Generic Ambien Dangerous
15 Aug
There are Generic Ambien Dangerous other advantages to sitting at that spot. One is that, since the Generic Ambien Dangerous back door that passengers are allowed to use is at the Generic Ambien Dangerous other side, not at the side of the driver, you don’t have Generic Ambien Dangerous to disembark or move each time a new passenger comes in. The other advantage is Generic Ambien Dangerous that you are at a nice position from which to Generic Ambien Dangerous view what is happening at most parts of the bus. With your Generic Ambien Dangerous feet slightly raised, a turn of the head a little to Generic Ambien Dangerous the right makes it easy for you to observe the Generic Ambien Dangerous passengers as they come in, and a shift of the Generic Ambien Dangerous body a little to the right, still maintaining that slight turn of the Generic Ambien Dangerous head, gives you the advantage of seeing most of the Generic Ambien Dangerous persons in the bus. Now, at this spot, I was able to Generic Ambien Dangerous observe the other people in the bus, the actions of the Generic Ambien Dangerous police who stopped our bus almost every ten minutes, and Generic Ambien Dangerous I was also able to hear the wranglings of the Generic Ambien Dangerous driver as he tried to bargain his way into paying as little bribe as possible.
But that Generic Ambien Dangerous is not the story; the story is written on the faces and Generic Ambien Dangerous the bodies of the people who are normally my co-passengers when Generic Ambien Dangerous I took the bus. No, it is not the way the Generic Ambien Dangerous faces are set, or the ways they sit, although that – the way they sit – has Generic Ambien Dangerous a story all of its own. The story is in the Generic Ambien Dangerous way the expressions on their faces change each time we were stopped by the Generic Ambien Dangerous police or customs officers. Oh, I forgot to add that Badagry is Generic Ambien Dangerous close to the Nigeria-Benin border, and that only one main road leads from Generic Ambien Dangerous that side of the border into Lagos. The buses are normally packed with goods bought by the Generic Ambien Dangerous traders, who are most often women. Under the seat, in what Generic Ambien Dangerous remains of the trunk after extra rows of seats have been Generic Ambien Dangerous added to the bus, on the laps of the women or Generic Ambien Dangerous between their legs. Several consumer goods – rice, T-shirts, denim trousers, an occasional bag of vegetable oil – are Generic Ambien Dangerous normally some of the goods packed under the seats, or are Generic Ambien Dangerous hugged closely by the women. The women’s faces tell stories of hardship, of nights of going without sleep, or Generic Ambien Dangerous days without a shower. But those are the stories that are Generic Ambien Dangerous written on the faces even before they got in the buses. The stories their faces tell once they are Generic Ambien Dangerous in the bus are different. You see stories of apprehension, at seeing a Generic Ambien Dangerous customs officer who had never been seen on that road and Generic Ambien Dangerous so might be a hard person to bargain with; anger, at the Generic Ambien Dangerous odd driver who does not know how to deal with the Generic Ambien Dangerous police or the customs office; disbelief, at the crazy driver who Generic Ambien Dangerous is so greedy as to think that he could outsmart the Generic Ambien Dangerous customs officers or policemen at the checkpoints and thus provokes them to Generic Ambien Dangerous telling each and every passenger to disembark from the bus and Generic Ambien Dangerous declare – oh, that dreadful word – their goods; assumed expression of innocence, at the Generic Ambien Dangerous customs officer who asks them to explain how come they had Generic Ambien Dangerous this amount of this, and that amount of that; desperation, once the Generic Ambien Dangerous customs officer proceeds to seize the goods; and relief, once they are Generic Ambien Dangerous able to reach a bargain with the customs officer, and their goods are Generic Ambien Dangerous returned.
These stories make you ask: why? Why is it that they continue in the trade? Is it Generic Ambien Dangerous because they make a lot of profit from the trade that Generic Ambien Dangerous any inconveniences are compensated by the financial gains? Or is it simply because it is the only trade they know? Is it Generic Ambien Dangerous because of that promising child who would not have money for Generic Ambien Dangerous their school fees if she didn’t make that trip to earn some money? Or is Generic Ambien Dangerous it because the responsibility of fending for the family has fallen on her shoulders after her husband has Generic Ambien Dangerous been given the sack by his employer? You want to know, to understand.
Whatever you Generic Ambien Dangerous think, each time you disembark from the bus you leave with a Generic Ambien Dangerous renewed feeling of respect for the stories their faces tell, for Generic Ambien Dangerous their resilience, for taking charge, and for constituting a very important part of the Generic Ambien Dangerous economic life of Nigeria. Then you think, Maybe I should write a Generic Ambien Dangerous book about them.

