The Wheels on the Bus

So Fridays I go to the nearest town, Butajira in hopes to connect on the world's slowest dial-up internet. It is 6 miles away, but it takes an hour to get there. Transportation options? Option One: Garrie. HA. Scrawny-horse drawn makeshift cart of sorts covered with blue/orange tarps with room for a few people. Oh my gosh – hysterical. VERY bumpy. Option Two: Local Rural Ethiopian Bus. Also VERY bumpy.OK, we took the bus back to Yetebon tonight. Total Riot. At first sight the bus reminded me of some movie scene but I couldn't place it. When I finally realized which movie the image conjured I was embarrassed to admit, even to myself, that it was The Air Up There. Geez, Kevin Bacon should be embarrassed for even ever being in that movie. In the same way that Derek Webb should be embarrassed for the song, Bus Driver. (A throwback to late 90s Caedmon's Call for the 5 of you who actually get that reference.) And for kicks if someone could actually link Derek Webb and Kevin Bacon in the Kevin Bacon Game, I'd be impressed. Danny Cowan is better at that game than anyone I know, but I feel even he wouldn't have a chance.This bus was the most absurd and hilarious experience maybe of my entire life. Loved the bus driver, leaning against the bus chewing chat, a common, local hallucinogen. And the Ethiopian bus motto seems to be: "There's always room for one more!" AHAHHAA! What a scene. I mean seriously. People on top of people, drunk, stinky, bags of God-knows-what, chickens, the yelling, and laughter. These buses are like piled with people – I half expected to see limbs and appendages hanging from windows. And atop the bus? Piles of bundles, sticks, etc. And as I recall the experience I just keep remembering lots and lots of knees. This was so absurd and hilarious. I cannot even begin to tell you. I just kept laughing and averting my eyes from the very friendly drunk man's face 8 inches from mine. And when I happened to barely crane my neck to the right just in time to see that guy start crawling on the top of bus seats headed to the back, filled 3 people to a seat,navigating through a sea of head wraps, walking sticks and hats… oh good Lord. That was evidence of some real ingenuity.One Question: What would Kevin Bacon have been doing if he had been on this bus? I have three theories. 1. Looking out the windows scouting for a tribal basketball phenom 2. Holding a shotgun aside Reba McIntire on the hunt for enormous underground snake-worms 3. Listening to Derek Webb's Bus Driver, ironically appropriate considering the setting.