As a primary school pupil at the convent , I had to use the bus to get to and from school. Here is reminiscence of those days. There will be more posts on this topic.
Sangoma, my elder brother used to travel with me. One evening he told me that the bus the next day would be one of the new ones. I was greatly excited because I had seen the sleek new buses driving around and really wanted to experience them.
I went to bed that night looking forward to the next morning, and could hardly sleep with the excitement of knowing that I would be travelling in a new bus the next day. In the morning, I got dressed, had breakfast and urged Sangoma to hurry up and walk with me to the bus stop.
We got to the bus stop early, but I didn’t mind the wait. I was going to travel on a new bus. Finally, the moment arrived and our bus appeared over the hill.
It was the normal old bus.
I went into denial, and reasoned that it was not our bus – even though it had all our fellow school children on it. I refused to get onto it. Sangoma was furious, and tried to drag me on, but I stood my ground. Our bus was to be a new one, so this could not be it. The bus left without us. Poor Sangoma had to stay behind as well because he did not want to leave me on my own.
I was sure that our new bus would eventually come, so we stood at the bus stop and waited – and waited. After a long time, I realised that it was not going to happen. I was devastated. We trudged home.
Our mother was understandably upset when we arrived home. She did not drive, so it did create a problem. Fortunately she managed to find someone to give us a ride to school.
It was a sad day for me, but I think it taught Sangoma a lesson not to promise things that he could not deliver.
