I apologised again but this time defiantly! She said she didnt know if the bag was dirty or clean and that was why she warned me and bla bla bla! I was so hurt, I dont know you from Adam and early in the morning when my head is fresh and cool you just release a blast of hot words from your mouth without any explanation! Haba!
Her words hurt me and made my heart heavy througout the ride. To heal , I kept trying to make allowances for this woman. Who knows what or who hurt her this morning? Who knows what she’s struggling with? It wasn’t easy not to take out my ‘received anger’ on another passenger who wanted change from me. I quickly cautioned myself before I became a conveyor belt moving angry products received, on to the next person.
Who knows how many angry Nigerians were ‘made’ just this morning?
Lessons learnt for me: Learn to say Pardon me (even inside PT) and speak politely. Lessons learnt very well! Thank you.
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