A Map, A Map, My Queendom for a Map!
I want to thank the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).
Yes, I occasionally had to ride the Blue Line in the presence of various bodily fluids from other passengers. Yes, I persist in decrying the so-called “heaters” on the platforms – a sad, shameful scam. Yes, I desperately wished the 91 bus would travel up Austin Blvd a little earlier Sunday mornings or that I didn’t have to go into the loop just to go back out to the airport, but at least I knew before I headed out on those routes what I ought to expect. And why did I know? Because the CTA provides a map.
I must say I never adequately appreciated the free, internet-available, bus-provided, El-posted route map until coming to Barranquilla. Here, there are no maps.
That is not to say, of course, that there are no buses (though indeed there are no trains). There are a ton of buses with very small placards that give you a hint of where they are going, but these are not so helpful if you have no idea where “El Vivero” is or what streets the “UniNorte” bus will actually take to arrive at North University. The only way to find out is to start asking questions.
You can ask questions of your neighbors, if you have ones that are as wonderful as ours are, and they will help you understand the buses that run right near your house. They will even stand outside with you until you finally learn to recognize that the orange bus coming toward you is not the orange bus you want, even though it looks virtually identical to the one you will get on shortly.
You can ask questions of people who are standing by the street and craning their necks out as if they can summon the bus by sheer force of will. They will generally help you, though you may not understand everything they tell you. They will at least make it clear if their bus won’t work for where you want to go.
And you can ask the bus driver himself (yes, always a him so far). This is a little trickier because you have to ask quickly enough to be able to get off again if this is not your bus, or you will end up riding the route around to where you started again (though this is a helpful way to figure out where the bus goes).
The main thing you learn is that you cannot get yourself from here to there alone. At every point you need help. It is humbling in many ways, but it is also a much more real version of our lives if we really examine them I think. I have always needed help getting myself from here to there, though some of that help I was given at birth with the privilege of being a white, upper-middle class, North American. Other help I have received from the hands of family, dear friends, and the guiding nudges of the Holy Spirit.
Knowing all that, as we are here in Barranquilla, I still clamor for a map. I want to know where I am going – when I get on the bus, and where to get off. But it simply doesn’t work that way here – on the buses or with most anything else. Instead everything requires trust, patience, vulnerability, courage, and faith…plus about $0.70.
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“…you cannot get yourself from here to there alone.”
Indeed. Thank you!
just found your fantastic blog! I put it in my list of blogs of international accompaniers in the sidebar of my own blog, above.
suerte con los buses! it helped me when I realized that the way Colombians figure out new routes is also asking, asking, asking …. : )
I can really identify with this. I always think that I can make it if I just have a map. No map, and for me, no way to communicate would mean that I would just stay home! Two questions: why does the blue line seem to be less desirable and what are the heaters on the platforms? JoAnn
That would make me crazy. Thanks for the reminder to be thankful for the little things — like knowing how to get around Raleigh (and in my own car, no less).
There’s a sermon in there, for sure. We can’t get anywhere alone.
I had a similar experience in post-Katrina travel. Even the GPS was no help. I asked it to take me to the Walmart and it did except the Walmart was now nothing but a concrete slab.
[...] (not that there is a public schedule anywhere, or a map for that matter…but that woe is from another post), and there are various “control posts” to monitor that timing along the way. The [...]