Busing

I moved down to Dallas, Texas this past weekend so that I can study at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics for a couple months. Since I don’t have a car and didn’t purchase a plane ticket early enough to get a good deal I decided to take a greyhound bus from Tulsa to Dallas. I have taken many a bus in East Africa, not so many here in Midwest America where public ground transportation is not common. I decided to take this wonderful opportunity to compare and contrast East African busing and Midwest American busing.

Similarities:

• I love listening to the language all around me on both buses. In East Africa I listen to various Bantu languages, while in the States I was aware of the distinct accents I heard and how certain English vocabulary was employed.

• People who ride buses seem to like to talk with strangers. I rarely chat with people at the airport or on planes. I always have people starting conversations with me in East Africa, and I experienced the same thing in the States.

• A man came up to a group of us at the Dallas station and asked us to give him $22 to help him get the rest of the way to his destination. I have absolutely been asked for money for a bus fare in East Africa as well.

Differences:

• If you did not bring food onto the bus with you in the States then you won’t eat, hopefully it isn’t too long of a bus ride in that case. If you don’t bring food onto the bus with you in East Africa then there are regular stops along the way where people will come up to your window offering roasted corn, hard-boiled eggs and various biscuits and drinks.

Would you like a boiled egg? They even will give you some salt.

There is of course also roasted corn, which is delicious.

• In East Africa my bag is tossed under the bus and I tend to pay attention at each stop to ensure it isn’t accidentally removed. In the States my bag received a label and I did not feel as strongly the need to watch it like a hawk.

• If you need to relieve yourself during an East African bus ride you will likely get one chance (on a day long journey). That one chance may include a proper restroom, a cement structure on the side of the road, or even just the instruction to wander out into the brush and find a good spot. There was a bathroom on the Greyhound bus.

Find a good bush, and watch out for thorns!

• I had no assigned seat on the Greyhound bus. It depends on the bus line in East Africa, but EZcoach (which I regularly use between the Kenyan border and Nairobi) assigns seats. That difference surprised me.

• There were outlets and wifi on the bus from OKC to Dallas. East Africa? Yeah right.

Overall, I enjoy public transportation! I love sitting back, reading, relaxing and letting someone else navigate. I loved busing in Israel, and love the subways in New York and DC. I also love taking motorcycle taxis in Musoma. So, I guess I am just a public transportation sort of gal.

Side note: There are many different busing companies. I understand that experiences can and will vary. My experience in East Africa is primarily with Nyamira and EZcoach. I took a Greyhound this last week, but have also taken NY2DC (bus between New York and DC).