sitting on a stranger lap...

These days I have been using the bus to go to work considering that my knees still hurt and I cannot press on the clutch (nor the brakes) and that Mia and Pietro need the green truckosaurous to move around the island.

First of all, the bus is not JUST as bus, it is an AigaBus, Aiga meaning family. In fact, the bus borns in the family garden. It slowly comes to light, starting from the frame (and engine) of an old truck (like the one that I just destroyed). Wooden pieces (sometimes taken from as old boats) are used to built a big “passenger-container” on the back frame of the truck. Only after the aigabus is painted with interesting design, colorful feathers are attached anywhere in the front, and the sound system is powerful enough to be hear from far far away, THEN it is ready for the road.

The aigabuses do not have numbers or set itineraries or timetables. You just have to stand on the side of the road, wait for a bus to pass by, flag him. You do not even need to be on the right side of the road, as the driver would even cross the line of traffic to pick you up. If you already are on the bus and you want to get out, you simply knock on wood, anywhere you want (not on your neighbor’s head preferably, but that would probably stop the bus as well). There aren’t many roads here in American Samoa, so mainly the buses run eastward/westward on the main road. Some buses explore the roads in the tafuna’s plain, and 4 buses climb the mountain where I live. Like that bicycle that seels ice-cream in the States, you can hear the aigabus approaching from my house thanks to the music. Not having any sort of number, each Aigabus is baptized with his own name, like “Easy Rider”, “Motu o fiafiaga”, “Finding Nemo”. Colorful drawings of course accompany the name. There are two buses, own by the same family (a chain, if you want), both called “Titanic”: one has a nice drawing of theTitanic sailing in the sea, the other as a drawing of the boat sinking… I mainly know that I need to take the white bus with the pink roof, or the one the flames painted all over the front.

Inside the aigabus is another world. The music plays out load, usually island music coming from a huge variety of cds speared through a nail planted on the driver side.

The seats are wooden benches, incredibly slippery, and you need to hold strong on the bench in front of you every time the aigabus turns. There are usually 5 rows of benches, each seating 1-2 persons (depending from the bottom’s size), and a longer bench at the end holding about 5 persons.

Once I took the bus with Andrew, a skinny young guy. He was sitting right behind me when we boarded on the bus, but, at the end of the trip, when I looked back, he was sitting on the lap of a big masculine samoan whose hands were covered with tattoos. Oh my! He stepped out soon after. The next day I asked him if he was ok, if that guy was abusing him or something, but he said, no, it is normal. I though for a while that that brute was probably just playing with him, making him believe it was normal. But I was wrong, it is really normal sitting on a stranger’s lap when the bus is full is normal. Alyssa once told me how she felt so much less homesick after sitting a whole trip on the lap of an old motherly woman that was holding her tight every time the bus turned. But she is also small. I am very tall, and not that light, and I do not think I would feel comfortable sitting on a stranger lap. Especially a guy.

Today, when I entered in the bus, I realized that there were no places to sit. As I was valuating what to do, a woman stand up and sat on the lap of the guy that was sitting next to her, making some sitting place for me. Maybe the husband…uhm, maybe the brother (she is wearing a wedding ring, he is not). They do not talk or look each other, they just ignore each other… do they know each other?? I looked around. I was the next “skinny” one that should probably find some lap to sit on. The bus stopped again and picked up 3 more persons! Magically, some more space was done, and I was still holding to my place. I have to say that this trip felt very long indeed, every time the bus stopped I though “where, where? Where can this person possibly fit?”। But at the end I did arrive home without having to sit on anybody lap। After all, I still find the bus rides very interesting, especially when, running along the beach, you see a sea turtle swimming: suddenly, all the romanticism of living in Polynesia comes back to you…

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This was added on May 15 and it answered a question:
...
Yesterday was my apex in bus riding... it was just like shuffling cards over and over... my don't people just choose a sit and keep it? why every time somebody enters, they need to re-arrange all the seats (people move on the back, some on the front, some seat on other people laps..)? I was begging Andrew for sitting on my laps. I know he is not too heavy. There were at least 3 persons per seat! Can you imagine such a packed bus in a very hot and humid island with very bumpy roads?
About the price for a bus ride... none has a clue. half-island fare is about $1, but if you are palagi they may try to charge you $2, but sometimes they charge $.50. Did you ever noticed how samoan keep their quarters to pay for the bus inside their ears? they told me it was so that they won't loose the coins by putting them into their lava lava pockets... i will post a picture one day! ciao!